After Sunday’s 3–1 loss to Manchester United, Arsenal can console itself with the thought that the performance was largely good and that it remains top of the Premier League, but for Mikel Arteta’s side, this was a first defeat of the season and—perhaps more worryingly—a sixth defeat in its last seven away games against other members of the Big Six.
A fourth straight win for Manchester United, meanwhile, has lifted it to fifth, just three points behind Arsenal and, more significantly, indicated there is a spirit and resolve about the side that seemed wholly lacking just four weeks ago.
Suddenly everything is going right for Erik ten Hag. That 4-0 defeat at Brentford in the second game of the season may come to be seen as the moment United hit the bottom before the ascent. ten Hag’s selection at home to Liverpool, leaving out Harry Maguire and Cristiano Ronaldo, was bold, but it worked perfectly. Although United won that game only 2–1, it was far more dominant than that, and the nature of the performance was such a gamble that it could have made ten Hag a laughing stock—imagine the furor had United lost having dropped its captain and its highest-paid player. Successive 1-0 wins over Southampton and Leicester furthered steadied the ship. Maguire and Ronaldo were both on the bench again.
