Mikel Arteta is set to a milestone match while Arsenal will record Manchester United on Sunday.
Arteta will supervise his 200th Premier League competition and will become the second-year-old manager in the history of the competition to do this.
Since the Spaniard took the lead over the Gunners in 2019, he has won only one big trophy, but has twice brought them close to the Premier League title and caused a period of stability that United would have enjoyed.
In the days of Alex Ferguson and Arsene Wenger, United vs Arsenal was the Great Premier League rivement.
But in recent years there has been a big gap between the teams that so often went to toe for trophies.
And although Arsenal is 13 points behind leaders, Liverpool, after their slip-ups in February, they are still free from a united team that will be lucky to end in the top half this season, with the Red Devils apparently intended for their lowest Premier League finish.
Arsenal returned in the sensational style in the week and PSV 7-1 insisted in the Champions League.
United, meanwhile, followed their FA Cup output by Fulham with a 1-1 draw with real Sociedad in their Europa League last 16 first legs on Thursday.
Here we call Opta's wealth of information to view an example of Sunday's collision at Old Trafford.
What is expected?
United has lost their last four Premier League matches against Arsenal, their longest losing runs against the Gunners in their competition history.
Arsenal won the accompanying match 1-0 last season since February 1979 have not won a consecutive road competition matches against Manchester United.
Leandro Trossard scored the winner of Arsenal in that match in the past term and the only Gunners players who score a Premier League goal at Old Trafford in successive campaigns are Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (2019-20, 2020-21) and Emmanuel AdeBayor (2006-07, 2007).
Arsenal has scored in each of their last 10 Premier League Way matches against United (13 goals), because they have scored only in 10 of their first 22 visits to Old Trafford in the competition (11 goals).
But if United wins, they will claim their 100th victory against Arsenal in all competitions. The Gunners have not lost as many occasions of another team as they have united (99), while the Red Devils have only defeated Aston Villa (106).
Arsenal's opportunities to run the title race upside down in one way or another, are ranked by Opta's supercomputer at only 1.4%, but the model loves the gunners to go back to winning ways in the competition.
They get a victory of 51%, while United came at the top in just 23% of the supercomputer simulations.
The chance of a draw is 26%.
Mikel's milestone
Arteta becomes the 14th manager who supervises 200 Premier League matches that are responsible for one club, and the 39th manager who reaches the milestone in total.
After 42 years and 348 days, he will be the second-jongest manager to hit the monument after Roberto Martinez (41 years old, 111 days).
Arteta becomes the fourth Spanish manager who reaches 200 Premier League matches (after Martinez 265, Pep Guardiola 331 and Rafael Benitez 359).
Arteta has won 118 of his first 199, all the fifth most victories of each manager in their first 200 in the competition (Guardiola 146, Jose Mourinho 137, Jurgen Klopp 127 and Alex Ferguson 122).
Of course, Arsenal has to put an end to their long waiting time on a league title, but they came painfully close in 2023-24 and went a large part of 2022-23 the way to be surpassed by Guardiola's Manchester City Juggernaut.
Arteta has the best win percentage (59%) of every Arsenal manager in the Premier League. He also has the joint best points per match (1.96), together with Arsene Wenger. His team has an average of 1.89 goals per match in the competition. Wenger's Arsenal had an average of 1.88 goals per match.
And he has a good record against United. He has won seven of his 10 Premier League matches against the Red Devils (D1 L2), with his very first victory for the Gunners who meet them (2-0 in January 2020).
Of all managers to face United at least five times in the competition, Arteta has the highest profit percentage (70%).
Arsenal, however, had an early wobble in the competition. A defeat against West Ham, followed by a draw with Nottingham Forest, left them well from the pace in the title race, while the injury crisis of the Gunners came home.
Arsenal did not even score in their last two Premier League matches, with only three shots on goal about those competitions. The Gunners last did not succeed in scoring in three consecutive league games in August 2021, while they last did this in the top two of the table for each match in November 2000.
United header
United, on the other hand, may have returned to winning ways in the Premier League by overcoming Ipswich Town 3-2, but they then went to Fulham on penalties in the FA Cup.
Since the weekend of Amorim's first competition that was in charge of United after the November international break, only Leicester City (13) have admitted the opening goal in more different Premier League matches than the Red Devils (12).
The Red Devils have sometimes struggled in Amorim's preference 3-4-3 formation while their problems continue to support. At that time they had to deal with 25.65 XGA (expected goals against) and they admitted 27 goals, with only six teams that let in more.
On the other hand, however, the team has difficulty scoring and he only registered 19.37 xg during the term of Amorim, with 21 goals. And the waiting of Rasmus Hojlund continues on a goal, because he has not scored now in his last 19 games in all competitions.
Their lack of goals in the first half contributed to that problem. After scoring in the first half in each of Amorim's first three games that are in charge, United has now only done this in three of the 21 games since then.
United has to win consecutive league matches this season, with this their longest waiting for back-to-back competition victories since 1968-69 (competitions 32 and 33).
A fine-shoot-out victory over Arsenal in the FA Cup in January United had given a much needed boost, and if they want to avoid a lower semi-finish, they still need a victory on Sunday.
They currently only have a 5.1% chance of ending in the upper half of the Premier League table according to the OPTA Supercomputer, with seventh (0.2%) the highest they can finish. However, if they cannot turn things around, such as things, it is predicted that they will end in the 15th (22.2%).
Players to watch
Manchester United – Bruno Fernandes
Since his Premier League debut on February 1, 2020, only Mohamed Salah and Kevin De Bruyne have more Premier League assists than Bruno Fernandes (48).
Since his first game for the club, only Salah (120) has won more points for his team in the Premier League with goals or assists. Fernandes has 108 Premier League restrictive in 185 games, which have earned United 76 points.
Fernandes has been an integral part in recent weeks and proved its value in the FA Cup last weekend, despite their exit. In addition to scoring their only goal, the Portuguese led all the united players in the game for Schoten on Doel (three), created opportunities (four), passes completed (48) and possession recovery (10).
Arsenal – Ethan Nwaneri
With the injury problems of Arsenal in the front in recent weeks, Nwaneri got into the role and an outlet valve for the Gunners.
No player scored more goals for Arsenal in 2025 than Nwaneri (four -level with Mikel Merino), while his strike against PSV in the Champions League saw on Tuesday that he became the third -year -old player who scored a knock -out phase goal in the competition (17 years and 348 days).
In their last Premier League match against Forest, he completed five or more dribbles for the second time in his last three performances in the competition (Five Against Forest and Seven V Leicester), and he could be difficult for the wrestling back line of United.
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