If Arsenal did not already know, this is what life is like with a target on your back.
Mikel Arteta’s side enjoyed their casting as underdogs last season, but a summer of heavy spending and their new billing as Manchester City’s biggest rivals in the title race has changed all that — and here in New York, Manchester United let them know it.
Arsenal now represent a scalp — a team to take down— and that will have been in United’s thinking having finished third last season, nine points behind their rivals from north London.
There was a total of 37 fouls at the MetLife Stadium, ranging from niggly to naughty, meaning Mikel Arteta’s side were not going to be able to impress their style on the game without meeting fierce resistance.
After two quick-fire goals in the first half, Arsenal became gradually more unsettled in possession and passive without the ball. In contrast, United captain Bruno Fernandes and his team-mates became even more aggressive as they tried to harass Arsenal’s build-up play and force them longer.
Friendlies tend to be officiated in a much more lenient spirit and therefore the threshold for a yellow card is a pretty ugly or cynical challenge. By the half-hour mark the game had become fragmented and the referee’s decision not to book any United players for cynical challenges was starting to grate on Arsenal.
United snapped into challenges, tripped a player if it stopped them breaking free and did not mind using the referee’s laissez-faire attitude to leave one on their opponent, Lisandro Martinez’s scything challenge on Bukayo Saka a prime example. In a bigger game, more tightly policed by the officials, it would have been reckless: here, it felt a challenge loaded with symbolism.
Arsenal captain Martin Odegaard was not happy and he made his feelings known, sparking some pushing and shoving, but it did feel like Arsenal woke up to the roughing up at that point.
(Photo: Rich Schultz/Getty Images)
Eddie Nketiah gave a bit back to Fernandes when the latter was winding him up at a free kick. Substitute Gabriel Jesus made a point of walking towards Martinez at half-time to tell him that he did not approve of his challenge and, by the end of the game, Kieran Tierney had left a leg out to catch Brandon Williams, while Jesus also committed the most cynical of trips on Omari Forson.
Arteta and his staff became more animated as the game wore on and Harry Maguire’s foul on Odegaard in the second half, which did earn a booking, produced some strong protests from the bench.
He said on Friday that he believes last season’s title woes may have been “necessary” in the squad’s development but maybe this defeat was also a worthwhile warning for Arsenal ahead of the return of the Premier League.
“They are here to compete and to win as we are. It’s the job of the referee to stop it,” said Arteta. “You asked me yesterday about how difficult or easy the season will be. It’s going to be more difficult, more challenging. The level and the preparation of every team is excellent. We knew today.
“They played two games before this one. We knew that the test was going to be really demanding, just as it will be on Wednesday against (Barcelona) one of the best teams in the world.”
Once the competitive action returns, Arsenal can’t afford sloppy moments like Aaron Ramsdale for the first goal or Gabriel when he wildly miskicked the ball at the halfway line to allow Jadon Sancho the second.
There were some clear teething issues for Arsenal. Declan Rice could not influence possession and did not bring the energy that has made him such a powerhouse in recent years, while Kai Havertz gave up the ball a little too easily and a difficult header at the back post in the second half was his only sniff at goal, although whether that warranted a commentator on United’s in-house television coverage describing him as “rubbish” is another matter.
(Photo: Al Bello/Getty Images)
But this was their first start and pre-season is designed for familiarising new players and sharpening their game before the real stuff starts.
After United’s opening goal, the Arsenal squad broke into several small groups to iron out some problems they were having — presumably about how to prevent the ball over the top.
Gabriel and Rice had an animated discussion, but the new-look midfield of Rice, Havertz and Odegaard will need time to gel.
“When they play 55 times together, it will be better, it will flow better, they will understand each other better and we will be more dominant,” said Arteta. “Things take time to glide and we have to respect that. But I saw a lot of positive things — things I really like much more than the game that we won — although the result is very different.”
(Photo: Rich Schultz/Getty Images)
In front of an energetic 82,262 fans at the MetLife Stadium, the branding ‘Old Rivals, New York’ certainly delivered. There was even fighting in the stand.
Ultimately, Arsenal found out — if they didn’t know already — that if they are to continue their upward trajectory, they must do so without the veil of surprise.
There is expectation now and with that comes opposition teams who are going to try to get under their skin.
(Top photo: Rich Schultz/Getty Images)
