Manchester United reach FA Cup fifth round after Anthony Martial wraps up impressive win over Arsenal

Arsenal 1-3 Manchester United: After falling two goals behind, Unai Emery's men pulled on back through Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang before Martial's late goal secured victory for the visitors

A cup run now builds with the arguments for Ole Gunnar Solskjaer to get the job, with his side’s winning run showing no signs of stopping. Manchester United made it into the FA Cup fifth round after an eighth successive win since the Norwegian took over, this time a throwback 3-1 victory away to Arsenal, and yet another big result at the home of a big rival.

The debates against Solskjaer becoming permanent manager get knocked off with every game, just like the opposition. Most relevant about this, though, was how United beat Arsenal with a much more defined gameplan – and that despite the fact Unai Emery has had so much more time in the job.

The home side continue to look so chaotic. And sure, that chaos did mean that there was also some fortune to a slightly more haphazard win for Solskjaer, but there was still the sleek and polished design of the first two counter-attacking goals that were reminiscent of so many past strikes at this stadium for United.

There was also the extra positive that the opening goal was from a resurgent Alexis Sanchez, to go with the brilliant all-round display of Romelu Lukaku, before another substitution came off for Solskajer with Anthony Martial sealing the game on 82 minutes.

Arsenal had been outdone and out-thought on their own ground by United. Where have we heard that before? It means we know what we’ll be hearing more of in future: louder calls for Solksjaer to get the job.

If you wanted to be harsh, you could argue the game’s true defining factor was Arsenal’s defensive haplessness, something that really escalated when Sokratis Papastathopoulos had to go off injured and Shkodran Mustafi came on.

It really didn’t seem a coincidence that United immediately started to create danger down that left side.

It was also where both goals came from, but they were not just down to the identity of the Arsenal players on that side. It was also down to the identity of the United players, and particularly the two that now have most to do to justify their cost and place in the team. Sanchez and Lukaku certainly stepped up here, and linked up. The Belgian first of all threaded a fine ball through – with the kind of subtlety that had seemed to abandon him under Jose Mourinho – for Sanchez to so deftly round Petr Cech and lift the ball into the corner.

The boos for the Chilean from his old home stadium were quickly quietened, and it wasn’t long until the away end was roaring again. Two minutes, to be exact, and it was fittingly fast in itself. It was also a fitting throw-back, as United scored another of those vintage counter-attacking goals they had previously made a habit at this stadium.

Alexis Sanchez celebrates after scoring United’s first (AFP/Getty)

Just like the old days, they used the extra space offered up by Arsenal to express themselves. Luke Shaw first of all worked his way into the middle of the pitch to weave a superb outside-of-the-foot ball into the path of Lukaku. The striker-turned-right winger then played a crisp ball into Lingard, for the attacker to finish with almost impudently slow precision. The celebration will have only added to the sense he and his teammates were leading Arsenal on a dance of their own.

Lukaku had two assists in two minutes. It was as if he was playing for Belgium in the World Cup again – or maybe something else.

It did suddenly feel such a display of the strength of United’s forward options that Solskjaer eventually took off Sanchez and Lukaku for Martial and Marcus Rashford. It also represents such an inversion from Mourinho’s time. The Portuguese often abruptly changed attackers to try and force some kind of form from them. Their form is now so good, however, that it’s going to be difficult for Solskjaer to keep them out.

Luke Shaw puts in a sliding tackle on Ainsley Maitland-Niles (Getty Images)

There has similarly been improvement at the back under the Norwegian, but issues remain. It can’t be completely overlooked they could still do with a centre-half for what already looks a manager-defining Champions League tie against Paris Saint-Germain, and was impossible to ignore as Pierre Emerick-Aubameyang stabbed in a response to make it 2-1.

Their issues in defence this season, mind, were nothing compared to Arsenal’s in this game. Emery had lost a second centre-half by the hour, as Laurent Koscielny had to go off with an ear injury.

That brought a necessary reshuffle from the manager, and brief jokes that Mesut Ozil might have to fill in at the back.

Arsenal pulled one back through Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (Reuters)

The challenge for him was to find that telling gap in the United defence, before the visitors caught Arsenal on the counter once more. That was the dynamic now defining a raucously fast game, and it was the latter that decided it.

As Arsenal poured forward, United sprung the trap. Paul Pogba surged through to fire a shot that Cech might have held, before Martial made sure.

Another Solskajer substitution comes off, another gameplan pays off, another big rival seen off. Another game that further erodes the arguments against him.