Okay at Old Trafford!

1-0 to The Arsenal. A scoreline that brings great relief across the fanbase, but the performance itself is giving some concerns. However, a win is a win and at Old Trafford no less, so that is the most important takeaway from this engagement.

It wouldn't be much of a post if I just left it at that, so I'm going to delve into why Arsenal played so poorly, but ultimately became unbeatable.

Looking at the base level stats, it's clear that Manchester United saw more of the ball and did more with it. 61% possession to our 39%, 22 shots to our 9, 7 of which on target compared to our 3. Although there is one statistic that underlines one of the reasons why Arsenal kept a clean sheet today and that's Arsenal creating one big chance compared to United's zero. This kind of says that although the Red Devils had the chances, they didn't actually create a good chance. Obviously the eye test showed they did give David Raya a few tests.

So, why did Manchester United have such control, but nothing to show for it and why did Arsenal play so poor, but with everything to show for it? The devil is in the detail and how both teams set up.

Mikel Arteta went with his usual 4-3-3, but pinned his wingers back to almost create a wing-back situation. Manchester United went with a 3-5-2, that reverts to a 5-3-2 in defensive moments. Ruben Amorim set up his side to bypass the Arsenal midfield and they did that on many occasions. With Casemiro and Bruno Fernandes up against Martin Zubimendi, Declan Rice and Martin Odegaard, it was clear they wouldn't be able to match them man for man. So, what can you do if you can't go through something? You go around. The amount of times Bryan Mbuemo, Patrick Dorgu, Matheus Cunha and eventually Amad Diallo received the ball after a switched pass was insane. Arsenal couldn't handle the constant switches of play and were often caught out and had to rely on the United players messing up or Raya making a crucial save.

By doing this, Gabriel Martinelli was effectively pinned back in his own half most of the time. So, when Arsenal finally had an opportunity to counter, Martinelli was flagging behind the play leaving Odegaard with not many options. United actually capitalised on this by bringing on Amad Diallo and taking off the more defensive minded Diego Dalot. Diallo caused all sorts issues after coming on. While the tactics caught Arsenal out, I do think the Gunners caused a lot of their own problems. Lazy in possession, heavy touches, not enough off the ball movement and poor decision making when it mattered most. It looked like Arsenal were still in pre-season mode, whereas United played like they were already months deep into the campaign.

What could Arsenal have done differently to perform better? Now, it's difficult to answer this because how can you change up a winning performance? We have some extremely difficulty fixtures coming up and we're going to have to be miles better to pick up a any sort of point let alone win. So, I'll answer the original question from that perspective. As I said in one of my previous posts, I think Arteta has got the players doing roles they shouldn't be doing. Martinelli shouldn't be doing shifts at left wing back, Declan Rice shouldn't be playing off the striker, Odegaard shouldn't be playing in Saka's shadow.

I'm not going to pretend like I'm any sort of qualified to be handing out advice on what Arteta should do, but an opinion is an opinion and I'm granted such a thing. For me, it was clear that United targeted the long ball into whoever was out wide and clearly Martinelli held back because of this, Saka was just as guilty for it too. But, once you start to fall into the opponents trap then it's so hard to climb out of it. What we should've done was left Declan Rice just inside of the left back and let him roam around that area, likewise with Zubimendi on the other side. It's clear that United weren't going to play through the middle that much, so we could've afforded to give them space in there. Even with that space in there, Odegaard would be roaming around the centre circle and would be able to get back.

In the second image we look more compact and harder to break down, but it shows a clear lack of ambition to get the team forward. When you're winning 1-0 away from home then it's okay to be more compact, but we were playing like this from the first minute. It gave United encouragement that they could play their own game. Looking at the first image, if our wingers pushed up more onto the half way line and have Rice and Zubimendi tuck in then we could spring a counter attack on them far quicker and with far more devastation. Suddenly when Odegaard has the ball in transition, it creates a 4v3 overload, perhaps 4v4 if Casemiro wasn't out of position. Martinelli and Saka could run the channels and Gyokeres looking for gaps to drag a defender.

Not every transition or counter attack needs to lead to a chance or a goal, ideally it does, but it actually can just be used to get your team into the opponents half and then set yourself up to keep them penned in. For example, if the ball went to Martinelli and he found himself in the final third, but unable to proceed then at least when he turns around he'll have Rice, Calafiori and Gyokeres closer to him. We can exchange passes in a more dangerous area, but also restrict United from getting long balls off as Mbuemo and Cunha would be isolated against our central defenders and Zubimendi.

To make some sort of summary, a win is a win and three points is all that truly matters. However, if we play like this against Liverpool, City or even Newcastle then we'll get demolished. However, we're clearly very good defensively and that won't change with Gabriel and Saliba fully fit, but we need to find a way to balance defensive overload and attacking intent. I do believe our squad is nearly complete, but we really need a new left winger, someone that will genuinely elevate the team. If we clear enough squad players out then go for someone like Eberechi Eze, if he's still available, but that would be the luxury on top of the marquee signing. Let's sell some players and get ourselves in gear for Liverpool away. We do have Leeds at home this weekend, but will be a much more different kind of game, hopefully we see more of what Viktor Gyokeres can do.