Arsenal finally earned a win after a long time of asking and it was against a very good Manchester United side.
The Gunners stifled their opponents and deservedly took the points, if you didn’t pay much attention, here are five things we learnt.
Mikel Arteta is a “Genius”
Mikel Arteta masterminded Arsenal’s first win last night. I believe it took some stroke of genius to do that.
Manchester United had beaten Manchester City, Chelsea (twice), and Tottenham. Arteta found a way to stop them from creating anything for their attackers. Arteta did what Mourinho, Guardiola and Klopp could not do.
Mesut Ozil can run a marathon
Mesut Ozil is reputed to be one of the laziest players in the world. No one doubts his abilities on the ball, but he has never been a willing runner.
However, against Manchester United he covered 11.53 km, that was the highest he has covered for a long time.
Defending is not as hard as we thought
Arsenal has made defending such a tough job since the start of this season. Against Chelsea, they did a good job but poor defending cost them the points yet again.
However, against Manchester United, they defended better than they have done in the last 18 months and showed us that with the right manager and tactics, defending isn’t that tough.
Arsenal can become “mentality monsters” too
Liverpool manager famously called his players “mentality monsters”. After watching Arsenal’s last three games, I believe that under Arteta Arsenal can also become mentality monsters.
The mentality of the Gunners has improved gradually under Mikel Arteta and the more that continues the better Arsenal will get.
Nicolas Pepe can thrive under Mikel Arteta
Nicolas Pepe has been mostly underwhelming this season. He has shown some flashes of brilliance but most of the time he has been poor.
Against Manchester United, he showed what he can do and I believe that Arteta has the man-management skills to get the best out of him.