Arsenal vs Manchester United: Lineups and latest updates from FA Cup third round
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Manchester United partied like it was 1999. It may have been a third-round FA Cup tie, rather than a semi-final, they may have won it on a penalty shoot-out rather than a Ryan Giggs wonder goal, but it was still a famous victory over Arsenal that will resonate.
And not least because it was Joshua Zirkzee who scored the fifth and decisive penalty in a shoot-out, after extra time, that will go down as one for the ages. What a ballsy decision by United head coach Ruben Amorim – he later said it was the choice of his assistants Carlos Fernandes and Andreas Georgson – to nominate Zirkzee, so maligned, jeered, criticised so far in his United career, as his fifth taker. Zirkzee scored with a confidence that was at odds with his struggles.
Cool. Calm. Collected. Joshua Zirkzee fires @ManUtd into the #EmiratesFACup fourth round! 💥 pic.twitter.com/0pOrgQHmQn. Kai Havertz failed from the spot for Arsenal, the only miss of the shoot-out, with United goalkeeper Altay Bayindir saving from him. It capped a wretched afternoon for the forward who was accused of diving to earn a penalty in normal time and, unfortunately, missed two absolute sitters. At the final whistle, he went straight down the tunnel.
Martin Odegaard’s spot-kick was also superbly saved by Bayindir – the first time the Arsenal captain had missed a penalty – as Mikel Arteta’s side struggled to take advantage of playing against 10 men for an hour after Diogo Dalot was rightly sent off for a second yellow card.
