Ref books Kolasi in the 2nd minute yet continually refuses to book United for all their cynical fouls so far. ****.
Should have had a pen on Lacazette by Maguire. Again doesn't go down so ref uselessly doesn't give it.
Excellent first-half. We've pressed so well. There's a clear pattern and identity to how we play. Good structure. Players are closing down in all the right spaces. We are defending from the front. My only two concerns are that: 1) one of our players on a yellow card does something stupid to get sent off. I hope they don't. 2) keeping up this level of energy and aggression may be difficult. If we can avoid the former, and continue with the latter, we should win this game. Let's hope so. Definitely the best half I've seen in the Premier League all season from Arsenal.
However absolute dogshit ref who is letting fouls go left right and centre except for Kolasi who gets booked straight away.
A bit like the Chelsea game we haven't kept the momentum up after the break Arteta needs to work on this.
Soo basically Mesut is playing better under Arteta than we have seen him play for years. Torreira and Xhaka look revitalised. Defence still needs work but I think AMN and Sokratis put in a decent shift today.
2-0. FT. Fantastic result. Defence were superb. Maitland-Niles, Sokratis and Luiz were all incredible. Kolasinac less so, but he still did a job on Daniel James. Torreira and Xhaka totally bossed that midfield. Lacazette missed a few good chances. But he worked his socks off, held the ball up well, linked up play and helped us progress up the field. Aubameyang was another workaholic. His pace and diagonal runs were crucial in hitting United on the counter in the second-half. Ozil had his best game in years. Eye of a needle, defence splitting-passes and harrying United's defence/midfield from the front. The one thing Arteta has instilled is fight and tenacity. We didn't lose many second balls and, if we did, we made sure we'd win it back or get back into position to close down the passing lanes. Martial and Rashford were not in the game at all because we cut off their supply line. Best performance of the season for sure. Let's hope this isn't just a once-off and this can be a regular occurrence under Arteta.
Now that is what I call a bloody decent performance! New Year and a new Arsenal (hopefully). Top drawer stuff!
Massive win and so badly needed. And to get it against Man Utd is a great reward for the amount of work Arteta and the players have already put in. We played some superb stuff in the first half. Ozil was running the show and we pressed Utd all over the pitch, forcing them into mistakes and winning the ball back time and time again. Utd came into it a bit more in the 2nd half, but we stayed calm and stuck to our jobs and marshalled the game really well. Brilliant result and I'm really pleased for Arteta because he deserved this
Arteta deserves this. He is instilling a system which Emery never could. We are looking tighter and the fight has come back. Ozil looks a different player. We should have beaten Chelsea but for some silly errors. Long may this continue.
Well done. we can win after all. pepe looked class again, I just don’t understand why so many managers don’t pick him to start.
Arteta is a miracle worker - guess who covered the most ground today out of the entire team? Torreira was second.
Ozil covered the most ground, and also won the ball back more than any other Arsenal player. He was the fulcrum of everything good about the team performance, pressing from the front and hunting in groups. Also shout out for Auba and Lacazette as they also did great shifts, and Torreira was back to his harrying best. let’s not get carried away as it was only United !