The Paul Pogba effect, David de Gea's brilliance and Arsene Wenger's substitutions: Where Arsenal vs Manchester United was won and lost

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Manchester United beat Arsenal 3-1 in the game of the season at The Emirates on Saturday night.

Jose Mourinho's side were in scintillating form as they produced a wonderful counter-attacking display against a frustrated Arsenal side. 

Now that the dust has finally settled, Sportsmail's Amitai Winehouse takes a look at where the game was won and lost.  

Manchester United beat Arsenal 3-1 in an epic encounter at The Emirates on Saturday night

Defensive errors

It’s hard to recover after going two goals down in the opening 14 minutes. Arsenal were architects of their own downfall.

Why Laurent Koscielny played the loose ball he did to Sead Kolasinac only he can answer. Why Kolasinac did not realise he would not meet it and back off is another question that needs a response.

It allowed United in and Valencia took advantage with a blistering finish.

The second was just as bad. Mustafi dallied, got caught out by Jesse Lingard, and a few seconds later the ball had beaten Petr Cech.

The defender went down injured and left the pitch, which might be a caveat, but it would be a real surprise if he had gone off with anything but a case of red-face-itis.

And Koscielny failed to deal with Pogba for the third. It was not a good performance from a back three that had kept three clean sheets on the spin prior to the evening game.

Antonio Valencia (left) took advantage of sloppy Arsenal defending to score the opener 

Shkodran Mustafi dallied on the ball and then failed to stop Lukaku for the second goal 

United’s front three… and Lingard’s form in London

Since the Spurs game, Arsenal have profited from high pressing and a high-tempo. It threw Mauricio Pochettino’s team.

Against United they had no hope. The trio of Anthony Martial, Jesse Lingard and Romelu Lukaku made sure of that.

A caveat: Lukaku is still not playing with the same verve as he did in the first few games of the season. He seems bereft of confidence in front of goal and it is another game in which the Belgian has not bagged.

But he linked up well with the two men behind him. Lingard, in particular, looked superb at the Emirates.

Romelu Lukaku may not have scored but he linked up well with Jesse Lingard (right)

It continues an odd trend for him in London. In cup finals over the last two seasons, in the game against Chelsea last campaign and in this week’s dual-header inside the M25, he has served up capital punishment on United’s opponents.

Lingard bagged three in the two Premier League games against Watford and Arsenal. That is as many as in the previous 51 top flight appearances combined.

All three played a part in the opening two goals. Lukaku and Lingard had parts to play around Pogba’s excellent assist for the third.

Those three are currently keeping the impressive Marcus Rashford out of the team and the fit again Zlatan Ibrahimovic. That is forgetting Juan Mata and Henrikh Mkhitaryan.

On the back of Saturday’s display, Mourinho would be wrong to change it up.

Lingard has now scored three goals in Manchester United's last two Premier League games 

David de Gea’s brilliance...

Prior to Saturday, only two Premier League goalkeepers had made 14 saves in a single match - Vito Mannone for Sunderland in 2014 and Tim Krul for Newcastle in 2013. In neither case was it for a side on United’s level.

Now the Spain international has joined that select club, and playing for a team that do not usually allow the opposition 33 shots.

To sum up De Gea’s performance without implying his defence abandoned him is difficult. Only Marcos Rojo struggled. The problem was that Arsenal had creativity in abundance and kept finding ways to release players. But De Gea matched up to every single one of them. His stop from Lacazette in the first-half was sensational.

His close range double save in the second-half was even better.

There was very little he could have done about Arsenal’s goal.

You can talk about tactics all you want, but sometimes individual brilliance simply outweighs them.

If Donald Trump needs any help building his ill-conceived wall he should turn to De Gea. He seems to put one up most weeks.

David De Gea equalled the Premier League record for most saves in a game — 14 

He was superb at the Emirates and denied Alexis Sanchez a certain goal with his feet 

...and Arsenal’s inefficiency

The other side of De Gea’s performance was Arsenal’s weird inability to put the ball away.

Alexandre Lacazette finished a lovely chance off but it was the only time they took advantage of the opportunities offered up to them.

Opta’s Expected Goals (xG) stats after the game suggest that the chances created for Arsenal should have brought about 5.01 goals while United’s should have only resulted in 1.82.

While xG is not the be all and end all, it is a good indication of how a team played and what situations their attacking players found themselves in. And Arsenal repeatedly failed to put the ball in.

Lacazette himself missed a chance or two in the first-half. There were incidents when it was impossible to tell how the ball did not end up in the back of the United net.

De Gea was superhuman but even Superman has his kryptonite. Arsenal failed to find De Gea’s.

Despite scoring, Alexandre Lacazette missed a number of chances to add more to his tally 

Counter-attacking at its finest and the Pogba effect

United were very efficient carrying the ball forward. Their third, the goal that killed the game just when it seemed Arsenal were going to draw level, was a perfect example of this.

Pogba is still underrated, and will face more criticism after his red card for his challenge on Hector Bellerin. But he is so important to how United play, as evidenced by his recent spell on the sidelines.

It was ridiculous how easily he outmuscled Koscielny when breaking forward from his own half. It made his experienced compatriot look like a kid in a playground.

Paul Pogba easily outmuscled Laurent Koscielny to set up the visitor's third goal of the game 

It was obscene how easily Lingard could put away the chance Pogba served up to him. It showed off the Frenchman's own technical brilliance with the ball and his composure in telling moments.

After Saturday he has now scored four goals and assisted six more in his last nine Premier League appearances.

His side only had four shots on target. To score three, they had to absolutely nail nearly every chance they had. They did.

There was no way for Arsenal to stop United in that flow. Two early goals put them in an impossible position. Just look at the space they left whenever an attack broke down.

They had to go for it. The problem was United could blast through them at will.

Pogba has scored four goals and assisted six more in his last nine Premier League appearances

Wenger’s substitutions

Arsene Wenger did a fantastic job of nullifying his own team during the last 15 minutes with his changes.

Playing a pseudo 4-2-4 after United’s second, they were flying and creating opportunity after opportunity - as alluded to by the above stats.

But once Pogba was sent off they created very little.

This was partly because of the decision to take off Sead Kolasinac. He was a useful outlet on the left in a way that Alex Iwobi, shuttled out there to accommodate what became a front six, was not.

Having a right-footed player on the left made them imbalanced and too predictable going forward.

Managers sometimes feel like they have to force the issue. Wenger would have been better off leaving it as it was. 

Arsene Wenger's substitutions did nothing but nullify his own team during the last 15 minutes

Alex Iwobi was shuttled out to the left, replacing Sead Kolasinac, but offered very little