📝 "A Familiar Feeling" By @ThreeFiveWho (Patreon)

Our Arsenal Correspondent Adam Pritchard reflects on Sunday's defeat for The Gunners at Old Trafford

As the sun sets on Arsenal’s 5-game win streak (RIP to the Invincibles 2.0, we hardly knew thee), the defeat at Old Trafford felt like slipping into an old jumper. One that is scratchy, smells vaguely of damp, and that you couldn’t even give away to a Charity Shop. As discussed on last week’s COTC, how many times have we seen an in-form Arsenal go to Old Trafford and face a sub-par United, yet contrive to lose the game? Well, add another 1 to that total because history repeated itself on Sunday afternoon.

However, there are still some reasons why this familiar defeat was a break from the past. Arsenal dominated large spells of the game, exposing United’s defence with quick interchanges, intelligent passing, and precise off the ball movement. Gabriel Jesus had the better of both Varane and Martinez for most of the 90 minutes, Martinelli exposed Dalot’s frailties often, and Bukayo Saka combined with Ben White to overload Malacia’s flank on multiple occasions. This was not a meek Arsenal that slumped to defeat, this was a largely positive Arsenal that failed to capitalise on its dominance. That, at least, is an improvement. Perhaps most importantly, Arsenal still sit atop the table and have a chance to stay there with a relatively favourable fixture at home to Everton next weekend.

The itchy fibres of that footballing sweater start to rub up against my neck as I look to the way in which Arsenal conceded. Silly losses of possession that played perfectly into United’s strengths. Naivety at the back, and in the defensive positioning of the midfield, that leave one of the most effortlessly creative midfielders in the league, Christian Eriksen, with time and space to launch incisive counter attacks, or recycle possession to further displace Arsenal’s defence. You can call United a ‘one trick pony’ all you like, but when you are increasingly surprised when that horse bucks its ideas up, you are the one who ends up looking like a donkey (if you follow the extended metaphor; I’ve had a bit of a mare, I’ll admit). Again to reference comments made in COTC, I discussed how Arsenal have been our own worst enemies this season. Most of the goals have largely been of our own volition. An own goal and sloppy goalkeeping against Leicester, dallying on the ball against Fulham, ‘not dominating’ your own penalty area against Aston Villa … the pattern has been there, and it repeated in Manchester.
An area that draws the ire of some Arsenal fans is what happened in the dugout. It has been a theme amongst a certain section of Arsenal fans that Arteta is terrible at substitutions. Twitter being the nuance-free zone that it is often doesn’t allow for subtle debates on this, but today I think that corner of Football twitter had a point. At 2-1, with enough time to come back into the game, he doesn’t just throw the kitchen sink at it, but he lobs on the stove, cooker, and fridge (oh wait, Maguire was brought on for the opposition). He got caught up in the emotional intensity of the occasion, the performance, the atmosphere, and ultimately it was the disjointed structure those changes caused that resulted in the third United goal (whilst Lokonga’s defensive positioning was a little bit off all game, I do think the substitutions exacerbated that weakness).
The fact this is known as a flaw makes it both more annoying, and more understandable, as fundamentally this was the gamble Arsenal took when appointing Arteta. He, like his team, is a work in progress. As with a young centre back or an inexperienced striker, there will be moments in matches and decisions they make that will make you want to pull your hair out. The problem is that those mistakes are magnified as a coach. To quote Arsene Wenger, who often spoke about the challenges of entrusting young players in the English game, “you pay for the education of young players with points. If I play young players, I know they’ll cost me points during the season”. Arsenal have made the same bet with Arteta. The positive is that as we have seen this season, more often than not things will be ok. Arsenal are still a good team, who are clearly coached well in certain aspects of the game (had the Gunners been victorious, I could have written 1000 words on the half-space interchanging between Martinelli, Jesus and Xhaka). And on balance I think Arsenal should have had at least a point in this game. However, there will be matches in the Premier League where your team dominates but doesn’t make the most of their chances. In those situations, as a manager, you have to make sure you do not allow the opponent to prey on that by making the most out of your mistakes. Unfortunately on this occasion both things fell the wrong way for Arsenal.

It is a learning experience, one which the All or Nothing documentary has taught us Arteta will not take lightly (unless he is making a bizarre comparison to the inventions of Thomas Edison). What you have to expect, like the young players he trusts to start in his side, is that Arteta will learn from these mistakes, and continue the positive progression he has shared with this Arsenal team.