Home ›› 06 Sep 2022 ›› Sport
Antony scored on a dream debut for Manchester United as the Brazilian’s clinical strike and Marcus Rashford’s double inspired a 3-1 win that ended Arsenal’s perfect start to the Premier League season on Sunday.
Antony was making his first appearance after signing from United manager Erik ten Hag’s former club Ajax in an £82 million deal on Thursday.
Full of flicks, tricks and purposeful movement, the 22-year-old forward took just 35 minutes to get on the scoresheet in a dazzling introduction to his new fans at Old Trafford.
Arsenal hit back to equalise through Bukayo Saka, but Rashford blew the leaders away with two goals in the space of nine second-half minutes after Antony was replaced by Cristiano Ronaldo.
Thanks to Antony and Rashford, United were able to celebrate a fourth successive victory that lifted them to fifth place.
“He will be a threat in the Premier League. We were missing a player on the right wing, Sancho and Rashford can play there but they prefer the left so now we have the missing link who can play well on the right,” Ten Hag said of Antony.
“He did well but I think he can do better. He had a great goal but all the goals were team goals.”
Opening his reign with consecutive losses against Brighton and Brentford was a humbling experience for Ten Hag.
Since then, the Dutch coach has started to put his imprint on a United side that look far more organised than the shambolic unit that finished sixth in the Premier League last season.
Arsenal’s first defeat this term after five successive wins was cruel on Mikel Arteta’s men, who contributed plenty to an engrossing encounter but paid the price for some naive defending.
“It’s really disappointing because for these boys to play the way they did here, big credit to them but we need a better result,” Arteta said.
Antony put United ahead in the 35th minute when Rashford’s deft pass reached the forward, who took advantage of Arsenal’s sloppy marking to sweep a composed finish into the far corner from eight yards.
