Mikel Arteta says Arsenal must believe in themselves ahead of Sunday’s clash with Manchester United and played down talk of a ‘psychological barrier’ despite the Gunners’ poor record at Old Trafford.
One win – achieved behind closed doors in November 2020 – in our past 15 Premier League away games against the Red Devils represents an abject record against a side who’ve been through a fair few post-Ferguson crises.
While the Gunners travel north in a buoyant mood having ascended to the top of the Premier League table with five consecutive wins, Arteta says self-belief will be important.
“It’s not something new,” said the boss when asked in his pre-game press conference what it would mean to win at United.
“We’ve done it, we have to do it again and we have to believe from today, yesterday and straight after the game that we are capable of going there and playing how we want in the match.
“The test in the Premier League is every single week, every opponent that you play. You see it in every game that will be played this weekend and I don’t expect anything different.
Pressed on whether United have a psychological edge over Arsenal in this fixture, he added: “I don’t think so. We have gone through things like that when we hadn’t won at Stamford Bridge for 20 or something years, but you need to believe that you will do that.
“If you can play the way you want to play, you will win football matches. We’ve done it, and that’s the belief that we have.”
After losing their opening two games of the season, United have fought back with three wins against Liverpool, Southampton and Leicester. While they still seem to be finding their feet under new manager Erik ten Hag, they now have momentum.
“When you look at the squad that they have, the players that they have signed the amount of money they have spent in the market, it is no surprise – they are going to win a lot of football matches,” said Arteta.
“The history of Manchester United tells you this is going to happen. They are a big rival, we know that and we are going to compete with them.”
On what he’s most proud of so far this season, the boss said: “The feeling and energy that is around the club, and the way the team is playing and performing, and at the end of the day, the icing on the cake is winning football matches.
“That is the only reason why we are here, and we have to continue to do that. If we keep doing the simple things right and maintain the energy levels, belief and enthusiasm that we have, we’ll keep playing well.”
Come on Arsenal.
Let’s make Ronaldo cry. And then laugh at him.
COYG
Mikel’s pep talk is two words: Overmars & Wiltord
Or, “it’s Freddie Ljungberg again…!”
Or
“There’s a minute left on the clock, Brady for Arsenal…. Rix, right across….Sunderland! It’s there! Alan Sunderland! It’s three two!”
😊 🏆
And bruno f. Rarely irritating player, even more than the primadonna ronaldo.
When I watched that Brentford game, Ronaldo was the epitome of Ferguson’s lost Empire, running around in a daze, shaking his head. This was the football equivalent of the fall of the Roman Empire; I thought of Giggs goal in that FA Cup Semi final and the pain of that last day match when Spurs gifted Utd the title. I thought of their lucky treble against a Bayern Munich who had been all over them, of Ferguson’s smug face in subsequent United victories as we struggled to finance the stadium and maintain top four. I thought of Ronaldo putting us… Read more »
Absolutely.
We are a better team than they are. Let’s ram their mini-revival back down their throats.
We are always better than them but they always seem to get all the luck and benefits when we play them. Injuries, refs, VAR, posts, penalties, you name it.
Or maybe we just keep playing poorly there. No excuses, let’s just do better.
This!
We are gonna score early and then we are going to win because of our defence. Our strength in defence is making me believe we will match big teams this season.
Having players who score regularly is also nice.
Yes, that’s the area that we need to improve upon. Plenty of shots but not enough goals resulting to put games to bed far earlier than we have done recently. I’d really like to see Jesus scoring more – on top of his excellent teamwork generally.
Yes, we’ve a good defence (better than it has been for quite a while) but Fulham and Villa both breached it recently, didn’t they? I think we really need to convert the chances we always create into more goals at the other end so we don’t need to fight back from 1:1.
Id hardly call the Villa goal a breach, when in a mirebsensible worldnthan this one it would have been immediately chalked off.
Breach is also the wrong word for the Mitrocix goal. Wasnt the result of any smart bit of play but rather capatalising on a lapse of xoncebtration.
Nasty cold you have there…
Let’s hope the injuries can be coped with. Big players eg TP and Zinny missing. If we can get a result it’ll help our confidence no end.
And the referee doesn’t do us over, Villa was shocking at home (Saka penalty, Martinez dive, the Villa goal etc) and it’s hard to have confidence that Old Trafford will be any better…
Saw most players in the training video on the club site. Odegaard looked good thank god – was worried when he went off after that tackle from McGinn – Ramsdale looked OK, ESR, Vieira, Tomi, Saliba, Jesus, Saka all looked up for it. Didn’t see Ben White or Martinelli so hope all is well. Looked like Holding was in with Saliba and Tomi.
White left training early no reasons given
Let’s go there and get a result. This team can do it. I have never felt so much confidence in an Arsenal team in this fixture in recent times, but this time it’s different dispite the injuries. A big part of it is our defence. Class act across the back four and the keeper. We have not had this for a very very long time. A win in this game, and this team will have shown the Premier league that this season, the Gunners mean business. COYG.
Let’s wait till we get the team news shall we, I hope the captain is in pink health. Fingers crossed 🤞
For some reason we almost cock it up everytime we go to that rundown dumbster of a stadium. Last year we really should have gotten a better result. Hopefully Jesus and the boys makes it right this time.
COYG!
If we believe we will win. Thus we must believe in ourselves to get the job done.
I’d say Man Ure will be more worried about us than we are of them ! We’ve all got excited for a reason people & it’s because we’ve been playing some great stuff ! They aren’t ! Once Benjamin twats Bruno Bellendez we’re on our vay to supreme victory & total complete domination of ze futballing Vorld !!!
Get this game started & let Jesus show us the way to continue the Gunners resurrection. Boom 2-0 shake shake the room ! Yes indeedy
Mate, we’re not playing ze Germans
Well no, he would seem to have us as the Germans all the same a weird one to say the least
Mate were playing 3-1
Yes we can beat them. I do worry about a Manc ref and the dirty Manc players. COYG
Yeah what’s up with that. Paul Tierney is from Salford, less than 3 miles down the road from Old Trafford.
Talk about Working From Home.
We lost three times with him as ref last season, in three matches. Palace, Chelsea and Tottenham. Plus he’s sent off Gabriel and Holding.
Great. Oh and it’s Lee Mason on VAR, who is from Bolton, just the 13 miles away from Old Trafford. He’ll have to get out of bed 20 minutes earlier than Paul Tierney.
Imagine that lot coming to our place and the referees being from Romford and Islington, we wouldn’t hear the end of it.
TBF, Rob made the decision easy.
I’m expecting at least one dodgy penalty and a sending off. If that happens (hopefully it won’t) we can as fans do two things 1) Accept it meekly, accept the game is bent and we will never win anything of note ever again because officials won’t let us or 2) Kick up a huge fuss, win or lose. Team up with other fans and go after PMGMOL relentlessly on every platform possible. Make them squirm with discomfort. We know the power of fans already from the super league debacle. I know people joke about it and will try to justify… Read more »
Your kidding yourself pal, both options would achieve exactly the same outcome
Come on guys I’m itching to wear the pink jersey to work on Monday in a predominantly Man United supporting office.
Be professional and wear a suit ffs
Ok boomer
Wear it anyway win lose or draw.
I hope we do but it’s almost certainly going to be the toughest game this season so far. Utd are a different proposition than they were in the first couple of games. Having beaten Liverpool at Old Trafford they will obviously be fired up so I don’t think we can dismiss them lightly.
It will depend a lot on the team we can put out. Currently there are injuries to a few key players (on top of the longer-term ones). If we can get these into the line-up, we’ll clearly be stronger.
Im not sure that they are at all None of their wins have been truely convincing. Agree though that our problem is the injuries we’re picking up.
Yes, but they are picking up points now which creates confidence (as we know). Frankly, I’d take any type of home win against Liverpool, something we haven’t managed for a while now playing well or not.
As you say though, injuries will be a (the?) determining factor as we move into a busier fixture period. Nobody knows how we’ll cope but we can hope for the best.
Former Arsenal keepers Leno (v sp*ds), Fabianki (v Chelsea), and Martinez (v Man City) can all do us a favour today.
Odd that, isn’t it. I can’t really see Martinez holding out against Mr H and co. but you never know. I think we may get one of those results going our way if we’re lucky but the top part of the PL table already has quite a familiar look to it after only a handful of games.
It so happens only Martinez managed to do us a favor though Fabianski and the spammers were robbed
If Martinez had any sentiment towards Arsenal I dont think he would be putting our striker in a headlock and then collapsing to the floor.
‘ He’s better than you HE’S BETTEr THaN YOOOUU…….’
Memorable win in the fa cup getting overlooked there… but yes it is something, the hoodoo that they have managed to retain over us no matter how god1awful a t11eam they have been at times
I predict 9-2 to the Arsenal
Yes, perhaps the Mancs will have an Internal Server Error like today’s Arses. They have it in them.
I’m calling it now. Ronaldo will come on in 75th min with them down 0-2. He’ll be a pissy baby about it and then in his desperation to score get booked for diving in our box. Ronaldo disgracing himself is always funny. Not that it’s hard, his natural cunt personality is disgraceful enough.
3 – 4 To the Arsenal!
LET’S GO!!!!!
Villa held City to a 1:1 draw!
Bonus!
Whatever happen we’ll still be top of the league tomorrow evening, pressure’s not on us.
Let’s go there and show them who we are 🔴⚪️ and what we’re made off 💪⚽️
Big up y’all travelling fans! Keep the decibels high at the old toilet and hope you’ll go home happily chanting do do do do do do… Saliba!
Arsenal have been hard done by the refs and var in the past. I would not
be surprised the same thing happens again. No use for apologies as the ref did
in the Blues vs Spuds game.
According to the big bulldog,Mu under red faced would let the gunners
have 99% possession and hit on the break.
The Fm was an idiot who refused to change his game plan and always lost..
Hopefully MA will be the winner . I amm optimistic the gunners can win
Odegaard a doubt for today’s game – if reports are to be believed.
This might be a difficult game for Fabio Vieira to cut his Premiership teeth in, so in the absence of Odegaard, I would put Smith Rowe in behind Jesus – and give the captain’s armband to Xhaka.
COYG
I’d bet on Xhaka to score, he likes this fixture