Arsenal 3-1 Manchester United: The Debrief

Arsenal go into the International Break happy

It always feels good to beat Manchester United, doing so with two goals after he 95th minute is even sweeter. The knife edge of emotion here got the adrenaline pumping but overall I think this was a deserved win for the Gunners.

Arsenal 3-1 Manchester United: The Graphics

Arsenal 3-1 Manchester United: The Debrief

A couple of mini-sections here in the first part.

Pinned Back, but okay with it

294 - Passes by Manchester United that started in their own half

64% - The percentage of Manchester United’s passes that were in their own half

35 - Long passes from the defensive 40% of the pitch by Manchester United

25 - Passes allowed per defensive action (PPDA) by Manchester United

22 - Passing sequences over 7 passes by Manchester United, including 15 in the first half.

45% - Possession for Manchester United

24% - Field tilt for Manchester United

This was an interesting bit of Cat and Mouse between the two teams. Neither team came out with a super-aggressive press in this match. Arsenal were the more aggressive team here, but they picked their spots to try and apply pressure. Manchester United were not often in Arsenal’s final third and even then did not give Arsenal a chance to play through them.

Before this match Manchester United were among the most aggressive with the press, they had PPDA numbers of 7.4, 8.6, and 8.9 in the matches before this and put up a 24.9 here.

Arsenal were similar with numbers of 4.3, 8.2, and 6.2 with 18.4 here.

This match saw the pace slowed way down and I think that is exactly what United wanted. They certainly picked their moments to break, but if it wasn’t open they seemed like they wanted to take the sting out of the game and force Arsenal to over-commit and Arsenal for the most part kept their nerve.

Bombarded by Corners

12 - Corner kicks by Arsenal

7 - Shots generated by those corner kicks by Arsenal

0.45 - Expected goals from those corner kicks by Arsenal

1 - Game winning goal

Arsenal and especially Gabriel Martinelli were relentless at attacking the Manchester United backline. One of the byproducts of this was that Arsenal generated 12 corner kicks in this match. That is 4 more than they had done previously in a match and it ended up paying off. It was interesting to see the interesting mix of short, near post, and far post ideas Arsenal had here, I am glad to say it paid off.

Clear Chances finally come

2 - Big chances for Arsenal (interestingly the Kai Havertz miss did not get this qualifier)

5 - Chances with an expected goals rating of 15% or higher in this match.

5 - Shots on target

3 - Goals

I was still a little frustrated with the execution for Arsenal in this match, with final passes not quite coming off but in this match Arsenal did finally start creating some really dangerous moments.

On top of what they did against Fulham the early season worry about the attack melted away a bit more.

Rice Rice Baby

73 - Pass Attempts on 87.7% completion with 101 efficiency

10 - Final 3rd Entry Passes, led all players

5 - Progressive Passes, second

4 - Long Passes completed

519 - Progressive Pass Distance

2 - Shots

0.20 - xG

1 - Game winning goal

340 - Progressive Carry Distance

5 - Progressive Carries

1 - Tackle

0 - Dribbled Past

2 - Interceptions

3 - Blocked Passes

5 - Ball Recoveries

3 - Aerial Duel Won

100% - Aerial Duel win %

This match was a true coming-out statement for Arsenal’s record signing. With Thomas Partey injured the choice of who to anchor the midfield was thrust up on him and he responded with his best game yet. One of the questions I had coming in was how would he work with Zinchenko and he answered that with a resounding just fine. Rice and Zinchenko often in the past looked like they wanted to take the same spots but here they did really well both adapting and playing off of each other.

This also helped Arsenal have what to this point looks like their most balanced-looking passing network. The touches among the front line are close to balanced and there are strong connections all around.

Overall Arsenal looked like the better team and it feels very good to not have to dwell on the (still too often) moments where there were mistakes and focus on the team starting to round itself into shape. The last two matches might have been a little frustrating at times but has seen Arsenal push back into what we saw last year from the team.

Arsenal end the first tenth of the season on high and are back in the upper left “good” portion of the team metrics.

May it continue with the return of the Champions League and a couple tough matches on the horizon.