WATCH: How teenage star cooked Rice to help Manchester United beat Arsenal

Manchester United stepped up their pre-season preparations with a dominant performance against Premier League rivals Arsenal to clinch a 2-0 win in New York.

MANCHESTER UNITED VS ARSENAL MATCH SUMMARY

A crowd of 82,262 attended the match — a record figure for an association football match in the state — and witnessed United deliver the best performance of their pre-season programme so far.

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Bruno Fernandes, named club captain on Thursday, marked his first appearance of the 2023/24 season with a fine goal to open the scoring, before Jadon Sancho’s soaring shot made it two only seven minutes later.

Manager Erik ten Hag changed all 10 outfield players at half-time, but his refreshed team managed the second half well to earn a third consecutive clean sheet. United now move on to San Diego, ahead of further games in the USA against Wrexham, Real Madrid and Borussia Dortmund.

KOBBIE MAINOO MANIA

One of most promising youngsters in the Manchester United academy, Kobbie Mainoo, was given the opportunity against Arsenal and the teenager made the most of the change he got.

The defensive midfielder, who turned 18 in April, was named alongside the likes of Raphael Varane, Mason Mount and Fernandes in United’s starting lineup.

Mainoo had a tough task with Arsenal fielding a midfield three of Declan Rice, Kai Havertz and Martin Odegaard.

But the youngster was not fazed at all as he outperformed all three Arsenal stars.

Mainoo was terrific during his 45 minutes on the pitch for Manchester United. He was incredibly calm on the ball and produced a number of terrific passes. He even set up Fernandes’ opener on the half-hour mark.

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The Manchester United manager Erik ten Haag was full of praise for young Mainoo after the game.

“It’s fantastic. Manchester United is famous for always bringing young players up and it can be done. But we have to see.

“We have confidence, he [Kobbie Mainoo] is playing with confidence, and I really like his performance. But this year, he showed it in spring, then he got injured. We are really happy. There are more youngsters with us now and they’re all doing very good. But I don’t want to rise expectations too high.”

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FANS THRILLED ABOUT RISE OF NEW MANCHESTER UNITED STAR

Almost 18 hours after the fans, ‘Mainoo’ is still a top trending topic on Twitter, as Manchester United fans continue to rave about the youngster’s performance against Arsenal’s big name stars.

Some even went as far as to compose highlights reels of the Manchester United prospect and shared it on social media platforms.

WATCH: KOBBIE MAINOO AGAINST ARSENAL

https://twitter.com/UtdEra_/status/1683073783895142400