Keen to celebrate Arsenal’s 500th match at Emirates Stadium with a win over Manchester United, Mikel Arteta urged supporters pre-game to bring “hyper energy” and to play “every single ball with us.”
It’s a message the stadium announcer clearly took to heart. Trying to whip the crowd into a frenzy before kick-off, he experimented with his lineup announcement, urging supporters to repeatedly yell the players’ surnames into the north London air. It failed miserably and took so long that the club had to turn off its ‘North London Forever’ anthem because the match had already started.
The acapella chorus that fans were left singing was about as loud as things got for an hour or so. A turgid game on a damp night was met with a very flat atmosphere. Not even the sight of Martin Odegaard trying to gee up those in the front rows made much difference.
Ironically, it was Manchester United that unintentionally aroused the home support from its collective stupor. Deliberately taking an age over a goal-kick while Matthijs De Licht attempted to squirm back onto the pitch for medical treatment, Andre Onana and Harry Maguire infuriated the North Bank who turned the volume up to 11. The latter picked up a booking for his troubles.
From there the place was rocking and when Arsenal broke the deadlock five minutes later through Jurrien Timber’s glancing header, Arteta had lift-off.
Nobody in the ground was surprised the goal resulted from a corner – it was the third in a week from a Nicolas Jover set-piece routine – and when the Gunners repeated the trick on 73 minutes via William Saliba’s arse, the joy turned to unrelenting taunting of United’s beleaguered defence.
Leandro Trossard’s chant was adapted twice over “Corners again, ole, ole, ole” and “Set piece again, ole, ole, ole” both swept around the stadium.
United’s new manager Ruben Amorim couldn’t even watch when Rice stepped up to take another corner two minutes later. Onana tipped over. As Saka geared up for his turn, the crowd worked up a drawn-out anticipatory “woaaaaaaaaah”. Merino headed just wide. It was the closest Arsenal would come to a third.
“The stadium’s reaction is something we didn’t plan,” said Arteta in his post-game press conference.
“It’s because they have belief in the same way they react when we’re in a high press and we are with the ball because they know what we can do.
“It creates that connection and that belief and is easier for the players to deliver because that noise creates good things in us and difficult things in the opposition.”
On his side’s success from set-pieces, he added: “We need that. I think we want to be very dangerous and very effective from every angle and every face of play. We worked on all of that.
“Today we couldn’t score from open play like we did against West Ham, against Sporting, so the team really has belief that from every angle we have the mentality to threaten the opponent and to try to score. Today was two set pieces, we constantly have threatening corners.”
In his own post-game comments, Amorim lamented the fact his side couldn’t cope with Arsenal’s tactics.
“They are very good [at set-pieces] because they have a lot of time working on that. Especially on that, they have big players for that, so it is a strategy, and we had two weeks to work on that,” he said.
“We tried to do it but we know every team in the Premier League is suffering with set-pieces. It was a shame because we were not playing very well but also Arsenal was not playing very well.”
Amorim even suggested that Arsenal’s wingers go out of their way to win corners knowing full well the opportunities that ensue. Arteta said his side simply try to and take advantage of weaknesses in opponents and then made clear that he wants his side scoring all sorts of goals.
“I think last year we scored the most goals in the history of this football club, not because only the set-pieces but because a lot of things that we have.
“We want to create individual moments, magic moments, a lot of players can create their own goals. We can create goals on short counters, long counters, against slow build-ups, when we have to have restarts and the opportunity to open the opposition.
“Every single phase of play, just maximise it and keep working on it, keep improving.”
Arsenal now turn their attention to Sunday’s tricky trip to Fulham – a venue they underperformed at last season – before a run of three home games in different competitions against Monaco, Everton and Crystal Palace.
“It’s every three days, it’s a crazy schedule,” said Arteta. “We’re going to need everybody and mentally be very strong because you’re going to have to go through those moments.”
You suspect he includes the fans in that.