When Rashford's on form, the fans have fun
He's grabbed three goals in four games – and two assists in four days
FIVE ASIDES Premier League: United 3, Arsenal 1
Is it possible to be rejuvenated when you’re only 24? Marcus Rashford, a man who seemed to have grown old before his time, has suddenly rediscovered the barnstorming simplicity of his youth. He runs, he shoots, he scores: four shots on target this season, three goals. He is so much better when he has no traffic in front of him – he’s a sports car, built for the open road. And he’s not just scoring goals but making them too. You wait seven months for a Rashford assist, then two come along in four days. His pass to Antony against Arsenal was very like his pass to Jadon Sancho against Leicester: deft, composed, delicately lethal. He is playing like a kid again – a kid who has just read a motivational book by Marcus Rashford. If his scoring habit returned against Liverpool, and his smile returned at Leicester, his habit of scoring two returned against Arsenal. It was as if Antony’s success on his United debut took Rashford straight back to his own league debut, six long years ago, when he faced Arsenal and scored twice It’s such a joy to see. When he’s on form, the fans have fun.
And he wasn’t necessarily the man of the match. It could just as well have been Christian Eriksen. He too was closely involved in all three goals, with an assist (a selfless one) and two pre-assists. His fast forward ball to Bruno Fernandes for the first goal was the kind of pass that, last season, could not have been played by United, because they only had three people who knew how to do it. One was James Garner, then on loan at Forest, now shamefully sold to Everton, in the most baffling move Erik ten Hag has made since expecting Eriksen to be the No 6 at Brentford. The second was Michael Carrick, who had retired, and the third was Fernandes himself. He, like Rashford, is now back in form, and he too partly has Eriksen to thank for that. Eriksen is not just a conductor but a catalyst, making others play better. He has two superpowers, vision and calm. He knows from hard-won experience that Bill Shankly was mistaken: football is not a matter of life and death.
Antony made his mark in no time at all. Thrown in at the deep end, he came bubbling to the surface and announced himself, even before his goal, with a decision that radiated chutzpah. He had dribbled to the byline and placed himself in a tight corner, with a defender either side of him. His best bet looked like trying to bounce the ball off one of them for a corner, but he saw the option nobody else had spotted and bisected them with a backheel. It was so precise that it teed up a first-time cross from Diogo Dalot. And unlike many a Dalot cross, this one wasn’t overhit (he’s having a fine season, but the laws of physics are not his forte). The cross found its target, Eriksen, unmarked at the far post. He had to volley it left-footed, a challenge that only one United player might have relished – Antony himself. The shot with which he scored was a lot easier, but he took it very coolly, curling it well out of Aaron Ramsdale’s reach. He struck it like a craftsman and then wheeled away like a showman. You just hope this was a Rashford type of debut, not a Josh Harrop or a James Wilson.
The Ten Hag back four finally conceded their first goal in open play. In three and a half games together, they had conceded only once – to a Mo Salah header that came from the pinball following a corner. Bukayo Saka was the first striker to get a shot past them. The goal sprang from a mistake by Rafa Varane, who hit a simple pass to Martin Odegaard. We all make mistakes, even elegant Frenchmen. And none of the back four had had a faultless afternoon – Dalot was out-run by Gabriel Martinelli for the goal that was overturned by the VAR, Lisandro Martinez took a crazy risk with a bruising challenge on Gabriel Jesus in the second minute, and Tyrell Malacia was given the run-around by Saka for most of the game. In the next few weeks, United will come up against two more left-footed right-wingers playing for top teams, in Riyad Mahrez and Dejan Kulusevski. Luke Shaw may be able to see a way back.
United weren’t the better team, but they were the more effective one. The difference was ruthlessness. On shots, Arsenal won 16-10, but when it came to shots on target, United won 6-3. Jesus was so frantically energetic that he often exiled himself to the wing, leaving the chances to people less capable of converting them – one to William Saliba, another to Gabriel, three to Granit Xhaka. United also won the duel between the managers. Ten Hag’s marginal decisions paid off, from starting Antony and retaining Scott McTominay to throwing on so many defensive midfielders that Fernandes and Eriksen ended up as wingers in a 4-5-1. Mikel Arteta panicked when he didn’t need to, making a triple substitution so elaborate that he had to hold a tutorial on the touchline to explain it. No wonder United’s third goal came a minute later, from a move that exploited the sudden absence of Oleksandr Zinchenko. United’s first sub, Ronaldo, wasn’t much more successful: he did a lot of gesticulating, and may need to make sure he doesn’t turn into a cartoon character, a bundle of memes. But at least he was on the field to witness a goal, for the first (and second) time since the opening day of the season. Operating mostly without their big-name striker, United have become a big-game team – scoring five goals in 180 minutes against members of the big six, only three in 360 minutes against the rest. So the omens for Palace next weekend are not good, but we can still revel in this riveting win. All or nothing, eh, Mikel?
Tim de Lisle writes about sport for The Guardian and music for The Mail on Sunday. If you’re on Twitter, do follow him and United Writing.