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INGLEWOOOD (US) — Arsenal came from behind to beat Manchester United 2-1 in SoFi Stadium in their US tour game, with Gabriel Martinelli netting a superb winner.
Rasmus Hojlund fired the Red Devils into an early lead, but Gabriel Jesus finished off a neat passing move to draw the level. Fellow Brazilian Martinelli then came off the bench and sliced his way through the United defence to secure a deserved first win.
In the ninth minute of the game, Marcus Rashford clipped a ball down the left flank for Hojlund who got the better of Heaven to push into the area, and when faced one-on-one with Karl Hein he fired through the keeper’s legs to hand United the lead, Arsenal reports.
United’s early momentum halted when Aresenal capitalised by getting back to level on 26 minutes. Trossard fed Nwaneri on the edge of the area, who sent a pinpoint pass towards the back post where Jesus showed his predatory instinct to be ideally placed to tap past a helpless Andre Onana.
It was more of the same in the initial stages of the second half. Some fine interplay between Odegaard and Trossard saw the latter fizz a shot from close range towards the top corner, but the Cameroonian did brilliantly to tip it over.
As the game went on, Mikel Artreta threw on Gabriel, Kai Havertz and Martinelli for their first minutes of pre-season, and the latter looked electric from the moment he was introduced. He constantly tore down the left flank terrorising the opposition defence, and with 10 minutes to go made the game's biggest contribution.
Again picking up possession on the touchline, he sped towards the box, beat James Scanlon all ends up and then drilled the ball through Will Fish’s legs to find the net and send the largely Arsenal crowd home happy.
United did get the ball in the net in stoppage-time when Jonny Evans headed in, however, a couple of attackers bundled into Hein in the process and the goal was rightly chalked off, and secured the win.