The word friendly might not be in Lisandro Martinez’s vocabulary after a crunching tackle on Bukayo Saka in a pre-season match.
Manchester United took on Arsenal in front of an 82,500-capacity crowd at the MetLife Stadium in New Jersey on Saturday night, and won 2-0 thanks to Bruno Fernandes and Jadon Sancho.
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And while the match was billed as a friendly, Martinez clearly did not get the memo as he wiped Saka out in the first-half.
Despite the Gunners star being in a fairly safe position, the centre-back lived up to his ‘Butcher’ moniker by scything him down in a forceful challenge.
It led to a furious reaction from the Arsenal players, who raced in to protect Saka.
Gunners captain Odegaard even squared up to Martinez, who did not back down as he glared the Norwegian away.
While tempers boiled over momentarily, tensions eventually settled but there is no love lost between these two old rivals.
And it proved that United were up for this friendly, having raced into a two-goal lead in the early stages of the contest.
Bruno Fernandes had opened the scoring after an error from Aaron Ramsdale when the Portuguese midfielder took a pot shot from distance.
The Gunners goalie got a glove to it but it was not strong enough as the ball squirmed through his hands.
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There were further problems for Mikel Arteta’s side when a routine ball over the top was messed up by Gabriel Magalhaes.
The Brazilian missed the ball and that allowed Jadon Sancho to race down toward goal.
However, the forward still had plenty to do as he outpaced Gabriel and lashed a shot high into the net from a tight angle.
Again, Ramsdale did not cover himself in grace – nor his near post – as he was easily beaten.
While United fans will be enjoying their performance against Arsenal, they will not be watching their new man in action.
Andre Onana was signed from Inter Milan this week but not in time to be included in Ten Hag’s squad on Saturday night.
The Cameroon international has arrived to replace David de Gea between the posts.
