Manchester U 3 Arsenal 1

Man­chester Uni­ted 3 Ar­senal 1, An­field Sta­dium, Eng­lish Foot­ball Lea­gue, Au­gust 20, 1971. Af­ter beat­ing Chel­sea 3-2 at Stam­ford Bridge two days earli­er, Man­chester Uni­ted de­feated reign­ing Fir­st Di­vi­sion cham­pi­ons and FA Cup hold­ers Ar­senal 3-1 at An­field to go top of the Fir­st Di­vi­sion table. 

This mat­ch was staged at An­field due to Man­chester Uni­ted be­ing banned from play­ing at ho­me af­ter fans had thrown knives in­to the away sec­tion at a ga­me at the end of the 1970-71 cam­paign. The North Lon­don te­am began on the front foot and took an early lead thanks to an ef­fort from Frank McLin­tock in the fourth min­ute of the en­counter, on­ly for Man­chester Uni­ted to equal­ise when a Bob­by Charl­ton free-kick was lobbed to Alan Gowl­ing who put the ball pa­st Bob Wil­son ten min­utes be­fore ha­lf-time. The Man­chester Reds ev­entually went ahead in the con­test as Charl­ton curled a free-kick ar­ound the Ar­senal wall and in­to the left-hand cor­ner of the net on 78 min­utes and then wrapped up a 3-1 vic­tory thro­ugh a late goal from Bri­an Kidd in the 89th min­ute. Man­chester Uni­ted Te­am: Al­ex Step­ney, To­ny Dun­ne, Ste­ve Ja­mes, Da­vid Sad­ler, Tom­my O’Neil, Bob­by Charl­ton, Ge­orge Best, Wil­lie Mor­gan, Bri­an Kidd, Alan Gowl­ing, De­nis Law, Wil­lie Mor­gan. Sub­sti­tute: John As­ton. Ar­senal Te­am: Bob Wil­son, Pat Rice, Bob McNab, Pe­ter Simp­son, Frank McLin­tock, Pe­ter Storey, Ge­orge Arm­strong, Ed­die Kel­ly, John Rad­ford, Ray Ken­nedy, Ge­orge Gra­ham. Sub­stitutes: None.

Bobby Charlton Quickfacts

Ever­green vet­er­an and club stal­wart Bob­by Charl­ton ac­cu­mu­lated 12 goals in 53 ap­pear­ances in all com­pet­i­tions un­der new Man­chester Uni­ted boss Frank O´Farrell dur­ing the 1971-72 season.

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