Landmark win sets new standards for Arsenal as Arteta sets sights on Champions League

It’s been a long old year, and with the second lockdown coming it’s about to feel a whole lot longer. For Arsenal, it’s broadly been one of progress. They won the FA Cup in August, and then the Community Shield a few weeks later; new players arrived in the transfer window, eager to join Mikel Arteta’s revolution. If you can remember back to New Year’s Day, the victory that kicked off Arteta’s era in earnest was a 2-0 victory over Manchester United at the Emirates.

With a 1-0 victory over the same opponents at Old Trafford today, Arteta might just have achieved another one. After 29 games in a row of failing to land a victory against their Project Big Picture cohorts – Liverpool, Manchester City, Tottenham, Chelsea and United, the vaunted ‘Big Six’ – Arsenal shifted an albatross that has been cosy around their neck for the last five years. Any sense that such a record might have bothered others more than themselves disappeared at the sight of Arteta punching the air ecstatically at the final whistle.

He did so with good reason. Arsenal lorded it over Manchester United today, and the single-goal victory achieved by Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang’s cool penalty in the 69th minute hardly reflected their superiority. Some might point to United’s current position and assume Arsenal didn’t have much to beat today, but big clubs remain big clubs wherever they lie in the league table. United were third last season, and have made light work of Paris St Germain and RB Leipzig in the Champions League in recent weeks. Their unfathomable Premier League form, particularly at Old Trafford, is not Arteta’s problem.

What has been troubling his in-tray has been Arsenal’s struggles this season. Prior to today they had won three and lost three. Of the defeats, they were humbled at Anfield after taking a surprise lead and then lost by a single goal to Manchester City at the Etihad; two more defeats to go on the pile with the rest of their miserable Big Six record. When they were then sucker-punched by a later Jamie Vardy goal at home to Leicester City, that thorn in the side of the Establishment, it sent Arsenal to Old Trafford under threat of losing three Premier League games on the spin.

Instead, they sent the wheel of recent history back the other way to earn a cathartic victory. Quite apart from the three points that lift Arsenal up to eighth in the table the psychological value of such a victory is enormous, particularly ahead of the North London derby at the Tottenham Stadium at the start of December. Now, the baseline standard for how to perform away from home against a big side is Old Trafford, November 2020 and not the Etihad, January 2015.

It has also validated a tidy summer of work by Arteta in formulating his squad for this season. Gabriel and Thomas Partey have arrived at huge expense, while captain Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, the captain and main goalscorer, has bought into Arteta’s vision wholesale by signing up for the long haul six weeks ago, even though Arsenal are not in the Champions League this season. All three were superb at Old Trafford and provide a formidable base in every area of the pitch that can bring on the development of the players of Bukayo Saka and Kieran Tierney.

Getting back into or around the Champions League qualifying positions will be Arsenal’s priority this season. Whether the top six will be composed of the Big Six this season remains to be seen, but more results of this ilk will nudge Arsenal right into the argument.