Arsenal kicked off their Premier League title chase with a hard-fought 1-0 victory over Manchester United at Old Trafford on Sunday.
They exposed the hosts’ £200 million ($271 million) assembled new forward line is yet to reach its top game.
A calamitous error from United’s stand-in goalkeeper Altay Bayindir gifted Arsenal left-back Riccardo Calafiori the game’s only goal, leaving the Red Devils’ new-look forward line frustrated.
Despite promising debuts from Matheus Cunha and Bryan Mbeumo, United’s expensively assembled attack failed to breach Arsenal’s resolute defence, while substitute Benjamin Sesko could not make Arsenal pay for not pursuing their interest in the Slovenian.
After finishing second for the past three seasons, the pressure is on Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta to deliver the club’s first league title.
Only four other teams scored fewer than United’s 44 goals in 38 Premier League games last season as the English giants endured their worst campaign for 51 years, finishing 15th in the table.
The new arrivals have at least lifted the mood around Old Trafford and the majority of the 75,000 fans in attendance could at least leave encouraged by the performance of Ruben Amorim’s men.
Cunha and Mbeumo unsettled Arsenal’s normally unflappable centre-back pairing of Gabriel Magalhaes and William Saliba early on.
However, Man United’s good work was undone by a glaring error from Bayindir, who was deputising for the injured Andre Onana.
Speaking after the match, the Red Devil boss, Ruben Amorim, said he is proud of his boys’ performance.
“I’m really proud of the guys. They were really brave in everything they did during the game. Congratulations for the performance. We deserved a different result and we need to move forward to the next one.
“We were more aggressive than last year. We went one against one all the game and we pressed high. We had quality with the ball. Even when the stadium made some sounds, we continued to play the way we play.
“You always feel in the game they can do something not just with the ball but without the ball. I am proud of the game we played. We lost and have things to work on.
“We need to win games but that was completely different to last season,” Amorim told Sky Sports.
On Arsenal goal, he said, “Sometimes it happened last year. It’s not playing the ball. I understand we want goals but when you are touching the goalkeeper. Sometimes you are pushing and you don’t have more hands to go for the ball. We need to be stronger. We are not changing the rules, we have to adapt to the rules. Today I think we are the better team.
“We have players to win any game of the Premier League. We need to focus and forget about the noise. It doesn’t matter who is playing, we want to win games.”
