Manchester // It was Arsenal, but not as we know them.
For the first time in 1,015 days – excluding the glorified friendly that is the Community Shield – they beat Manchester City.
After taking just six points from 45 against Chelsea and the Manchester clubs, they recorded the landmark win that has long eluded them.
It was uncharacteristic in other respects.
“Maybe it was not the usual Arsenal that we are used to seeing,” Manuel Pellegrini said.
They were disciplined, determined, organised and unambitious. And that, while it may appear a criticism, is actually praise.
Somehow, somewhere, they have acquired some nous. This was a performance for the pragmatists to savour.
There was none of the wide-eyed naivety that they have brought to such important fixtures before, when they have conceded five goals at Anfield, six at Stamford Bridge and the Etihad Stadium and, in 2011, eight at Old Trafford.
They came to frustrate Manchester City, not to outplay them. But they succeeded in doing both, and in such style that they made the defending champions look decidedly poor.
Read more: Arsenal show plenty of grit in their victory at Manchester City
Arsene Wenger, long branded an idealist whose principles blinded him to the fundamentals of football, oversaw a tactical triumph.
Arsenal scored from set pieces, defended in numbers and operated as a unit.
Belatedly, it looked as though lessons were learned.
Their full-backs, whose fondness for raiding forward can seem wilfully reckless, remained restrained.
The isolated exceptions involved Nacho Monreal. He broke into the City box to win the dubious penalty.
A second, and needless, raid brought an almighty rollicking from Francis Coquelin, who had to cover.
It was doubly significant. The Frenchman began last month on loan at Charlton Athletic. Now, he displayed the capacity to be in the right place at the right time.
He has acquired an authority, too, barking orders at errant colleagues. This, in years to come, may be known as “Coquelin’s game”.
Such season-defining fixtures tend to bring nostalgic mentions of Patrick Vieira, Emmanuel Petit and Gilberto Silva, along with laments that Arsenal, who boasted the best defensive midfielders in England, now barely shield their back line.
Not this time. Arsenal lined up in two banks of four, with Coquelin patrolling the space in between, otherwise known as David Silva territory.
He kept City’s Spanish playmaker quiet.
Coquelin was the influential interceptor in a city where he has previous.
His Premier League debut resulted in an 8-2 defeat to United. Three-and-a-half years later, he has only been granted a dozen more starts, but Wenger insisted: “He is a learner from his experiences. I always kept faith in him.”
If a forgotten figure confounded expectations, he was not alone.
Olivier Giroud used to be deemed a flat-track bully, a specialist against weaker opposition at home.
He glanced in the match-clinching second, and he has now scored against both Manchester and both Merseyside clubs this season.
The narrative of Arsenal as a one-man team needs some altering. Alexis Sanchez has reigned supreme in Arsenal’s recent renaissance.
Yet, eagerly as he scurried, he was outshone by the solid citizens and another flair player. After the Chilean, Santi Cazorla has a claim to be their most influential player of late. Wenger noted that Cazorla had been superb “for a while now”.
The Spaniard has shouldered responsibility and operated as an attacking central midfielder with such finesse that it prompts questions if Mesut Ozil deserves to get back into the team.
He is a small figure with a sizeable heart and a classy touch. He stroked home a penalty and curled in a free kick that Giroud finished.
Arsenal, who conceded 17 goals and picked up no points on their visits to the top three last season, had a clean sheet and a famous victory. It was so very un-Arsenal.
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