Arsenal v Manchester United (2024–25 Friendly)

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Arsenal v Manchester United

Arsenal Manchester United 2 1
HT:1–1 Report
Event	Friendly
Date	Saturday 27 July 2024
Venue	SoFi Stadium, Los Angeles
Referee	Timothy Ford (United States)
Attendance	62,486
Weather	21 °C (69 °F)
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Arsenal v Manchester United was a match which took place at SoFi Stadium on Saturday 27 July 2024.

Match Report

Arsenal came from behind to beat Manchester United in SoFi Stadium, with Gabriel Martinelli netting a superb winner.

Rasmus Hojlund fired the Red Devils into an early lead, but Gabriel Jesus finished off a neat passing move to draw us level.

Fellow Brazilian Martinelli then came off the bench and sliced his way through the United defence to power home our second, and secure a deserved first win during our time Stateside.

Mikel Arteta opted to bring a bit more experience into his side from the start, and Leandro Trossard, Martin Odegaard and Gabriel Jesus were all selected, with youngsters Ethan Nwaneri and Ayden Heaven given a chance to shine.

However we got off to the worst possible start when in the ninth minute, Marcus Rashford clipped a ball down the left flank for Hojlund who got the better of Heaven to push into the area, and when faced one-on-one with Karl Hein he fired through our keeper’s legs to hand United the lead.

The Danish striker was looking sharp in the early exchanges and nearly doubled his and his team’s lead a few minutes later after when Aaron Wan-Bissaka sped down the right and sent it a low centre but the striker could only steer it over, but tweaked a hamstring in the process that saw him withdrawn.

That halted United’s early momentum and we capitalised by getting ourselves back level on 26 minutes. Trossard fed Nwaneri on the edge of the area who sent a pinpoint pass towards the back post where Jesus showed his predatory instinct to be ideally placed to tap past a helpless Andre Onana.

While we continued to grow in confidence as the opening 45 progressed and passed the ball around confidently, we couldn’t quite find another sight of goal, and indeed the best opportunity before the break came when Mason Mount tested Hein with a fierce blast on the angle but the Estonian stopper pushed it to safety to keep us level at the interval.

It was more of the same in the initial stages of the second half, but only a fine save by Onana kept us from getting in front.

Some fine interplay between Odegaard and Trossard saw the latter fizz a shot from close range towards the top corner, but the Cameroonian did brilliantly to tip it over.

As the game went on, Mikel threw on Gabriel, Kai Havertz and Martinelli for their first minutes of pre-season, and the latter looked electric from the moment he was introduced. He constantly tore down the left flank terrorising the opposition defence, and with 10 minutes to go made the game’s biggest contribution.

Again picking up possession on the touchline, he sped towards the box, beat James Scanlon all ends up and then drilled the ball through Will Fish’s legs to find the net and send the largely Arsenal crowd home happy.

United did get the ball in the net in stoppage-time when Jonny Evans headed in, however a couple of attackers bundled into Hein in the process and the goal was rightly chalked off, and secured the win over our old rivals.

Following the game, a pre-decided penalty shootout took place, which saw United triumph 4-3.

After Fabio Vieira and Scott McTominay netted the opening two kicks, Onana made an excellent save to deny Havertz, and when Jonny Evans netted from 12 yards, Jakub Kiwor steered his effort wide of the target to put United in the ascendency.

Ethan Wheatley then also dragged his attempt off target to give us hope, but after Martinelli, Christian Eriksen and Gabriel all scored, Jaydon Sancho tucked away the decisive penalty to give his side a crumb of comfort.

Match

Details

27 July 2024 17:00 PDT (01:00 BST	Arsenal	2–1	Manchester United	SoFi Stadium, Los Angeles, United States Attendance: 62,486 Referee: Timothy Ford (United States)
	Gabriel Jesus  26' Martinelli  81'	HT:1–1 Report	Højlund  10'
		Penalties
	Vieira Havertz Kiwior Martinelli Gabriel	3–4	McTominay Evans Wheatley Eriksen Sancho

Arsenal

Manchester United

31 Karl Hein 04 Ben White 12 Jurriën Timber 76 Ayden Heaven 35 Oleksandr Zinchenko 08 Martin Ødegaard 20 Jorginho 53 Ethan Nwaneri 24 Reiss Nelson 09 Gabriel Jesus 19 Leandro Trossard Substitutes: 05 Thomas Partey 06 Gabriel 11 Gabriel Martinelli 14 Eddie Nketiah 15 Jakub Kiwior 21 Fábio Vieira 29 Kai Havertz 36 Tommy Setford 44 Jimi Gower 49 Myles Lewis-Skelly 51 Josh Nichols 54 Lucas Nygaard 56 Salah-Eddine Oulad M'Hand 60 Omar Rekik 62 Alexei Rojas 63 Michał Rosiak 64 Charles Sagoe Jr. Manager: Mikel Arteta

24 André Onana 29 Aaron Wan-Bissaka 15 Leny Yoro 05 Harry Maguire 41 Harry Amass 18 Casemiro 43 Toby Collyer 16 Amad Diallo 07 Mason Mount 10 Marcus Rashford 09 Rasmus Højlund Substitutes: 14 Christian Eriksen 21 Antony 22 Tom Heaton 25 Jadon Sancho 35 Jonny Evans 36 Ethan Wheatley 39 Scott McTominay 40 Radek Vítek 46 Hannibal Mejbri 48 Will Fish 51 Rhys Bennett 53 Sam Mather 57 Jack Fletcher 59 Maxi Oyedele 61 Sam Murray 63 James Scanlon Manager: Erik ten Hag

Match Stats

Arsenal	Manchester United

Possession ball
58%	42%

Shots
6	10

Shots on target
3	3

Corners
3	6

Fouls
10	11

External links

• Match report

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