Cristiano Ronaldo marked his return to action for Manchester United, by scoring his 100th Premier League goal albeit in a losing effort, going down 3-1 to Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium, London on Saturday.
Cr7 reached the milestone in the 34th minute to cut United’s deficit to one after trailing 2-0 following the half hour mark.
That would however, be the only bright spark for the Manchester Club as they were put in front of the Arsenal firing range as the London team were shooing on all cylinders.
Goals from Nuno Tavares and Bukayo Saka earlier showed the increased confidence and maturity of the young squad who themselves have had a rough transition period.
The Gunners got off to a ‘flyer’ as Tavares opened in the 3rd minutes to shock the United massive and raise early warnings about their defensive fragility. Fragility which was again exposed, after Saka scored his second successive penalty in the minute 32 to double their lead.
The young England forward has looked a transformed player since his Euro 2020 penalty miss for the Three Lions” in the finals against eventual Champions Italy and rewarded Manger Mikel Arteta’s faith in him by netting a team high 11 goals league .
Arsenal then added a third in the 70th minute, through former Captain Granit Xhaka who let fly a 25-yard screamer, to not only shatter United’s confidence, but to also severely dent their chances of a top four finish this season.
Back-to-back defeat for United relegates them to sixth in the standings now on 54 points from 33 games, which also puts them at threat of falling further to seventh, if West Ham (52) grabs a win in their next game.
Arsenal on the other hand returns to fourth in the standings on 60 points two behind third place Chelsea (62) who has played two games less.
