Arsenal fought a foe from their past in north London on Sunday as afternoon turned into evening and light slipped away into darkness and certainty ebbed away into doubt.
Manchester United might have been the team at the opposite end of the pitch but the battle Arsenal lost at the Emirates was the battle with themselves.
Their 3-2 defeat by Michael Carrick’s reviving giants on an afternoon of tumult that did this famous old rivalry justice has let loose an avalanche of schadenfreude that threatens to bury Mikel Arteta and his side. Oh, the ecstasy of sanctimony and the joy of watching the favourite stumble and stare after a punch he did not see coming.
Many appear to have already convinced themselves that their run of three league games without a win is all the proof they need: Arsenal are going to bottle it again. They have not won the title for 22 years, their detractors say, and the pressure of the quest is just too great for them to withstand. They are being portrayed as robots that are short-circuiting.
I’m sorry but I don’t buy it. I don’t buy any of it. I don’t even buy the lazy triumphalism of the idea that Arsenal ‘bottled’ the title in 2022-23. They didn’t bottle it. They over-achieved that year. Manchester City were just a better team, that’s all. Arsenal were beaten by one of the best English sides of modern times. There should be no shame in that.
City are not that team any more. That’s another reason why Arsenal will win the title. This City is still a new team, not a team capable of putting together a relentless run of victories. Yes, Arsenal are having a blip but City will have more of them. So will Aston Villa. It is not a vintage season.
Arsenal suffered another disappointing result on Sunday, losing 3-2 at home to a resurgent Manchester United
Arsenal’s critics insist they are going to ‘bottle’ the Premier League title again, that their players are robots that are short-circuiting… I’m sorry but I just don’t buy it
This season, Arsenal are the class of the field. They have established that with their performances. The 3-2 defeat by United doesn’t change that. It scratches the surface of it but it doesn’t get to the nub of it. Arsenal have the best starting XI in the Premier League and they have the best squad.
Look at their bench from Sunday: Kepa Arrizabalaga, Cristhian Mosquera, Ben White, Eberechi Eze, Gabriel Martinelli, Viktor Gyokeres, Noni Madueke, Mikel Merino and Myles Lewis-Skelly.
Field those nine players every weekend – augmented with two others – and that team gets into the Premier League top six. There is no doubt about the quality Arsenal have. There is no doubt about their depth.
So, when it comes down to it, this is the question: have Arsenal got the character for it? Have they got the stomach for the fight? It is a doubt that has hovered around the club ever since Patrick Vieira and Martin Keown stopped playing for them: are these Arsenal players made of the right stuff?
We are still stuck in that holding pattern where Arsenal are regarded as mentally weak. There is still a perception that they will crumble. It hasn’t changed since 2017 when Watford striker Troy Deeney identified their Achilles heel.
‘I have to watch what I say,’ Deeney said on television after Watford had beaten Arsene Wenger’s team, ‘but it’s having a bit of cojones, is what I’ll say. Whenever I play against Arsenal, I’ll go up and think, “Let me whack the first one and see who wants it”.’
I don’t think that is a fair criticism of Arsenal any more. Not this Arsenal. We’re about to find out but more than all their quality and all their depth, I think the character of this team is actually the main reason why Arsenal will win the Premier League for the first time in 22 years this season. Because these players are made of the right stuff.
Bukayo Saka? Are you really going to try to tell me a man like him is not up for the fight? Are you going to suggest he is going to wilt? He isn’t. After everything he’s been through, especially with England, after everything he’s conquered, Saka will be relishing this.
Are people really suggesting that a player like Bukayo Saka (left) isn’t up for the fight? After everything he’s been through, especially with England, Saka will be relishing this
Arsenal’s supporters, pictured here before the game against United, are firmly behind Mikel Arteta – and with good reason
Gabriel (left) is so scrappy and argumentative that it’s sometimes hard to like him but he hasn’t got a single ounce of crumble in him
Declan Rice? Does he look like he’s afraid? Since he joined Arsenal, he has matured into one of the best midfielders in the world. He’s the club’s driving force. He’s a relentless, marauding machine and the engine of his side. He is not for wilting, either.
Gabriel? He’s so scrappy, so chippy, so argumentative, so moany, so combative, so fractious that it’s sometimes hard to like him but he hasn’t got a single ounce of crumble in him. I look at Gabriel the same way as I look at Enzo Fernandez or Cristian Romero – you can love them or you can hate them but you want them in your team. They are men who do not take a backward step.
Martin Odegaard? The brains of the team, a player who demands the ball, who chases remorselessly, who never stops trying. Madueke? A winger who never lets fear dilute his ambition. Kai Havertz? A player who has lived his whole career in the English game fighting criticism, a player soon to return.
It would be easy to go on and on. If I sound like an Arsenal supporter, I’m not. But I am a fan of this Arsenal team. Sure, they are in the midst of a wobble. Even the best teams have them. But the idea that they are going to melt into a pool of their own misgivings is a fanciful balm for those who can’t bear the idea of them ending their drought.
Let that balm soothe while it can. Because this season, everything still points to it being the season Arsenal will see it through.
HOW KEANE IS MISSING THE MARK ON CARRICK
The irascibility of Roy Keane is one of his greatest selling points as an analyst of the game but it is hard not to feel that he holds some personal animus against Michael Carrick that may be clouding his judgment.
I love watching Keane on televison – he was also one of the greatest players I ever saw – but his dig about Carrick’s wife having a ‘big mouth’ before the Manchester derby last week was unnecessarily unpleasant. It felt as if it crossed a line.
On Sunday, after United had shown more improvement and more fight in coming from behind to beat Arsenal, Keane was scornful about the idea that Carrick might yet be in the running to land the United job on a permanent basis.
‘If United win every game until the end of the season,’ Keane told Sky Sports, ‘I still wouldn’t be giving him the job. I still would not be convinced he’s the man for the job. Absolutely not.’
The irascibility of Roy Keane is one of his greatest selling points as an analyst but it is hard not to feel that his judgment of Michael Carrick is clouded by personal animus
Keane’s insistence that Carrick shouldn’t be given the permanent job at Old Trafford even if he wins all of his games in charge doesn’t ring true
Carrick has calmly and quietly inspired an immediate turnaround in United’s fortunes, and seems to have won the immediate respect of his players in the process
The thing is, if United win every game until the end of the season, the way the league is shaping up this year, they might just win the title. That’s not going to happen but it is indisputable that Carrick has effected a drastic change in United’s performances since he took over from Ruben Amorim. It is clear that the whole mood around Old Trafford and the club’s training base at Carrington has shifted.
Nor has Carrick achieved this with the kind of bombast that Keane despises. He has done it calmly and quietly, diligently and methodically, and seems to have won the immediate respect of his players in the process.
Keane said United needed ‘a bigger and better manager’ than Carrick. What? Like Jose Mourinho? Or Louis van Gaal? That’s been tried already. Reputation is not a panacea.
Where Keane is right is that it is way too early to gauge whether Carrick deserves the job on a full-time basis but it would also be wrong to discount him.
I have long believed that United ought to draw more on the great players of their past and give them significant roles within the club. That applies to Keane, by the way, but there is no reason why it should not also apply to Carrick.
He is also one of the greats of the club. The least he deserves, particularly after the start he has made, is an open mind about whether he has the attributes to lead United back to glory.
