Fernandes runs the show as Manchester United and Arsenal weigh each other up
Drawing any certainties from a summer tour game can be foolish, so the shrewdest conclusion to offer from this encounter is that those new signings of Manchester United and Arsenal who featured can be content with their outings.
And if pre-season is a phoney war, at least this meeting could be cast as a little more real due to Erik ten Hag, United’s manager, and his Arsenal counterpart, Mikel Arteta, identifying the other’s team as a rival when the new campaign begins next month.
Each sent out strong XIs before a sell-out crowd of 82,262 at the MetLife Stadium. Mason Mount, Lisandro Martínez and Luke Shaw were among those selected by Ten Hag, while Arteta chose new signings Declan Rice, Jurrien Timber and Kai Havertz together for the first time.
While Mount, bought for an initial £55m this month, was making a third start, Ten Hag’s other new addition, André Onana, was not deemed ready to be a substitute after arriving at United’s New Jersey base on Thursday following his £44.1m move from Internazionale. The Cameroonian, however, did participate in the warm-up.
This meant Tom Heaton was United’s No 1 and twice he was sharp when repelling Gabriel Martinelli. Rice, meanwhile, operated for Arsenal in his deep-pivot role, floating about the turf, seeking to control the contest.
This was Bruno Fernandes’s first game as United’s new captain. When racing on to Shaw’s pass he made the correct move by turning the ball back for Antony and, while the Brazilian missed, Fernandes was quick to applaud his left-back’s vision.
Ten Hag configured United in his familiar 4-2-3-1 that positioned Mount alongside the youngster Kobbie Mainoo in central midfield and Jadon Sancho, who fluffed an opening at the close of a flowing United sequence,
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