**Gary O’Neil** explained what makes **Arsenal** such a strong side after **Ipswich Town** were eliminated from the third round of the **Carabao Cup** in a 4-2 defeat to the **Premier League** reigning champions.
**·‘They’ve been together five years’**
---------------------------------------
The _Gunners_ were 2-0 up after 16 minutes through goals from **Max Dowman** and **Noni Madueke**. Dowman then doubled his tally for the night before **Mikel Merino** made it four around the hour.
The visitors have a perfect winning record across seven fixtures since the end of preseason in early August, having only conceded one goal from their first six matches before the trip on Tuesday.
A rotated starting eleven was never going to have the same kind of chemistry as is visible in the typical lineups for the team, but it did not detract from many of the things that define their quality.
_“They've been together five years. They're unbelievably well-versed in what they do. They have solutions for a lot of problems that you try to cause them. They know them all very, very well._
_“You can see that they're a well-oiled machine that deals with lots and lots of things very, very well on the fly. It was more the clinical nature, I think, that caught us. It felt like every time we made a slight mistake, or someone stepped out of line, it just ended up in the goal._
_“Just a ruthless, clinical nature about_ **_Arsenal_**_, that every time they got near the goal, you could feel that they could punish you. And we did get punished._
_“We're learning quickly about the level, especially when you play those big sides. We had a little spell at_ **_Manchester United_** _which was the same. We had the start against_ **_Liverpool,_** _which was the same._
_“Then_ **_Arsenal_**_, where you recognise that any slips or anything like that can really cost you.”_