Arsenal showed the qualities of Premier League champions in waiting by putting Manchester United to the sword

A 3-2 win for the Gunners gives them 50 points after 19 games

For the first time in a generation Arsenal and Manchester United delivered the sort of titanic contest that is carved into the foundation stones of the Premier League, a match fit to stand alongside the Marc Overmars game in 1998, the thrilling 2-2 draw of five years later and Pizzagate. At almost any stage you could have convinced yourself that this game was bound to tilt dramatically in one side's favor.

You could never have swayed Arsenal though. Whilst this game felt close to a distant observer there could be no doubt in hindsight that Mikel Arteta's Premier League leaders had bossed this game. The statistics make for almost laughable reading. Bukayo Saka, who bullied Luke Shaw, ended the game with more touches in the box than Manchester United's 12 in total. In 45 minutes backup right back Takehiro Tomiyasu registered three touches in the opposition penalty area; no opponent bettered that tally. Martin Odegaard and Eddie Nketiah registered six shots. So did United.

To look at those numbers one could scarcely believe it took until Nketiah's 90th-minute flick of a right boot to kill off United. And yet they do not tell the story in its entirety. United might have been second best but that does not mean they were anything other than a very good team executing a plan that Erik ten Hag had evidently concluded was the most effective way to deal with the league leaders. When the opportunity came to break they offered threats aplenty from the precise passing of Christian Eriksen and Bruno Fernandes.