What can Arsenal expect from Man United?
If Arsenal fans think the performances of their team has been far from satisfactory, then United fans will have no sympathy for their Premier League counterparts.
Despite sitting on six points after three games, Erik Ten Hag’s men have failed to truly convince their fanbase that they are in for a treat this season.
In their opening match against Wolves, United were lucky to take away all three points, as the Wanderers had several opportunities to snatch a win at Old Trafford.
In their second game, Hag’s side were deservedly beaten by Spurs 2-0. Fans from the red side of Manchester would have felt the same nerves when they went 2-0 down against Nottingham Forest inside the opening five minutes.
However, they made a memorable comeback to win 3-2 and climbed up the table to eighth position.
United have been set up in a 4-3-3 formation with Casemiro, Bruno Fernandes and Christian Eriksen occupying the midfield areas.
🗣️ "United are going to have to raise their game, but Arsenal are going to have to sort themselves out"
Gary Neville looks ahead to Arsenal vs Manchester United next week 💭 pic.twitter.com/sh9eySZRPL
— Sky Sports Premier League (@SkySportsPL) August 28, 2023
But with all those players possessing more offensive qualities than defensive, teams have penetrated Ten Hag’s midfield with ease.
And that’s why Martin Odegaard and Kai Havertz (if he starts) can come out of the match shining the most.
However, the two things that Mikel Arteta needs to worry about is the Red Devils’ defensive fluidity and counter attacking prowess.
With the addition of Andre Onana from Inter Milan, the Red Devils have taken playing out from the back to a different level. Thus, pressing aggressively for the whole 90 minutes might not do the Gunners any good.
United would have to double-team on Saka. Otherwise, they risk being cooked.
When they do send two on him, we have a spare man in the middle or at Martinelli's.
Arsenal could either commit Zinchenko into the midfield and have Rice just around the box to be doing shoot practice. pic.twitter.com/MElHsQbBfr
— GravityGooner✨ (@Gravitygunner14) September 1, 2023
On the other side, United are one of the most dangerous counter-attacking sides, as they have progressed the ball upfield at a rate of 1.81 metres per second, the second-fastest average in the division, sitting behind only David Moyes’ West Ham United.
Considering that in mind, picking up Thomas Partey as a right-back might not be a clever decision because a single positional mistake either by Partey or Ben White can hand Man United with a very good opportunity in front of goal.
Ten Hag’s team possesses the likes of Marcus Rashford, Alejandro Garnacho, Anthony and Jadon Sancho, neither of them will have much problem putting one past the keeper if given a single good opening.
Chance creation is also strong suit for the Manchester side, who have generated 55 shots already, including 42 from open play. Only rivals Manchester City and Brighton have boasted more attempts, with Portuguese wizard Fernandes at the heart of most things.
Thus, shutting the supply to him can disrupt a lot of fluidity in United’s attacks. And I see the pair of Partey and Declan Rice doing that with ease.
This derby has always attracted eyeballs, despite the fact that the two clubs were struggling with their identity in recent seasons. A good performance by either one of them will prove that their respective club have indeed taken the next step in their development.
Writer – Yash Bisht
City Fulham 5-1. Didn’t see any struggle for City while we were lucky with a point. Major improvement needed or I expect a top 4 fight as our main objective this season
Also need Referee and VAR on our side lol.
Mancity are now declared Manu of Ferguson’s days. They can play with 10 defender or 10 attacker and still come away with winner. Mancity were not playing any good but Fulham gave them a lot of space to explore unlike the tight formation they built against Arsenal. Based in these 4 games I feel mancity are weaker than last yr but as they have mentality superiority they will keep on getting points. No debryune, no grealish, no problem, sold sterling, zinko, Jesus, gundogan, Mahrez, Laporte and so many key players still no problem. At present they just seem to belong in another universe. Just hope they can be brought down to earth sooner than later.
City is certified as winners of the premier league except something unique just happens. My true opinion is that we are mere pretenders and this season will prove whether last was a fluke. What frustrates me about Arsenal is that we are always one or two positions short every season.
Its either the following
Excellent defenders + midfielders + poor strikers or
Excellent midfielders + strikers + poor defenders or
Excellent defenders + strikers + poor midfielders or
Above average players that can win a trophy with the right coach + coach who decides to play players out of position, sign the wrong players and overthink simple things – both Wenger and Arteta are guilty of this. FRANKLY I DON’T KNOW WHAT IS WRONG WITH THIS CLUB. This year all we had to do was just add to an already good squad. We decide to sign Havertz and start tinkering with systems. I agree we need to vary our systems but there are many ways to vary your system playing to the strengths of your players. At this rate Arsenal will never win the league or Champions league. Arsenal has been twiddling thumbs and Chelsea has won the Champions league twice ( we keep boasting we are bigger than them), City has now won it once. We are still not close with hundreds of millions spent
Story coming out partly is injured if true will hopefully stop Arteta using this stupid inverted full back system and play a traditional back 4 with players in there proper positions!
The inverted FB has a good rationale and can be quite effective.
We used it to good effect last season.
Is it something to do with white. Could it be possible that white requesting to play CB as he is not getting chance to play in national team because of being deployed in RB. Otherwise it doesn’t seem logical to change the formation that worked so well. Anyways just increasing no of midfielders doesn’t increase the creativity and control of game. We need to find right balance. Until now we are lacking deep lying playmaker who can distribute the ball from deep . We are only attacking when opponent area is already congested with opposition players, so we have to work in tight spaces which make it problem to create chances. So we need to sort this out quickly if we are to hang on near the summit.
Yeah, I’ve been reading it’s serious groin injury, which could keep him out for months.
The shift at R.B was just unbearable for him at this early stages of the season.
Man United would likely park the bus and launch direct balls to their attackers as usual
This is why Arsenal had better play Jesus/ Martinelli because they’re so tricky and Havertz or Rice in Xhaka’s position to increase our second-ball winning chances in the final-third:
…….………….…. Ramsdale
……… White .… Saliba …. Magalhaes
……….….. Partey ……..… Tomiyasu
Saka . Odegaard . Rice . Martinelli
…………………………. Jesus
Tomiyasu did a great job at nullifying Antony last season and White should be able to handle Rashford. Let Tomiyasu play inverted-LB, because he’s more ambidextrous than Kiwior and Zinchenko
If we can’t score after sixty minutes, we could replace Tomiyasu with Zinchenko
Partey’s injured.
Jorginho could replace him
Turner and Tavares took all three points from the Bridge today.
Though Havertz have not exactly set the place on fire, he has to play a part in these blockbusters encounters.
Surely my 4 2 3 1 formation switching quickly to the 4 3 3 in attacking mode is well documented.
Whoever dominates the midfield walks away with all the spoils
For this season to be successful we need to revert back to basics.We should be playing guys in their natural positions where they don’t need to strain to deliver as is with Partey at R.B coz it will just trigger unnecessary injuries which may be detrimental to our success.Its also time Arteta thought on how he should use Zinchenko more offensively, With the rate at which some teams are scoring we need all our creative players in the opposition half.
Partey out for a few games apparently!
Injury crisis already, and we’re only 3 games in. Every season!
One genius said Arteta gets rid of frequently injured players. I asked about Partey and others and got no reply as I expected.
Have been saying for weeks Arsenal need a young mobile box to box midfielder, a player that could slide in the left back position if needs be.
Inter Millan Barella, Zubimendi or one in the mould of Eduardo Camavinga,
I hope it’s a mind game but if the world class player will be out injury it’s not looking good
Nketiah.
Martinelli. Odegaard. Saka.
Havertz. Rice.
Zinchenko. Gabriel. Saliba. White.
Ramsdale.
Oboy!!! I fear for the trashing this team selection will receive.
Just goes to show how fragile the guy is both physically and mentally. We should have let him leave and had even bigger transfer ambitious. It’s all about gap fill now. Top four will be a great achievement but you have to question Edu and Arteta’s record with transfers. They don’t seem to be very good judges of players. If they were scouts at Brighton they would have been shown the door a while ago.
Lost two solid players in Timber and Partey plus One unnecessary signing who is being forced into the team.
Sometimes I get to think that we incurred a curse after going invisible in 2004 that makes us not to win any major trophy again disappointed 😔
Partey injury is a blessing in disguise! Hear me out guys, now we can be sure no more Partey at RB, this injury forces Arteta to go back to a traditional back 4 with Zinchenko/Tomi, Gabriel, Saliba and Ben White. Declan Rice in his preferred DM role and we’d even have space for Arteta’s precious Havertz (no.8) without terribly unbalancing the team. I do miss Xhaka and I think Gorgino or Smith-Rowe should get the nod infront of Havertz, nonetheless, no Partey at RB even if it means no Partey at all this is good news! Excellent, in fact.
@Quantic Dream,i agree but I wouldn’t go as far as saying”excellent”.😂
Welcome to the bigger side of NL mancs, the encounter at the toilet bowl must feel like an exhibition compared to ours.
We all know that past stats and form go out the window in games against M.U. It’s who plays better on the day. Just hope Arteta gets his line up and tactics right .