Arsenal did not produce the most eye-catching of performances against Manchester United on Saturday afternoon, but nonetheless, they emerged 3-1 victors to boost their chances of sealing a top-four finish.
Goals from Nuno Tavares, Bukayo Saka and Granit Xhaka were enough to complete a perfect week for the Gunners - following a 4-2 win over Chelsea - as they avoided back-to-back home defeats after that disappointing result against Brighton and Hove Albion a fortnight ago.
But that only tells half the story. The Red Devils were much improved after delivering a rather abject performance against Liverpool earlier in the week and interim manager Ralf Rangnick was happy with the reaction of his players, even if the final score went against his side.
READ MORE: Paul Scholes calls Mikel Arteta a 'disgrace' following key incident during Arsenal vs Man United
"Improved performance but poor result, I think we created enough chances to score more than that one goal, we bounced back well to that early goal that we conceded where again we didn’t defend well inside and around our own box," he said in the post-match press conference.
"This was the only negative issue regarding today’s game but after coming back from 2-0 down we had numerous chances, the penalty, the crossbar, we hit the post twice and a few VAR decisions and that’s putting it in an extremely mild way, we were unlucky. That’s why we are very disappointed about the result but our overall performances was much better."
To Rangnick's point, United did respond well after going 2-0 down as they hit back almost immediately through Cristiano Ronaldo as he took advantage of a mix-up between Arsenal trio Aaron Ramsdale, Gabriel Magalhaes and Nuno Tavares to score his 100th Premier League goal.
Upon a closer look, there's an argument that Ramsdale could have done better with the cross, but the goalkeeper certainly made amends in the second half with a save some Arsenal fans on social media are adamant hasn't been spoken about enough, despite it coming at a crucial stage in the game.
After Bruno Fernandes missed a chance to level the game up when his penalty struck the post - the moment that revitalised Ramsdale - the Gunners no.32 pulled off a sublime save to turn Diogo Dalot's effort onto the woodwork and eight minutes later Xhaka made it 3-1.
For many Gunners supporters on Twitter, that was the game-changing moment that got Mikel Arteta's side over the line. Below are some of the best responses...
@ArsecaI said: "Ramsdale out of form and still managed to pull off a match winning save", @Dannysl12999782 said: "Ramsdale save for Dalot’s shot today. Btw unreal", @Lloydy3217 said: "For all the agro Ramsdale has had over the last few weeks, let’s not forget the top draw save he made at 2-1 yesterday", @joshrobinson87 said: "Ramsdale appreciation tweet, tipped Dalot's shot onto the post at 2-1, a bit shakey yesterday but that was a massive save. Won us the game."
