Mikel Arteta 's "knee-jerk" triple substitution led to Arsenal 's downfall at Manchester United.
That's what Gary Neville and Paul Merson both reckon, as the Gunners fell to a deflating 3-1 defeat at Old Trafford on Sunday. Arteta 'boldly' decided to flood his team with attacking players after Marcus Rashford put United in the lead with 24 minutes to go.
Emile Smith Rowe, Eddie Nketiah and Fabio Vieira were all introduced in place of Martin Odegaard, Oleksandr Zinchenko and Albert Sambi Lokonga to give Arsenal a much more attacking setup. Before Merson lamented Arteta's decision long after the final whistle, Neville claimed that Rashford's second strike for the Red Devils - which put the game out of sight for Arsenal - was a direct result of tactical switch.
Analysing the goal for Sky Sports, United legend Neville began: "You have to say when Mikel Arteta made those substitutes, I either thought it'd be a 5-1 or a 3-2 because it looked so bold but the space that Christian Eriksen has is absolutely incredible.
"Arsenal, did they need to go so desperate so early? It's onside. Eriksen's onside, Rashford's onside. There's bold but I have to say, this could be four or 5-1 or it could just be a mess for United the other way and Arsenal could score two or three. It looks like it's going to be the former."
Neville added: "The three substitutions at once, I thought it was strange, because it was a bit of kitchen-sink job which you can get done on the counter-attack - which they did.
"I don't think they needed to do that in the game, there was still 20 minutes in the game, they were still working chances, Manchester United's goal on the counter was against the run of play then all of a sudden the game became easier for Manchester United than Arsenal with those subs."
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Arsenal icon Merson was in agreement that Arteta's triple change resulted in the Gunners losing their shape. " They were dominant for that 15 minutes, it was one way traffic, they were going through them like a knife through butter," Merson stated post-match in reference to the Gunners' domination before Rashford struck. "For me, it was a knee-jerk reaction with 20 minutes to go."
Rashford's brace coupled with a debut goal from £85million signing Antony made it four successive Premier League victories for United. For Arsenal, they failed to main their 100 per cent start to the new season, having won their previous five matches to sit top of the table.
It wasn't all bad for the Gunners, as Bukayo Saka drew his side level early in the second half. Arsenal thought they'd taken the lead after only 11 minutes, too, but Gabriel Martinelli 's equaliser was controversially ruled out by VAR. Arsenal captain Odegaard was adjudged to have fouled Red Devils midfielder Eriksen in the build-up, as referee Paul Tierney overturned his original decision.
