Arsenal 2 Man Utd 0: Mikel Arteta earns first win as boss thanks to Nicolas Pepe and Sokratis strikes
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FOR a £72million club-record signing at one of England’s grandest clubs, Nicolas Pepe had been having a pretty decent stab at anonymity.
Yet it was the Ivory Coast winger, prised from Lille at such a premium rate last summer, who ignited Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal reign.
As Arteta’s men monstered Manchester United in the opening 45 minutes, it was difficult to believe that this was a side who had not won a Premier League home win in almost three months and had slid to within four points of the relegation places.
Sure, United were ropey at the back and bog standard in midfield, missing the arrogant star quality of the absent Paul Pogba and reversing their recent assault on the Champions League places.
But Arsenal’s opening half was as impressive as they have produced in recent years.
And at the centre of all their best work was Pepe - scoring the opener, playing a part in Sokratis’ second, hitting a post and generally making his marker, Luke Shaw, look like some sort of raffle winner.
Pepe had been dropped to the bench by Arteta for the first two matches of the Spaniard’s reign.
But after just one point was gained from a possible six, Pepe was asked to make some sort of justification for his towering transfer valuation and he came good.
Not that he was the only one.
Arteta seems to have switched off the circus sideshow music playing inside David Luiz’s head and the Brazilian was virtually immaculate in central defence.
In front of him, Lucas Torreira, Arsenal’s dwarf bouncer, manned the backdoor in none-shall-pass fashion.
Alex Lacazette worked insanely as a deep-lying centre-forward.
In fact, you could have picked out any one of Arsenal’s starting eleven for praise.
This was a convincing blueprint for Arteta going forward.
For Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, it was further proof of the inconsistency of youth.
Surely, neither of this one-time duopoly which once ruled the Premier League, will finish in the top four this season.
But both clubs suffered serious regression during the last decade, at least Arsenal began the twenties with a roar.
There was pre-match scepticism about Pogba’s injury relapse, following two substitute appearances over Christmas and continued background agitating about a possible Old Trafford exit for the Frenchman.
But then there had also been cynicism about Granit Xhaka’s sicknote from Arsenal’s defeat by Chelsea on Sunday, with a potential move to Hertha Berlin on the cards, and yet the Swiss was back to start here.
While Arsenal have been consistently bad, United had shown signs of sorting out their maddening inconsistency by defeating Newcastle and Burnley.
Before that they had been turning it on against the Premier League’s big guns only to fail to put lesser sides to the sword.
Arsenal would have ranked as one of those also-rans this season but United never looked like chalking up a third straight win.
This was a far more experienced Gunners side than the one which blew their lead against Chelsea with Xhaka, Sokratis, Sead Kolasinac and Pepe all restored to the starting line-up.
Left-back Kolasinac was in the book within three minutes after being outpaced by Dan James.
And yet the Bosnian was instrumental in the 10th-minute opener, with a bullish overlapping run down the left and a cut-back, which deflected off Victor Lindelof’s heel for Pepe to lash home only his third Premier League goal.
Buoyed by this, Pepe almost created a second, kippering Shaw and leaving the left-book on his backside before he crossed for Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang to volley over.
There was a real sense of purpose about Arteta’s team - they moved the ball with speed and menace, shredding United.
But then they had started in similar fashion against Chelsea and that had gone pear-shaped.
Pepe was at it again on the half-hour, sliding a gem of a pass in to Lacazette, who wriggled past Harry Maguire but shot across goal.
Then Torreira raced forward and drilled just wide.
From front to back, Arsenal were bang on their game and when Lacazettecharged down on David De Gea, the United keeper’s attempted clearance was deflected to Pepe who thudded against the post.
United simply couldn’t get a toehold as Arsenal dominated possession and they fully deserved to double their lead four minutes before half-time.
Pepe delivered the corner from the right, Lacazette’s flicked header was pushed out by De Gea but after another deflection off Lindelof, Sokratis rammed his volley into the roof of the net.
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United’s first genuine chance arrived right on half-time when Fred’s free-kick found Maguire at the back stick but the England defender could only head straight at Bernd Leno.
Solskjaer sent on Mason Greenwood and Andreas Pereira in place of James and the shocking Jesse Lingard early in the second half and Pereira was soon hammering into the side-netting as Arsenal’s
intensity levels began to drop.
But United rarely threatened again. They are stuck in a painful cycle of one step forward, one step back.
Arteta, with a better and more experienced squad than Solskjaer, can start to look upwards now.