Isn’t it always a good morning after Arsenal beat Manchester United?
I won’t pretend to watch the game live. Sleep is precious when you have a 9-month-old baby. But I caught up as much as I could this morning. I think that preseason wins, more than anything, set the tone and give you a good feeling. You can ignore the loss, but you can’t ignore the excitement of beating an old rival with such a promising performance.
The United team looked like a first-team squad to me, but both teams only had two, three, maybe four players who could start a Premier League game in the near future.
There is always a lot of preseason over-indexing going on, and it’s understandable. We all want to know as much as we can about the team and how the new season will go. The success rate of predictions made based on the results of these games will always vary greatly! But that doesn’t mean we should ignore everything.
I think if you look at the individuals, you can see who needs a good pre-season. If Martin Odegaard or Bukayo Saka struggle, no one will worry about them. If the young players and those who struggled with fitness or confidence last season shine, they might open up doors for themselves.
Featuring Lee Sun Nyaneri and Gabriel Jesus.
The pair combined for an equaliser after Rasmus Hojlund, but United are ahead by a goal and it looks as though both players have been the standouts throughout the first half, if not all night. Emile Smith Rowe’s imminent sending off could open up opportunities for Nwaneri in midfield, and it feels significant that he has lined up along the centre of the pitch for the United States so far, with Fabio Vieira playing out wide.
Given his size, effort, instincts and technical ability, he looks like a player who is at the center of the action. He receives the ball on the turn and is always looking ahead.
He made a nice run down the right early on, played the ball inside and then went outside on the right to collect the ball again (albeit from an offside position) before forcing Andre Onana to make a save.
The assist for Jesus’ equaliser showed the Brazilian’s obvious quality. Generally, Nwaneri’s touch, his clarity of thought in his decisions, his determination to get the ball at every opportunity and his overall outstanding qualities are all really exciting and Mikel Arteta has said that as long as he performs well in training, he will continue to have opportunities.
It’s always in the hands of the players, show what you can do. Show that ambition, that determination, that quality, and everything will happen naturally. Tomorrow he will train with us again, and if he continues to play like that, he will play a few minutes on Wednesday.
I don’t know how much we’ll see of Nwaneri this season. He’s still 17 and won’t turn 18 until March next year. But I think he’ll get his chance to play and be a regular on the bench. That’s about the same age as Cesc Fabregas when he came into the Arsenal team, and it’s amazing to see someone that young playing football regularly. Even Saka had to wait another year to make an impact in the first team.
Now, Gabriel Jesus’ goal is this:
Gabriel Jesus put in an Arsenal-level performance against United‼️ pic.twitter.com/Mr7VEuqbzl
— ESPN FC (@ESPNFC) July 28, 2024
The Brazilian has looked really sharp again and I think he could play a big part this season as long as he is at the club. We obviously haven’t signed a striker and it’s easy to get caught up in the idea that Jesus is back to full health. His first half of the season at the club before the 2022 World Cup was electric. Last season there were flashes of Jesus, mainly in the Champions League, and I’m not ready to give up on that version of the player being rediscovered just yet.
He is a fantastic player with perfect form and confidence, and an incredibly versatile forward. Last night the erratic runs were back again, with Lenny Yoro pushing the ball after one, Harry Maguire overturned another and Leandro Trossard almost scoring another. And that was the type of goal he needed to look for. Jesus missed 16 important chances in the Premier League in 2022/23 (sixth most in the league) but only seven in 2023/24 (31st). Missing important chances means creating important ones, and that ranking is led by Erling Haaland, Mohamed Salah and Ollie Watkins. And Darwin Nunez. Alexander Isak, Ivan Toney and Nicolas Jackson are also there. And all of the above players have reached double figures in the campaign leading the league. Jesus didn’t even get a big chance to miss out last season and that’s a much more realistic concern. Arteta (or whatever he says) also sounds encouraged.
He looks really good, really sharp. He changed a lot over the summer and he’s back to his best condition. If you have that baseline, you can build on other things, but if you don’t have that foundation, we don’t have a player, and he has to be in that condition to get the best out of him. He realized that, and I’m really happy with what he showed today. You can see the way he looks, the way he moves, and the spark in his eyes.
Gabriel Martinelli is another player who didn’t perform as well as he did last season. He looked like he wanted to come in and make a run, running down the left and almost catching substitute Kai Havertz with a header in front of goal. Martinelli’s next chance to get back was cut short by an offside flag.
When he got another chance, he decided it. I really like when a wide player faces a defender, one-on-one, quickly exchanges touches and pushes the ball forward. The defender guesses which touch will be the decisive touch, whether it is the touch that flicks the ball outside or inside and sees the winger run in the direction of his choice. Martinelli got inside and made that run with perfect timing. Then he finished it off with a really smart and crafty finish at Onana’s near post.
Martinelli gives Arsenal a late lead over United 🍿 pic.twitter.com/4LJTTG2XJq
— ESPN FC (@ESPNFC) July 28, 2024
Again, here’s what Arteta had to say about him:
That’s the mentality of the team and the individual. One training session and he comes in and plays at that level. So he’s not here to prepare, he’s here to show where he is, and that’s a very different approach and I liked that.
Another interesting soundbite from the manager was his explanation for using Ben White at right-back and Urien Timber at centre-back, saying it was a matter of “making one change rather than two” and not wanting to mess with the “chemistry” on the right. Now that we have more defensive depth, it’s worth remembering that and thinking in partnerships rather than individuals. Overall, there’s likely to be more rotation than ever before, but given White’s association with Odegaard and Saka down the flanks, right-back might not be the best option for Timber’s attempts to get regular football.
For completeness, let’s also share United’s goals. Ayden Heaven has made his mark at centre-back this summer. At 17, he is incredibly young to be playing against Premier League strikers in that position. Mistakes can be costly, but he impressed against Dominic Solanke and lost the bigger and faster Rasmus Hojlund as the Dane gave United the lead.
Rasmus Hoilund scores Man Utd’s first goal 😤 pic.twitter.com/p5CaTMqMXr
— ESPN FC (@ESPNFC) July 28, 2024
Arteta once again heaped praise on the defender and his reactions.
It’s really impressive. I don’t know how many players can do that on a stage like this at 17. He lost a duel with one of the strongest and fastest players in the world. It can happen, but the reaction afterward, the composure, the quality, the body language he showed, it was all amazing. I’m really happy for him.
Given the depth of the current defensive line, it’s unclear whether we will see much of the defender this season, but Arteta’s decision to continue to use the 17-year-old in defence for this game cannot be overlooked, and he is likely to be looked at as a player with the ability to make runs down the flanks.
That’s a topic for another day, maybe a few years from now.
That’s my story for today. I’m glad to wake up to an Arsenal win and hope this helps set the tone for everyone’s Sunday. Andrew A and Tim will be helping you over the next few days and I look forward to reading other people’s thoughts on this page. See you later this week!
