Manchester United vs Arsenal: Cristiano Ronaldo's poor record against Arsenal at Old Trafford and five other interesting stats

Cristiano Ronaldo has had an outstanding goalscoring record in his career so far. However, against Arsenal, he hasn't been at his prolific best at Old Trafford. In fact, he has scored just once at home against the Gunners, in April 2008.

Emmanuel Adebayor opened the scoring in the 48th minute and it was Ronaldo who equalised from the penalty spot five minutes later. United went on to win the match as Owen Hargreaves scored the winner in the 72nd minute. So if Ronaldo scores on Friday, then he will be scoring again at the Theatre of Dreams against Arsenal after 4982 days.

Although Ralph Rangnick has been appointed as the interim manager, he not be in the dugout against Arsenal as he awaits his work permit. So, Michael Carrick will oversee his third game in charge after the departure of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer. He has a tough task at hand as Arsenal have found a spring in their foot and have won four of their last five games. Mikel Arteta's men have leapfrogged United in the league table and it is essential that the Red Devils get the three points to have a realistic chance of finishing in the top-four.

But it must be noted that United are winless in their last six Premier League meetings with Arsenal. They’ve never gone seven league games without a win against the Gunners before. So if they fail to pick up full points, it will be an embarrassing record that they would want to avoid.

Let us now have a look at five other interesting stats regarding the mouthwatering clash between Manchester United and Arsenal.

1. Following their 1-0 win at Old Trafford last season, Arsenal are looking to win consecutive away league
   
   games against Manchester United for the first time since February 1979.
2. Arsenal have kept a clean sheet in each of their last three meetings with Manchester United in all
   
   competitions, as many as they had in their previous 13 against them. They’ve never kept a clean sheet in
   
   four consecutive games against the Red Devils before.
3. Each of the last eight Premier League goals at Old Trafford have been scored against Manchester United – the Red Devils have never previously conceded nine consecutive goals at the ground in the competition without replying themselves. The last time they had a run of eight home goals conceded without scoring in between was from February to March 2014.
4. Coming into this round of matches, only Norwich City (2) have scored fewer away goals than Arsenal (3) in the Premier League this season, with the Gunners failing to score in four of their six games on the road. It’s the joint-fewest the Gunners have ever scored after six away games in a league season.
5. Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang has scored in his last two away league games against Manchester United, and could become the first-ever Arsenal player to score in three consecutive away games against the Red Devils.