Man Utd 2-1 Arsenal

Arsenal's worst fears were realised as
Robin van Persie inspired Manchester
United to a 2-1 victory at Old Trafford.
The £24million striker took just three
minutes to score against the club he
left in the summer, and the hosts
could even afford the luxury of a
missed Wayne Rooney penalty as
Patrice Evra's second (67) and a red
card for Jack Wilshere made it another
dismal day in Manchester for Arsene
Wenger despite Santi Cazorla's late
reply (90).
The scoreline may have lacked the
ruthlessness of last season's 8-2, but
with 10 games gone Arsenal are worse
off than in any previous season under
Wenger - nine points behind United,
who moved a point clear at the top
thanks to Swansea's draw with
Chelsea.
It took until injury-time for the visitors
to bring a first save out of David De
Gea, a lack of bite which was brought
into painful focus by the menace of
their former captain.
Van Persie had scored nine in 12
appearances for United so he scarcely
needed the invitation to shoot
provided by Thomas Vermaelen,
whose miscued clearance from Rafael
da Silva's innocuous cross fell perfectly
for his former team-mate to bobble a
20-yard shot beyond Vito Mannone.
The goal left Arsenal chasing for the
eighth time in 11 games, and an
obvious lack of confidence in
possession allowed United to wait for a
mistake, Aaron Ramsey's dithering on
halfway inviting a break which ended
with Mannone keeping out Van Persie
at his near post.
And when the Gunners defence was
slow to follow out Bacary Sagna's
headed clearance Michael Carrick
returned the ball for Wayne Rooney,
whose left-footed drive brought a
more convincing stop from the Italian.
United should have put it to bed either
side of half-time, but Rooney dragged
his penalty wide after Cazorla had
handled in the box and Antonio
Valencia miskicked in front of goal after
another Vermaelen blunder put Van
Persie in.
Arsenal briefly threatened to cash in,
Olivier Giroud spinning onto Cazorla's
pass and clipping the outside of the
near post, but only a fingertip stop
from Mannone denied Van Persie a
second and when the resulting corner
was played short Rooney's cross was
headed in by Evra.
Any realistic chance of a comeback
disappeared down the tunnel with
Wilshere - given a second booking for
catching Evra on the overstretch - and
Cazorla's fine injury-time goal was a
barely relevant footnote.