The Weird Ignoring Of Arsenal’s Terrible Past

MANCHESTER, ENGLAND – AUGUST 17: Arsenal players form a huddle before the Premier League match between Manchester United and Arsenal at Old Trafford on August 17, 2025 in Manchester, England. (Photo by Visionhaus/Getty Images)

Visionhaus/Getty Images

Arsenal’s opening assignment for the Premier League campaign was historically a fixture they’ve struggled with.

Manchester United’s Old Trafford stadium may have been where the Gunners famously won the league many years ago. Still, in the past decade, the Londoners often lost their nerve even against weaker Red Devils’ teams.

But manager Mikel Arteta has gone to great lengths to try and toughen Arsenal’s resolve and in the past few years the effects have become evident. A club that was once synonymous with collapsing like a pudding when conditions got tough is now a group to trust in the Bernabeu or at the Etihad.

As ex-Manchester United defender Gary Neville told Tim Howard and Landon Donovan’s Unfiltered Soccer podcast, they are now among the most reliable teams in the division.

“There’s a lot to admire about Arsenal,” Neville said.

“If you remember that period where we were all criticising them a good few years back, when they were quite flimsy and they’d concede goals and they’d give leads away.

“I think now, they’re probably the only team that I can think of in the league. One of the very few and rare teams, I think in world football, that really you can trust them when they go a goal up.”

“It’s an old principle of teams that maybe 15, 20 years ago, they could defend leads, and they could be really focused and concentrated on the defensive side of the game.

“They’re like a little bit of a throwback to an old Italian team at times.”

Ironically, this toughness has become so pronounced that the club is now criticised for it.

In the Premier League opener, Manchester United had the majority of the play, but, not for the first time in the past couple of years, Arsenal scored from a set-piece to win the game.

The BBC characterised the display as a “Big win’ for ‘resilient’ Arsenal” but added that there was “work to do for [the]

new-look Gunners”

The stats supported that assessment, given that the Red Devils had 61% possession and 22 shots on goal.

A scrappy away performance from a challenger always invokes the cliche that victory in the face of adversity is the mark of a title winner, an adage former Crystal Palace striker Clinton Morrison, speaking on BBC Radio 5 Live, was quick to cite.

“That’s the sign of champions when you don’t play well and still get the three points,” he said.

“The difference was goalkeepers. David Raya was outstanding, and Altay Bayindir made a huge mistake.

“Viktor Gyokeres fed on scraps. It is difficult for him. There’s still a lot more to come from him.”

Arteta was certainly not taking the win lightly. He was effusive about claiming the three points in his post-match press conference.

“A big, big result coming into the first game of the season against [Manchester United at] Old Trafford,” he told the media.

“When you feel that they are building something special and momentum with the new signings and they want to kick on the season in a good way and you are able to come away with the win, I think I’m very happy I’m part of the team.

When asked whether this showed just how determined and focused the team is for the season, the Spaniard replied,” Yes, because we showed it in a different way today.

“I think we did two things very well. One, to take the set-piece and then react to especially mistakes. Some of them are necessary, some of them unusual.

“But the way every single player reacted to that gives us the opportunity to win the game. If not, it’s impossible. And that’s about how we compete and how much we want to take it.”

In years past, Arsenal was known for its appalling record away from home against the rest of the so-called ‘Big Six’: Chelsea, Manchester United, Manchester City, Liverpool, and Tottenham Hotspur.

But in the past three seasons, Arteta has flipped that on its head.

“It was 18 years or 20 years here, travelling without winning before I came, and now, yeah, I go in the dressing room, we won here the first game, and we are still happy. Good sign,” he said when asked about the reversal.

It’s strange to talk about resiliance in the opening game of the season. A champion’s ugly win is typically earned in a cold January with an injury-blighted squad, not in the August sunshine with a team of new signings.

And away from the cameras, Arteta will no doubt highlight the areas for improvement.

But as former Manchester United defender Gary Neville said, the grit should not be underestimated whenever it arrives.

“Arsenal really dug in and showed a lot of resilience. Arsenal were never at their best, but to come here to Old Trafford, or over to Manchester City, and get three points is big,” he added.