Arsenal beat Manchester United 1-0 on Sunday afternoon as Mikel Arteta opened the campaign with victory at Old Trafford.
Arsenal will be right in the Premier League title picture once again this season and saw both Liverpool and Manchester City pick up victories on the opening weekend.
Liverpool and City opened with four-goal showings, but Arsenal’s 1-0 win over Manchester United featured a little less attacking quality.
Riccardo Calafiori bagged the only goal of the game, nodding home from close range after Altay Bayindir flapped at Declan Rice’s corner.
Arsenal didn’t look particularly fluent going forward and had to withstand pressure from United, but stood strong to claim a clean sheet.
Mikel Arteta will certainly be delighted with the performance of goalscorer Calafiori, who got the nod at left-back ahead of Myles Lewis-Skelly.
Calafiori impressed defensively as well as scoring the opening goal, and will hope to have done enough to edge ahead of Lewis-Skelly in the left-back pecking order.
Speaking to BBC Sport after the final whistle, Calafiori shared his hopes of title success at Arsenal this season.
Calafiori hopes that Arsenal have now unlocked the ‘secret’ to winning trophies by adding some major signings over the summer.
Calafiori believes that Arsenal’s new additions will help Arsenal ‘a lot’, and will provide a major upgrade on last season’s squad.
The Italian believes Arsenal are ‘stronger’ than last season and ready to take the leap by adding more silverware under Arteta.
“The new boys help us a lot, and this is the main difference between last season. We are stronger, and I hope that will be the secret to winning something this year,” said Calafiori.
Much of the attention was placed on Viktor Gyokeres as he made his competitive Arsenal debut against United.
This was a tough debut for Gyokeres, who didn’t really look all that threatening in the final third.
Nobody should write the Swede off, though, and he certainly showed some impressive physicality against United defender Leny Yoro.
Fellow summer addition Martin Zubimendi also started, and he was very effective at the base of Arsenal’s midfield.
Zubimendi was perhaps a little fortunate to escape a booking early on, but was solid in midfield with two tackles won, one interception, four duels won and five ball recoveries.
Noni Madueke came on for Gabriel Martinelli but didn’t really make an impact down Arsenal’s left flank.
Some will question whether Madueke is really suited to the left flank, but we have no doubt that the England international will make his presence felt over the course of the season.
We didn’t see Kepa Arrizabalaga, Cristhian Mosquera or Christian Norgaard in action on Sunday, but they will play their part as Arsenal and Calafiori chase glory this term.
