On the Whistle: Arsenal 3-1 Man Utd - "WE HAVE LIFT-OFF!"

Wow, we have liftoff. The season is here, it's begun. It needed a result like that, a moment really like that, to feel like it had properly got going. It was bedlam, bedlam, when Declan Rice turned and that ball bundled in at the near post. And it went even more crazy when Gabriel Jesus ran through and killed the game completely in the last seconds of stoppage time. A big win for Arsenal. You know, Nicola Teta, I think... Someone's shouting, let's do this in the back. Hello mate, I'll see you on the live now. Nicola Teta is very aware as a manager that some wins mean more than others. I think he will know that today was massive for his team. Huge, huge moment. There were so many of these last season and every one of those late winners incrementally builds and builds the team's confidence and composure in those moments. And the man who had the composure today was the defence midfielder, Declan Rice. I thought he was very good all game, I have to say. And to have the awareness, you know, to turn and get that shot away in the dying moments with the pressure on. Moments like this, games like this are what he came to Arsenal for. He'll be feeling very, very happy about his decision tonight. He would have had his family there, all his inner circle up in his box at the clock end and they will have absolutely loved that. He announced himself as an Arsenal player with that moment. What can I say about the game generally? Arsenal were the better team, there was no doubt about that, but it was this curious thing where although Arsenal were comfortably the better team, United were always a threat on the break. They came to do that. They came to frustrate Arsenal. They came to sit deep and hit us on the counter. They did it brilliantly to take the lead. Marcus Rashford, thanks man. Marcus Rashford scoring the goal, he's such a threat in those situations. But yeah, they took the lead against the run of play, hugely against the run of play. Kai Havertz missed what looked like a fairly decent chance for us early on. I'm trying to think what else. Fortunately, once they went ahead, we got the equaliser pretty swiftly afterwards. 38 seconds, was it something like that? Martin Odegaard, who I thought hadn't really had a kick until that point and that was one of the problems with the performance, stepped up, found the cutback for Martinelli. There aren't many better, I would say, than Martin Odegaard now arriving at the edge of the box to finish those chances. He has become so clinical. He's a top player, an absolutely top player. When I think of Martin Odegaard and William Saliba, I genuinely think Arsenal have players there who have the potential to be the best in the world in their position. Maybe Bukayo Saka's in that category as well, but definitely with those two, I think they are of that calibre. So we get back to one-all, get into the second half, looks like we've had a penalty. Kai Havertz, in a similar area to where Fabio Vieira was brought down. Obviously, things aren't going for Havertz at the moment, so the penalty is overturned. I've not seen it back, obviously, because I've just come out the ground. The way it's going for him, he probably would have stepped up to take it and missed. But those are big moments in games. They gave United a bit more confidence. They swing games, I think, those VAR decisions. So we had a little sticky period then and I was sort of, I forget the exact chronology, but sort of thinking Nicoleta might need to make more changes. Ultimately, changes did play their part. The likes of Vieira, Jesus, he was excellent when he came on. I thought Eddie was good. I thought his hold-up play was good. He won a lot of duels, but I thought Jesus was excellent in his cameo. A nightmare for a tired defender, or just a not-tired Harry Maguire or Johnny Evans to come up against. So lithe, so muscular, the way he wriggles out of situations, I thought he made a lot of difference for Arsenal, will make a lot of difference for Arsenal, if, please God, he can stay fit. Yeah, look, in the end, we get the winner from Rice. I think it was from a set-piece. We had a ton of corners on the day and did next to nothing with them. Rice was the player who threatened. He went close for the first-half header with one and obviously gets the second goal. In between that, we thought United had won it. Garnaccio comes on. He terrifies me, Garnaccio. Every time he comes on, I think he's going to do something. If I was United, I would have given up on Anthony long ago and I'd be playing Garnaccio. I think he's excellent. He races through, tucks past Ramsdell. Great news, VAR intervenes again, he's offside. That was a big moment. I said these decisions are swing moments in games and that one went in our favour. Overall, throughout the second half, I kept thinking we should win this but we could lose it. We had to be careful to not over-commit, not go for it too much and leave ourselves vulnerable. The likes of Rashford, Garnaccio, they will hurt you. I will say I think United have spent a lot of to play very cautiously. If you look at the possession stats, you'll see they had nearly 50% of the ball or something like that, I think. But how much of that was in their own penalty area? I'm really intrigued to see how this Onana thing works out. He's obviously very able on the ball but he's such a defining player. It felt like he probably had more touches than anyone else. It felt like he was their playmaker. It feels like they've essentially moved the focus of their team 50 yards back to their own box. Hello, mate. That'll stay in. I'm not sure. Look, they won't play like this every week. The way the second half was set up, it reminded me of Nottingham Forest. Nottingham Forest, who came with a former United player in Anthony Alanga and looked a real threat on the counter-attack. That's what United were doing with Marcus Rashford and Garnaccio. Ten Hag, I think, came here with this reputation as being this great footballing coach, this great tactical mind. I don't see it. I don't see it. If I was a United fan, I'd be very disappointed with the type of game they looked to play here. I think it was overly cautious. I think it was not particularly enthralling, not particularly exciting. But hey, listen, they might have got the point that they came for and it would have been very frustrating but I would have accepted it because it wouldn't have been a bad point and it's too early to start throwing the toys out of the pram. Arsenal can still get better, I think, particularly in the final third, decision-making, composure in key moments. What a chance for Kaya Sakamis, for example. Yeah, listen, we can still get better but this is a result that will give us great momentum. What a lovely way to go into the international break as well with a win like that. And it's gutting for United and frankly, I'm here for that. I'm enjoying it. Man, I'm glad I didn't bring the baby to that one. It was too hectic, too intense but really delighted. Great to see Gabriel back in the team. Thought he did well. Thought he looked at home there. Zinchenko, good to see him start his first game. We do struggle when he comes off. We don't have a similarly progressive player. When we went to I didn't think we were as effective. Great to see Gabriel Jesus back and yeah, Declan Rice will be absolutely over the moon. Like I say, he joined Arsenal for moments like this, for games like this. Oh man. Well, a lot more to talk about. Fortunately, we've got a couple of weeks to do that. I'm sure we'll all enjoy revelling in this. I've got a couple of... I was filming actually, waiting for the full-time whistle when Gabriel Jesus went and put the ball in the net. Happened to have my phone recording. So I'll stick that on the end of the video. It's something to behold quite what the scenes were like in the North Bank. Okay. Breathe. Breathe, breathe, breathe. Loved it. Loved it. Loved it. Felt like last season, which is good. All right, guys. Bye-bye.