Well, it’s here finally, and what a weekend it’s been so far. The anticipation is over, the long wait for real football to return and the chance for us to show (we think) we know more than the managers, coaches and pundits.
With Liverpool, City and the Spuds all already having picked up 3 easy points it was our time away in Manchester to face their new multi trillion-pound strike force. My two boys had already driven up for the weekend and following a dismal morning of walking football it was time for the early afternoon game as a warmup for the real thing. After 3 completely different opinions on whether Eze’s strike should of counted, and watching Chelsea fail to ever really like look breaking down a good Eagles team it was time for a couple of beers to settle the nerves before the proper game of week 1.
It was a tough watch, with a resilient Arsenal team still obviously getting used to each other and the start of the new season. When the line-ups were announced I felt we would have the edge, just, but knew we likely were in for a gut-wrenching afternoon and that’s exactly what it was.
Utd came out of the blocks much quicker than us. Mbaldie looked sharp and looked like he was going to cause problems and Cunha (when not trying to impersonate Tom Daley) looked like he could cut through but for some good work in our middle from Zuba. Then suddenly we scored, a corner, a new routine but a cracking corner from Rice, curling in towards goal, Big Willie stood his ground and their keeper flapped at it like one of them inflatables you see at cheap garages, and there was Ricky to head it home. Then comes the excruciating wait to see if VAR decides to rob us again – but not this time J.
As the game went on, we tried to give them chances, from being caught terribly a couple of times in possession in awful areas to looking slow in transition and a little disjointed everywhere but I truly never thought United looked capable of scoring unless we let them.
We were creaky, somewhat subdued throughout and even poor in a lot of the game. There were some exceptions, Benny Blanco, Cala and Zuba looked sharp, Timber strong when he came on. Raya levelled up after a couple of mistakes and made up for it with a couple of cracking saves to give us a clean sheet. But a quiet performance from most of the big boys, particularly the likes of Rice, Saka, Martinelli and Odegaard made this special win even better. 1-0 to the Arsenal away at Old Trafford and the absolute promise of better performances to come. Another positive to take forwards was the quality of our bench today, genuine class on it to give us that added depth as the season progresses and the games begin to come thick and fast.
"A magical Arsenal set piece" 🪄
— Sky Sports Premier League (@SkySportsPL) August 17, 2025
Riccardo Calafiori opens the scoring for the Gunners! pic.twitter.com/a1m2uj2cfE
I felt sorry for Gyokeres, he ran his socks off without ever getting the ball in a position to hurt the defence and the one chance he had to attack their defence his dribbling skills let him down on the occasion. We are going to need to work this one out going forwards, as regardless of ‘no cojones’ man’s obvious haters rant, Vic can be a 20 a season player for us if we give him service a provide support in the right areas.
So, three hard earned points away to much improved Man Utd. Now a different challenge at home to Leeds, who I hope want to come up from the Championship and play open, expansive football against us (but I doubt it).
COYG – well done boys.
