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Arsenal came away from Old Trafford on Sunday with the three points they were after, but it was hardly a classic display from Mikel Arteta’s side.
The only other big opportunity Arsenal had was a late counter where Bukayo Saka beat his markers and whipped in a cross for Noni Madueke. Madueke would have had a chance almost as easy as Calafiori’s, but Bruno Fernandes’ outstretched leg narrowly denied him.
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Aside from those two moments, United had all the best chances, and Arsenal were very wasteful when attempting to execute transition opportunities.
“We know it wasn’t good enough with the ball and we made a lot of mistakes, so there’s a lot of things to improve,” David Raya said afterwards.
“[But] where things are not going our way and we make mistakes, everybody’s sprinting back and trying to help the teammate that’s made a mistake to recover the ball and to do the right thing. So we did that and I think we dug deep very, very well.”
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“Not our best performance but still [an] opening day win!” Declan Rice added on his Instagram story. “Just the start!”
New signing Noni Madueke agreed, writing on his own story: “Win but lots to improve on for sure. Thanks for the support!”
Madueke was presumably happy to hear his new chant in the Arsenal fan end, with the supporters singing “do-do-do, Noni Madueke” to the tune of Do The Conga by Black Lace.
But in terms of performance, pretty much every player in the team will feel they can and must do better to keep winning matches over the next few weeks.
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