Six Key Takeaways as Arsenal start Premier League season with win at Manchester United

Scarlet Katz Roberts analyses Arsenal's victory against Manchester United at Old Trafford to start 2025-26 Premier League season with important victory 

For a long time, the best thing about Arsenal’s performance at Old Trafford was how great the boys looked in the new third kit. And it is a great kit, a kit of champions.

But the performance, despite victory, was probably the worst away at United in recent years.

Here are six key takeaways from our victory.

1 - Nerves

Were understandable given the nature of our curtain raiser and the fact it was 4.30 on Sunday afternoon. We’d endured Liverpool’s emotional victory on Friday night and City’s clinical steamroller against Wolves on Saturday.

Going away to Old Trafford is never easy, particularly for Arsenal. Add to this that Ruben Amorim’s teams have no trouble getting up for the big games, it’s the Brighton's and the Brentford's and, well, everyone else that they struggle with.

Somehow, and, this should be a lesson to us, despite the Europa League final loss, the United faithful were more positive than ever. Mattheus Cunha and Bryan Mbuemo helped, of course. The crowd sensed they had little to lose and much to gain from an Arsenal side under pressure to deliver now. I think this context is important to keep in mind when assessing the performance, which was miles below par.

It’s typical in big away games for the home team to dominate early, but Arsenal were uncharacteristically beaten to the punch in duels in the opening exchanges.

Declan Rice proved to be some way off his best, Martin Odegaard was in the thick of it all and Viktor Gyokeres had the delightful sensation of Matthijs De Ligt mounting him from behind.

Perhaps it was nerves that affected our decision making going forward. Odegaard and Martinelli both emerged with the ball in space multiple times, charging at the United defence, but for various reasons, were unable to set a teammate loose on goal.

In fact Arsenal had 53 fast break opportunities, with only 28.3% ending up in United’s final third. The game had a chaotic feel to it, a far cry from our usual measured, field tilt them into submission approach. Had we made better decisions going forward, it might’ve been 2-0 or at least we might’ve created some pressure for United. As it was, we never asserted ourselves with the ball and looked generally vulnerable.

2 - Sesko v Gyokeres

The big striker-off between Sesko and Gyokeres was something of a non-event.

The former didn’t start the game, and Victor had precious little service.

On the ball, he looked clunky and off it, he was closely attended to by United defenders in what was his first league game without a shot since 2023, and eventually replaced by the more effective Kai Havertz.

Rival fans and some sections of our own fanbase are desperate to write him off, but I think he’ll do what he says on the tin. In today’s market £55m plus £8.5m add ons is not star money. Antony Elanga’s total package to Newcastle is worth £55m alone. I think that tells you all you need to know about who our new striker is: A steady Eddie, an excellent finisher, but not someone who is likely to carry the team alone.

I’m positive better days will come for Big Vic, who looked physically imposing and whose runs in behind were often not found.

Need I say again, we’re close, we need more goals and he’ll bring them. Maybe 15, maybe 20, but I’m not expecting him to score 63! I refuse to expect that.

We learned little from Sesko’s cameo other than that he is absolutely massive and runs like Haaland. Do Red Bull teach strikers to gallop? He looked imposing, but when he received the ball at the near post, what could’ve been a chance bounced off him.

Regardless, the Sesko signing is, and always was going to be, different. United have paid £77m for potential. That might all turn out to be worth it, clearly he has attributes that many believe will stand him in good stead to become the next built-like-a-brick-shithouse dominant striker in the league, but he isn’t yet. And if that does turn out to be the case, then the price will be irrelevant.

The forwards who looked most menacing in the game were Cunha and Mbuemo - who seemed determined to prove why Arsenal had been interested in them in the first place.

But we know their qualities well, and we also know that neither of them are the type Arteta likes in the No9 position, which leaves the wide forward slots, and the prices they fetched at their ages don’t make great reading (Mbeumo for a reported £71m package and Cunha for £62.5).

3 - Martinelli and the left wing

As previously mentioned, Martinelli struggled to find the right passes when he emerged with the ball in transition, frustratingly kicking the ball out of play at one point.

Left wing is the area of the pitch that could still benefit from a quality upgrade.

Now Eze is out of the picture, and Savinho looks like he’s staying at City, I wonder if we’re keeping our powder dry for Rodrygo?

But, although he’s not famed (unlike some of his teammates) for his lack of workrate, would he have the same defensive commitment as Martinelli does?

There was one particular action where he sprinted half of the pitch to make a tackle in the left back position and I thought, would Rodrygo do that? Probably not.

This week tenuous links have emerged with Antoine Semenyo who had an excellent game against Liverpool despite enduring racist abuse. His both footedness and Premier League readiness feel particularly pertinent after Cunha and Mbuemo’s display on Sunday.

4 - Why I’m positive

United didn’t actually create many clear cut chances apart from Mbeumo header from Dorgu’s cross late in the game, which was pushed away by Raya.

Despite their 22 shots, their xG was only 1.52. Dorgu skimming the outside of the post and Cunha’s shot from an acute angle were both closer to being goals than their best chance.

On a normal day, would Cunha be able to muscle past Rice like that? Surely not. Rice being below par, although concerning, is also a reason for optimism.

He epitomises a team that is way below their normal physical level. We can’t have simply forgotten how to play our game for godsake.

The bigger question is why were not at the level United were? And will we reach our best soon?

At times last season, our only option off the bench was Raheem Sterling. There’s a name I haven’t thought about for a bit, which is great. When I saw our bench, despite Norgaard’s absence, I felt fortified.

The subs themselves didn’t have a massive impact on the game, but our ability to bring in quality reinforcements played a massive part in being able to see things out.

Arsenal’s recruitment seems to have majored on injury proofing the squad, surely a trauma response to last season.

We also begin the season with a largely fit squad. The luxury of swapping two quality fullbacks out for a pair who were more than up to the task of starting themselves, cannot be overlooked.

5 - Martin Odegaard

Our captain was one of the better performers on a day where no one looked brilliant. But it was great to see him involved.

He covered the joint most ground with Martin Zubimendi and looked well up for the battle.

I enjoyed watching him take on Cunha. Despite some nice touches to pass his man, I don’t think it was our captain’s best day with the ball.

Although his little dinked pass to Bukayo Saka at the end could’ve created a second goal which would’ve finished United off.

In terms of Odegaard-clean-contact-with-the-ball-watch, I can confirm his strike towards the near post after beating his man, which Bayendir saved, was a good contact - which surely means our captain is fit and well.

6 - Let’s not forget, we won!

We don’t have to go away to Old Trafford again this season.

This victory felt similar to those at White Hart Lane and Villa Park at the beginning of last.

They are opportunities to build a platform.

But we will need to be much better to make it a meaningful contribution to a title charge.