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Manchester United travel to the Emirates Stadium for the second time this season on Sunday, to face old rivals Arsenal in the pick of the bunch of the FA Cup third round ties.
However, will Ruben Amorim’s side have learned their lesson from the last time they faced the Gunners back in December?
United lost the game 2-0 with both of Arsenal’s goals coming from their consistently deadly attacking corner routines.
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Arsenal set piece coach Nicolas Jover has been lauded with praise so far this season with TV cameras panning to focus in on the 43-year-old coach each time one of his masterplans comes into fruition. His corner tactics have been successful a staggering nine times in the Premier League this season with this number of goals from the corner being more than any other team in the division.
Therefore, Amorim must ditch his zonal marking system when defending corners in order to avoid a repeat of the two punch corner knockout that his United received last time out at the Emirates.
Gunners’ centre back Gabriel must not be allowed to float about in the United box before any balls are delivered into the box with the bigger United players in the side needing to pick him and Saliba up, at least, to prevent them crashing towards the goal and nodding the ball into the back of the net.
The two set piece goals conceded at Arsenal seemed to open the flood gates of goals being conceded from the same scenarios for United.
In the following games after the loss in North London, Amorim’s team had crosses headed into their net in the matches against Nottingham Forest and Bournemouth at Old Trafford with the side also embarrassingly having two opposition corners fly directly into their goal at Molineux and Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
On that note, United must be more astute in protecting their goalkeeper in these scenarios to avoid Mikel Arteta’s side from implementing any of their ‘dark arts’ and blocking the ‘keeper from coming out to claim the cross, as was the case on Boxing Day where Andre Onana got sandwiched between two Wolves attackers.
Harry Maguire has impressed in big game performances away at Manchester City and Liverpool this season and his ability to aerially attack the ball will be key in clearing any potential danger that may occur in the United Penalty area.
Leny Yoro’s 6 foot 3 in frame will be also much desired in the box alongside his outstanding pace which was utilised brilliantly at Anfield to get across to the onrushing Darwin Nunez before performing a sublime sliding tackle to extinguish the Liverpool attack.
Through a combination of physical power and tactical awareness, United may have the chance to continue in their quest to defend their FA Cup title.