‘Touch of class’ - Garth Crooks hails Man Utd duo in Team of the Week after Arsenal win

Garth Crooks has named Manchester United duo Christian Eriksen and Marcus Rashford in his Premier League Team of the Week following the Red Devils’ 3-1 win over Arsenal at Old Trafford.

Erik ten Hag’s men made it four victories on the bounce to move up to fifth in the table, and are now just three points behind the Gunners, who still occupy the summit.

Both Eriksen and Rashford put in influential displays, with the former shining in the centre of the park, and the latter contributing with a smartly-taken brace.

New signing Antony opened the scoring on his debut, with Rashford also providing the assist for that strike.

Reflecting on the England international’s display, Crooks told BBC Sport: “It would appear that Rashford has won the battle with Cristiano Ronaldo to start games for Manchester United. Erik ten Hag has made the right decision of course.

“Rashford is part of United’s future and Ronaldo, sadly, is part of United’s past. It comes to all great players of course. However it’s time to see if Rashford can take United back to the glory days. That is what he must achieve if he is to lead United’s attack and leave Ronaldo on the bench.

“To do that Rashford must score goals and plenty of them. He looked good against Arsenal and took both his goals well but in order to be the best he will need to keep focused to maintain the consistency that was lacking last season.”

Assessing Eriksen’s display, the pundit said: “I saw an element of aggression return to the Manchester United team, the like of which I’ve not seen for quite some time. It was certainly absent in the defeats against Brighton and Brentford but there has been a gradual return to hostilities since the stinging criticism the team received after their first two losses of the season and Arsenal got the brunt of it.

“Eriksen was the player who provided the touch of class required to open Arsenal up and he did it on more than one occasion.

“For 60 minutes, Arsenal played the best football I’ve seen them play this season. Perhaps with a little more patience from their manager the Gunners might have come away with something. Having five substitutes doesn’t mean you have to use all of them.”