Manchester : Teenage forward Marcus Rashford’s dream start to life at Manchester United continued on Sunday as he scored two goals in his team’s 3-2 victory over Arsenal at Old Trafford.
The win represented Louis van Gaal’s third victory, in three competitions, over the past six days, but more signficantly, damaged Arsene Wenger’s hopes of winning Arsenal’s first league title in 12 years.
The 18-year-old forward, who scored twice in the mid-week Europa League victory over FC Midtjylland, was on the mark again in an astonishing first half in which he beat Petr Cech on two occasions.
To make his impact all the more stunning, the goals came within three minutes of each other as United delivered a serious blow to Wenger’s aim of narrowing the five-point advantage that leaders Leicester City held before kick-off.
After 29 minutes, Ander Herrera started a move with a telling tackle on Theo Walcott, sparking a counter-attack that ended with Guillermo Varela crossing from the right and Gabriel hacking a poor clearance directly to Rashford.
The teenager did the rest with a composed finish from a dozen yards, the first shot of his Premier League career resulting in his first goal.
Arsenal’s poor defending was badly exposed in that attack and worse was to follow from the next serious foray into their territory with Varela again influential, making an important header that kept the ball in play.
