The men’s 500th competitive match at the Emirates Stadium was a memorable one as goals from Jurrien Timber and William Saliba secured us a fourth consecutive win over Manchester United for the first time ever.

Set pieces caused damage again when Jurrien Timber converted a shot from Declan Rice eight minutes after half-time to score his first goal for the club, and then fellow defender Saliba happened to see the ball fly past him in the 73rd minute. to double the lead.

What’s important is that this result allowed us to reduce the gap at the top of the table to seven points as our momentum continues to increase at just the right time and we have secured four wins in a row since the international break.

Cagey first 45

Since opening our new home in 2006, there have been some magical moments at the Red Devils’ expense, such as the late goals from Thierry Henry, Eddie Nketiah and last season’s 3-1 victory, which was sealed in stoppage time, but there was no need for late drama this time.

Despite having scored 13 goals in three games at the start of the game, we had to be patient as Ruben Amorim’s new-look side managed to suffocate us in the first half – but there were early chances.

A few minutes had passed when we put the ball into Andre Onana’s net but Kai Havertz was offside before setting up Gabriel Martinelli and Thomas Partey had a huge chance when Rice caught him with a corner, the returning Ghanaian heading in but completely missed it.

Our set-pieces continued to cause United concerns and the 25th minute saw the loss of Oleksandr Zinchenko, who saw a shot blocked and Martinelli’s rebound narrowly missed the target, but the first half saw a lack of goal action from both sides and the visitors looked like a team that had only scored one win from their last eight away games.

It took 41 minutes for United to even have a shot – albeit one that made the Gooners’ hearts beat faster. After throwing a free kick into the penalty area and receiving it back, Mason Mount hit a poor shot into the goal which was kept in play and found its way to Diogo Dalot who fired a shot across goal but saw it whistle just past David Rayas further away Post.

Timber’s contemporary touch

That was the best chance of the first 45 minutes, but we came out stronger at the break and took the lead eight minutes after the restart – and once again it was a devilish set piece that did the damage.

After winning a corner, Rice hurled a ball towards the front post and although Bruno Fernandes and Rasmus Hojlund were defending him, Timber managed to sneak between them and get a weak but crucial touch on the cross to be his scoring the Gunners’ first goal.

As the seconds ticked past the hour mark, Rice almost repeated the trick with a similar throw that Joshua Kirkzee grabbed and headed towards his own goal, but his blushes were saved by Manuel Ugarte, who nodded the ball off the line.

The turning point gets the points

But our lead was fragile and Raya came up trumps to keep us at the top, adding another save to his first-class collection. In the 68th minute, a United free kick was deflected by Matthijs de Ligt and headed into the top corner, but our goalkeeper dived with all his might to palm the shot behind him and force it out of the danger zone.

But five minutes later we got the cushion we wanted and once again a flag kick was the weapon of choice. Bukayo Saka swung a ball past the back post where Partey was waiting to put it back into the danger area and the ball hit the back of Saliba and nestled into the net, making it 22 goals scored from corners since the start of last season.

So that was almost 23 moments later. There was a party atmosphere at the Emirates Stadium and Havertz went for goal but Onana deflected a shot past the post. A series of corners were difficult for the Red Devils to defend and one of them led to a golden chance for the unmarked Mikel Merino, which he missed by fractions.

But two goals were more than enough to send the Red Devils out of the Emirates Stadium, suffering a fourth consecutive defeat and completing the chapter of 500 games perfectly.

What’s next?

We’re back in the Premier League on Sunday as we head to Craven Cottage to take on Fulham on Sunday before Champions League football returns to the Emirates Stadium on Wednesday December 11th when Monaco comes to town . Everton then visits us three days later the following Saturday.