Arsenal were faster than ever in win at Manchester United, but is new style here to stay or circumstantial?

A key theme of Arsenal's preseason was embracing a more up and down style of football, one tailor made for their marquee new signing Viktor Gyokeres. Where once Mikel Arteta's side would ease their way around the final third in languid fashion, this was the summer of cutting out the middle man. It may yet prove to be a valuable addition to Arsenal's, ermm, arsenal but here was a warning of the risks that come with this change in approach.

Arsenal were quicker than they have been in years, flying into transitions, going for the jugular as they bid to begin their season with that sweetest of triumphs, one gained at Manchester United. That they did rather seemed to be in spite of themselves rather than through anything they got right. Arsenal were clumsy in possession, disorganized in their defensive structure and out of sync in attack. In their three years of contention, you would struggle to find many worse performances.

Fortunately for the visitors, some of their old qualities still remain. When Arsenal are bad, they only need to get one good ball in the mixer. Altay Bayindir flapped, Riccardo Calafiori denied Declan Rice an Olimpico and there was something to defend. That they did, for 80 minutes, in harum-scarum fashion.

William Saliba radiated disquiet in the first half, and if he improved from a low base, he still found himself on the deck, hacking the ball to safety while trying not to give away a penalty at the death. Calafiori's commitment to attack was admirable and certainly made Arsenal a better team in possession but it did invite Bryan Mbeumo to stay high and gamble on a quick turnover.

More than individuals, however, this game came with a sense of what Arsenal look like when they attack before their rest defense is set. The scrabbling of Saliba and Gabriel in the first half reflects how little time they had to settle after getting the ball up into midfield. In terms of possession time and average number of passes, you will find few games in which Arsenal have played so quickly.

During their period of title contention, they have never played at such a direct speed, and the margin by which they picked up the pace is quite remarkable. The 2.02 meters per second they advanced towards goal is 55% quicker than the average of 2022-23, 2023-24 and 2024-25. Their fastest game over the last three seasons, a 3-0 win at Bournemouth in May 2024, was 16% slower than this. No wonder their pass completion was at holding on to a lead with 10 men at the Etihad levels.

This was legitimately the seven seconds or less Arsenal. And it wasn't very good. If all of this was designed to get a quick ball to Gyokeres, it didn't work all that often, and on the one occasion he did get to bear down on the penalty area, driving in from his preferred left-hand channel, he contrived to tread on the ball. Gabriel Martinelli's struggles were typified by a swing at fresh air that led to Matheus Cunha driving through Rice and Martin Zubimendi before smashing at David Raya from range. After a bright start Martin Odegaard tapered off and the up and at them tempo did not seem an easy fit for Bukayo Saka's calculated evisceration of his full back.

The unknowable question is how much of this fast-break Arsenal was by design and how much was foisted on them by the occasion. After all, this was Old Trafford, graveyard of many a fine side from north London, and on the opening day to boot. Ruben Amorim's side may have lacked penalty box pressure until the closing minutes, but a back-and-forth game suited a team with wing backs flying down the flanks. Amorim's side are no more capable of slowing building attacks in general than Arsenal were Sunday and when their big-name attackers saw the goal, they were perfectly happy to swing at it. There are 22 United shots on the graphic below. Good luck spotting them.

Certainly, it did not seem that Arsenal were craving such an open game. Odegaard admitted in his halftime interview that he and his teammates were "a bit too hectic at times" and there was a deliberate swing towards composure in the introduction of Kai Havertz for the final half hour. Even then, the Gunners were too prepared to hit the ball up to the German and hope he could wriggle clear of two red shirts.

Better teams would punish Arsenal for performances like this. How many of them there will be is up for debate. Whereas there is a fairly clear explanation for why their title rivals Liverpool started the season in such up and down fashion -- their transfer business has brought them more attacking qualities but may have compromised their defensive muscle -- there is nothing about what Andrea Berta has acquired for Arteta that means Arsenal must play this way. When you have added Zubimendi to the base of midfield, there is nothing stopping you from deploying the previous tactical model, "300,000 passes in the opposition half," as Arteta memorably put it in 2022.

This was Arsenal, playing badly while attempting to execute a new game plan. The extent to which either of those things will be true in a week's time, let alone at the business end of the title race, is unclear. What is not is that Arsenal have three points won for them in traditional fashion. So long as the set pieces hold up, Arteta can probably afford a few more experimental detours.