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'To beat United, it needs to be special'

15/16: Arsenal v Sunderland - Arsene Wenger
Arsene Wenger

Arsene Wenger says that Arsenal’s performance “needs to be special” if they are to beat Manchester United at Old Trafford.

The Gunners have not won at their rivals in the Premier League since 2006, when Emmanuel Adebayor’s 86th-minute strike secured victory.

Arsenal did beat Louis van Gaal’s side with three goals within the first 20 minutes of October’s reverse fixture, however, and Wenger says the Gunners will have to be at their best again going into Sunday’s showdown.

"We need to play at that pace again because our game is based on pace and speed, and if we don’t have that I don’t see how we can win there"

Arsene Wenger

“If you look all the titles of Manchester United, to beat them at Old Trafford it needs to always be special,” he said. “They have never won many more games than us away from home in their whole history. There are a lot of ingredients [for success] in there.

“We had a good performance against them in October. I think we took them a little bit by surprise and we played at a high pace from the start and closed down well early on. We need to play at that pace again because our game is based on pace and speed, and if we don’t have that I don’t see how we can win there.

“We have to raise our level at the right moment. You want to raise your level and after, individually, the players will benefit from that. When we attack well, Alexis will be very dangerous so we have to focus on attacking well together.

“After that it’s important to remember that we worked very hard to be in this position. At half time against Leicester, we were eight points behind Leicester. Today we are two points behind. We have to take advantage of that.”

Alexis makes it 3-0 to Arsenal

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