While 2020 kicked off roughly for teams like Mourinho's Tottenham, Everton and even the highflying Wolves side who got beaten by a 10 men 2-1 Watford side, Arteta and Arsenal appear rejuvenated and fired up after defeating Ole's Manchester United at the Emirates Stadium. It's been a while I saw Arsenal home fans that excite, full of enthusiasm and beaming with hope. For long, the Emirate have been bereft of such atmosphere owning to Arsenal's bad season. With Unai Emery unable to inspire the squad to live up to expectations, the management had to choice than to fire him and hire the services of Mikel Arteta from City. It's 21 league games already for the Gunners this season, and the new year win over United on Wednesday night is their 6th win. However, as a reflection of their dwindled form, they have played 9 draws and have suffered 6 defeats as well. Such stats have left their fans devastated and hoping for a miracle as they watched their darling team slacking down the table with no hope of resuscitation. But it seems we are about to see a turnaround for the Gunners, as the arrival of their former player in form of a coach is already showing positive results. After playing a 1-1 draw against Bournemouth in his first game and unexpectedly losing 2-1 to a resilient Frank Lampard's Chelsea in his second match, the Spaniard has finally seen his impact within a short while pay off against United who have picked form of late. After watching Chelsea come from behind to steal a win against them in their last game, Arsenal made sure they put the game beyond the reach of United in the first half. It was Ole's second defeat in 10 league games, while it was Arsenal's second victory in 13 league games, now that's some disturbing stats for the once glorious Gunners.
The game which ended 2-0 in Favour of Arteta's side saw lots of improvement in Arsenal's midfield, you could see the likes of Mesut Ozil and Xhaka dictating proceedings in the midfield, something that we haven't seen for some time now. It didn't take long for the home side to make their intentions known and Nicolas Pepe was there to light up the Emirates with Arsenal's first Goal of the night. The big signing was delighted to open the score just 8 minutes into play to put Arteta's side on the lead. That first Goa boosted Arsenal's confidence and went a long way to deflate the pressure on them as they pressed their nervous visitors for a second goal. This is the Arsenal we have been longing to see for some time now, you could see the willingness and hunger to play the ball and gets things moving. In order not to give chance to what happened against Chelsea in their previous game, the home side doubled the lead just few minutes to half time. Sokratis made it 2-0 for Arsenal in the 42nd minute and that was all Arsenal needed to keep United far away from staging a comeback.
The win pushed Arsenal to the 10th position on the log with 27 points to their name. The game also revived hopes of Arsenal finishing top four this season. There is no doubt that the arrival of Arteta have brought in some fresh confidence on these players, and it's only a matter of time before we see full resurgence. After the game, David Luis had this to say, "I think it was great. We were great in the first half and showed a maturity in the second," the Brazilian told BT Sport. We have to be honest and admit physically we are not ready, but you have to show heart and this team is ready to change a lot of things. We showed that today and we are going to do big things in the future. Mikel Arteta is a great coach, he was a great player. I think he can improve every player. And in life when you are happy results can be different. If you work with happiness and believing what you are doing it is totally different. Our season started very bad but things can change." In all, I think we're about to see a reformed Arsenal side going into future fixtures, the season may have started on rocky planes, but trust me, we're about to be surprised.
Comments