Arsenal ended their five-year wait for a Premier League away win against ‘Big Six’ opposition with a second half Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang penalty giving them a 1-0 win at Manchester United on Sunday.
The Gunners had not enjoyed such a win in 29 games since their victory at Manchester in January 2015.
The result leaves United still without a win at Old Trafford in the Premier League this season and it was a disappointing performance from Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s side after their impressive display in the 5-0 win over RB Leipzig in the Champions League in midweek.
The decisive moment came when Paul Pogba stood on Hector Bellerin’s foot inside the area and Aubameyang kept his cool to convert the spot-kick.
United did hit the post through a deflected shot from substitute Donny van de Beek late in the game but Solskjaer’s 100th game as manager ended in a defeat which leaves them in 15th place with just seven points from six games.
Arsenal move up to eighth on 12 points.
Southampton beat Villa in 4-3 thriller
Southampton almost blew a four-goal advantage as they survived a late fight-back from Aston Villa in Sunday’s 4-3 win that saw the Saints jump to third in the Premier League.
Meanwhile, Everton missed the chance to overtake city rivals Liverpool at the top of the table after Callum Wilson scored twice to earn 10th-placed Newcastle United a 2-1 home victory.
Dominic Calvert-Lewin poked in an injury-time consolation but Everton could not doing anything more to prevent a second consecutive loss for the first time under the guidance of manager Carlo Ancelotti.
The Blues were beaten 2-0 last weekend by Southampton, who continued their fine start to the season on the road at Villa Park.
Southampton got the opening goal after 20 minutes when defender Jannik Vestergaard headed in James Ward-Prowse’s right wing free-kick.
Ward-Prowse then added two more goals on his 26th birthday with a pair of superb free-kicks for 3-0 to put the result seemingly beyond doubt by half-time.
Danny Ings made it 4-0 in the second half before Tyrone Mings began the fightback on 62 minutes by converting Jack Grealish’s cross.
Grealish earned Villa a penalty in injury time and Oli Watkins stepped up to convert the spot kick with Grealish grabbing a third before the final whistle for the Villans, who are now sixth with 12 points.
“In the end I think it’s good we have this win, not a lot of teams will win here,” Southampton manager Ralph Hassenhuttl said.
“In the second, mentally it was difficult. You concede the first, then you look at the time and you stop playing. This is always dangerous.”
Ward-Prowse said: “Nice to always get a couple of goals on your birthday, I’m living my boyhood dream so I’m happy.
“We’re a totally different team to a year ago. I feel as if we’re on a great path to get back to where we belong and break into the top 10.”
Aston Villa manager Dean Smith spoke of “a hard game to decipher” and added that “if it had gone on another five minutes we might have won it, never mind get a point.”
Everton are beaten by Newcastle
Southampton have 13 points, the same as second-placed Everton after their defeat to Newcastle where it was a stalemate in large parts at St James Park until Wilson turned the game in Newcastle’s favour.
Wilson went down in the box after Everton’s Portuguese midfielder Andre Gomes missed the ball and kicked the striker’s leg in a challenge from a corner.
After a long wait for a VAR review, Wilson fired the winning spot kick past Everton’s on-loan Swedish goalkeeper Robin Olsen, who made his first start after manager Carlo Ancelotti dropped English number one Jordan Pickford to the bench.
Wilson sprinted through with seven minutes left to seal Newcastle’s three points with a looped finish that dropped into the far bottom corner. Everton only managed a stoppage-time consolation goal from Dominic Calvert-Lewin.
