Man United defeated, in a not so elegant way

If you read the scoreline, 3-1 against Manchester United sounds pretty impressive, even at home. If you have watched the game, you would notice we are still in the chaos mode; but positives first.

We beat ’em. We got the three points against a top 4 team and the game was as exciting as it can get. For some reason, coming from behind after Rashford scored the first feels like a much needed confidence booster after Fulham’s result. Havertz missed an easy one in the 14th minute when the ball landed on his feet somehow, and he mis-shot it. It was him again when he played a sloppy pass to Eriksen in the 27th minute, who passed it brilliantly to Rashford. Rashford never fails to score against Arsenal, does he? We reacted this time. It took only a couple of minutes for us to level the score. Eddie picked up the ball, passed it to Martinelli and the Brazillian found Odegaard on the edge of the box. Two link ups between Eddie and Martinelli, and the other one should have been a goal too. I see a chemistry building up finally at the left side, but it requires Eddie to move from his goal scoring positions. I think Havertz has been tasked to finish it but we would need better precision and output from him.

In the second half, there were few exciting moments. Ramsdale and Gabriel denied Martial a goal, we got a penalty that was overturned. We made some changes – Jesus in place of Eddie, Tomiyasu for Zinchenko and Vieira for Havertz. Saka missed one, which should have been a goal again, Garnacho scored in 88th which was ruled offside and Nelson comes in place of Martinelli before extra added minutes.

The last 10 minutes were a mix of joy and chaos for us Gooners. Rice, in the United penalty box, takes a corner ball on his chest, and does a volley. It takes a slight touch from one of the United players and lands into the net. It was a crazy scene, first goal for our future midfielder, 2-1 against United with only 2 minutes left on the clock. The celebration spoke of madness. It wasn’t the end though, a Vieira pass led to Jesus run and that slide from Dalot wasn’t enough to hold him. Game ended with 3-1. Brilliant result, some good performances from Rice, Odegaard, Martinelli. Chemistry between Martinelli and Eddie has improved, and our captain scored one again. That goal at the end will provide Jesus some confidence and Vieira was on the assist sheet again.

Concerns?

Our finishing. You can’t miss two easy goals (Havertz and Saka) against a top 4 team and expect to win. We did win, but the game could have ended with a completely different score. Most of the time, we are responsible for our losses. This could have been another one such game.

Havertz will take time. He hasn’t been convincing in his first 4 games for us, but Vieira has. Even with the performances from the bench. Concerning thing is that, Mikel is going to stick to Kai and not use Vieira who looks much more confident this season. I will Kai doesn’t take 3 seasons like he did at Chelsea, to get into his pre-Chelsea form.

We are in much better control with a proper back 4 and Saliba + Gabriel partnership. I hope Mikel doesn’t go back to Partey at RB once he is back. We got Rice to rotate with him in the middle, so that he is fully fit for the games that matters most, and there will be plenty this season. We didn’t bring Rice so that we can move Partey to RB.

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Not trying to be a spoil sports, but there is a lot of improvement needed, and unlike last season’s winning run when you could hardly find a thing we did wrong, we have been very much chaotic and nervous in our first four games. We will only improve from here.

Cheers.