Arsenal's opening day criticism makes no sense

Arsenal won 1-0 away at Manchester United, but for some, that isn't good enough.

I looked at Arsenal's 1-0 win over Manchester United to open the Premier League season like most would - a win and move on, simply due to the preseason ups and downs, and given it was the first game of the season.

But others have taken a sharpened pitchfork to Mikel Arteta's side and have come down hard on how the Gunners played, despite managing a win on United's own deck.

Criticism also came for Viktor Gyokeres for his FIRST Premier League game after not having a full preseason. So, yeah, that's standard.

To all of that, I say it is one game. Relax people.

Given how high Arteta has gotten the Gunners in the past couple of seasons, yes, there is ample pressure for the Spaniard to deliver that elusive Premier League title, but are we really going after the Gunners for an uninspiring win at Old Trafford?

Yeah, they are.

But it also shows how far the club has come under Arteta (yes, I know no silverware) to the point where the club are being criticized for a win against Manchester United, and an away win at that.

Opening day verbal beatdown proof of club's trajectory under Arteta

We don't have to look back too far to the days when any top six encounter was met with anxiety and the real possibility of the Gunners being blown off the park by United, Liverpool, Manchester City and Chelsea...because more often than not, they were.

The Arsene Wenger later years, the Gunners were simply bullied into submission time and time again, and now under Arteta, oh boy, have things changed.

It is easy to see, given how the club is being talked about in such a way, after a "1-0 win at Old Trafford."

Under Mikel, Arsenal has now gone a whopping 22 games against the top six without defeat, with 13 wins and nine draws. That is a far cry from those Wenger years, isn't it?

So, while there are those who come at the Gunners for a lacklustre performance against United on the first matchday, just remember, after a disjointed preseason, new players coming into the squad, and it being the very first game of the season, everyone needs to take a breath.

Why? Because a 1-0 win at Old Trafford on the opening day of the season is nothing to sneeze at, regardless of how you get it.

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