While not the result may wanted, United managed to put up a stellar performance on opening day against the Gunners, one which gave us more positives than negatives and a performance to build upon for the future.
However, it was a defeat all the same and it was thanks to areas of the team we knew were liabilities to begin with.
1. Same Old Mistakes
Midfield and goalkeeper. I feel like that is all I need to say.
This isn't something new as we've known that these areas of the team have needed improving upon more than most. It's not as though either area was absolutely dire but the midfield and goalkeeper was the reason for the defeat.
United didn't get played through too often which was a positive but one could see that captain Bruno was just out of sorts as the no 8. The worrying thing is that he's been like this most of the time whenever he's played deeper rather than further forward yet the manager is persisting with it.
Amorim has A LOT riding on Bruno in his midfield as he turned down £100m and is playing the skipper out of his best position. He was the weaker between himself and Casemiro. Arsenal found joy playing around Bruno more than his Brazilian partner and in the end, it was the Portuguese who made the initial error leading to the corner. His hospital pass to Yoro put him under unnecessary pressure before the Gunners won the ball back.
A player who is more adept at this more defensive role compared to Bruno may have had more awareness and booted the ball out instead of trying something more elaborate.
Then there's Bayindir.
Before the game, I thought it a positive to see him in goal instead of Onana. I think a lot of us felt that way. However, however 😐.
Similarly to Onana, Bayindir flapped at a ball when the use of the fists would've been more appropriate. To not be strong enough to hold off Saliba pushing into him was another issue in the concession of this goal.
In such situations, you would expect your goalkeeper to come and clean house. Take out his own players as well as the opposition in order to claim the ball.
A pity he made this error as other than that, the Turk had an otherwise decent game with his distribution proving to be one of his more improved attributes from last season.
Yet his mistake was the reason as to why we lost. This isn't the first time we've seen this from him either as he made a similar mistake in the Carabao Cup loss to Spurs last year as well as not getting a strong punch on the ball in the FA Cup win over Arsenal in January as it fell to Gabriel who ended up scoring.
Both he and Onana are why we need a new no 1 and no 2. It's all on the club now.
2. Lack of Creativity
While the performance and stats would tell you that United were far better than Arsenal, what we saw when watching the game is that there were very few clear-cut opportunities created, if any. You would've missed this had you just looked at those stats.
Cunha forcing a good low save from Raya was more a chance created by himself and while it was a great effort, you don't expect him to be scoring from such a tight angle. His run from his own half resulted in a meek shot as well. Dorgu hitting the post and Mbeumo forcing the good but not too difficult save from the Arsenal shot-stopper weren't anything clear-cut too.
Even when all of our most creative players were on the field (Amad, Cunha, Bruno, Mbeumo and Maguire 😉), United didn't really display any signs of creativity. Sesko was a bystander when on the pitch and succumbed to what all of his predecessors have succumbed to: the graveyard shift.
It also made little sense from United when we hardly put crosses into the box. With both Sesko and Maguire up front, you would think that we would look to get the cross in whenever possible. That wasn't the case and we probably ended up thinking what might have been.
On a side note, the fact that we're still throwing Maguire up front to try and salvage something even with all these new signings is a bit of a worry.
3. Switching the Play
This is something that we did a lot in this match but never really saw that much of last season. It is clearly something that has been worked upon and that is probably due to the personnel.
The home side continuously looked for the big switch of play to the likes of Dorgu and Mbeumo, two players who kept the width and were regular outlets whenever we attacked. These two players also have a better understanding of those roles (LWB, right-sided no 10) compared to others. As they are both players who also prefer to stay out wide, this meant that this switch was on all the time.
This could be a sign of the system working a lot better as it is reliant on wide players.
Dorgu and Mbeumo were also the players we looked for whenever going long and/or in behind. They made some really good runs which saw us get behind what is usually a solid Arsenal defense.
Encouraging signs for Amorim.
4. Cunha and Mbeumo
👏👏👏🔥🔥🔥.
These two guys man 👌. Too damn good.
Difference-makers in every sense of the word, we look a lot more threatening with them in the side compared to previous forwards. They also bring something different to those of the past as well.
Mbeumo can move out wide and stretch the play or can go down the middle and make the ball stick; Cunha can run with the ball and glide past players as if they weren't there and has such good control in tight spaces, it's ridiculous.
They may not have been as good as they were at their previous clubs but we saw a glimpse of what they can do for our team.
Cunha was the better of the two. This isn't to say that Mbeumo was bad but you can see that he isn't as up to speed compared to someone like Cunha. He may need another game to be much better but that is a positive as if Mbeumo was this good at 75%, imagine what he can be like at 100% 👀.
As for the Brazilian maverick, out of all the signings, he is the one I'm most excited to see. He is the type of player you have posters of on your wall. He is why you watch football in the first place.
United's new no 10 got me on the edge of my seat pretty much every time he got the ball. What makes him a special player is that ability to drive with it and go past opposition players with ease. Strong of build, Cunha is a difficult player to shrug off and when the ball sticks to his feet like it does, getting possession off of him is nigh on impossible.
Those runs where he created a chance for himself or an opportunity of sorts, and the shot he had from a tight angle, are only things he can do. We haven't had this maverick-type of footballer at United for some time yet we always used to have one. I'm glad we do again.
I like the fact that we played to their strengths: Mbeumo with the ball out wide or running in behind and Cunha with the ball at his feet and allowing him to run. Just a pity we couldn't make the most of these opportunities.
Cunha and Mbeumo also seemed to be developing a bit of a relationship as there were instances of good link-up play between them. I also saw them interchange which is another positive when you have players who are versatile.
These two could be the difference between getting European football and not.
5. Encouraging Signs
That was one of the best performances we've seen from United in a while. Not only were we the better side against a top team but also saw a performance that displayed signs of what we want to see under Ruben Amorim.
It looked like a team who understood what they needed to do and executed what the manager wanted pretty well, other than Bayindir's mistake.
Defensively, we were rock solid personified by the brilliance that was De Ligt who was my man of the match; there were reservations about Casemiro and Bruno in midfield but they more than held their own against the powerful three of Odegaard, Rice and Zubimendi; and we definitely showed promising signs in attack with Mbeumo and Cunha being particularly threatening.
There was also less selfishness in the final third, something that we've complained about as being a major downfall of ours when attacking. Cunha, Mbeumo and Mount all looked to play the pass instead of go it alone.
How we kept the width and used Dorgu and Mbeumo was something that we never saw much of last season as most of the play was narrow. Staying on the touchline meant that we had more space out wide and strethced Arsenal's defense.
The pressing from the front was good, how well and quickly we won the ball back was on point, and not giving away too many chances was key considering our poor goalkeeper.
Other than the mistake for the goal and not creating too many chances up front, you could argue that this was the perfect performance from United. Amorim mentioned how he was "proud" at what he saw from his team and is how a lot of the fans feel after seeing a completely different United to what we saw last season.
Yes it wasn't perfect but no one thought we would perform as well as we did against a much stronger Arsenal outfit.
These numbers indicate just how dominant we were. A stark contrast to last season.
I believe that if we perform at this level consistently, United will win more games than not. I believe we possess more quality than most of the league. That 5th spot which hopefully will be good enough for Champions League qualification, is certainly up for grabs.
Bryan Mbeumo marked his Man Utd debut with a strong performance | Image via Manchester United official X (@ManUtd)