I’m so glad Man U are getting their comeuppance. It’s pure arrogance and laziness that has them here. Poor recruitment just jumping on the name in the papers. Failure to recognise what modern football required after Fergie. No director of football pushing the identity so they have a mismatch of a team assembled by 5 or so different managers and an unwillingness to face the truth that there is no quick fix and you need to have the pain of a 3 year rebuild.

Thank god we finally understood all this

It looks like we dodged a bullet by not getting Martinez (assuming that the media reports were correct).

He may well be wondering what he has walked into.

What an exciting performance today! The goals we let in were a bit sloppy, but I don't think they're the kind we'll concede every week. Going forward we look completely rejuvinated with Jesus up front - he put on an absolute masterclass today. Never stopped running, winning duels, bringing others into play, 2 goals and 2 assists with another good 2-3 chances missed. Absolutely wonderful player to watch. Saka felt like the anonymous one in our attack, and that's a good thing because we already know what he can do.

Very encouraging start to the season, with another couple of very winnable fixtures coming up and Man Utd looking completely dead in the water. Good times.

At least we had a reasonable excuse against Brentford for last season’s opener with significant absences with covid and injuries. Man Utd’s collapse is in a completely different league.

We must stuff them when we play them soon. We are more than good enough. No inferiority complex this time please.

And United are coming to the party.

It seems we wanted him as an inverted left back, which may suit him.

Can’t remember when I’ve seen a better performance from a ‘new’ team. Jesus, Saliba and Zinchenko are all so obviously the real deal. Our recruitment this season has been awesome.

I’ll wait until I see Carragher and Neville bouncing along, enjoying themselves and encouraging the Brentford fans at full time….

Hit the ground running as they say.

I was amazed when we paid £72m for Pépé and we had to wait ages for him to appear so that he could ‘get acclimatised’.

But with Tierney and Zinchenko already in place that wouldn’t seem to be a priority for us.

Not sure if he’s playing to get away, but Tielemans looked decidedly average. Maybe carrying some timber, too?

Can’t see him getting into today’s team.

Nice to see us regularly scoring different types of goals now.

For years it seemed like we just scored ‘perfect’ team goals. Now we’re one of of not the best in the league from set pieces, we get the scrappy ones from opponents mistakes and we’re scoring from outside the box. Martinelli’s goal today, hard low accurate shooting from 20 yards. There were quite a few like that last season as well

I keep hearing pundits and commentators almost exasperated saying ‘these are good players’ or ‘they haven’t become bad players overnight’

Surely it’s about time everyone realised that these Man U players are nowhere near as good as some people think. All over the pitch, fundamental weaknesses in each of them. Call it as it is

It doesn't matter how badly Man Utd are playing. Whenever they play us they always seem to raise their game for our fixture. Right now I'll actually take a draw. I'm not expecting a win, crazy as that sounds.

On another note, they should have filmed the documentary this season.

I'm also very fearful of Aubameyang being at Chelsea. I have a gut feeling, he will have a season like RvP did at Man Utd. Just my gut says he'll score in buckets as the season progresses. I hope I'm wrong. It will be interesting what kind of reception he gets when he comes back in a blue shirt.

I particularly watched Tielemans and after people have spoken about him as a replacement for Xhaka, the latter completely outplayed him. The BBC sport site gave Xhaka 7.6 out of 10, and Tielemans 4.52. These scores out of 10 are as subjective as an opinion can be. But that was at least the difference between them.

You asked whether Tielemans was playing to get away. In the past I’ve heard Leicester fans accuse him of making no effort. Is that really the type of person or character we want at Arsenal? Just at the time when the club’s ownership regime, managerial hierarchy, players and supporters all seem to be pushing in the same direction together?

I’ve said before that Tielemans has been available all summer for £25m. If Arsenal genuinely wanted him, wouldn’t he be on board already? I really don’t go with these ‘having to offload players first’ and ‘homegrown quota’ reasons. How many players do we have to get rid of with Leno, Guendouzi, Mari and Bellerin already out or on their way? Runarsson’s contract can be paid off for a paltry £1.5m or thereabouts.

The more I think about it, the more I reckon it’s feasible that Arteta may not actually fancy him (in a footballing sense).

Great game. Some exhilarating attack play, especially from Jesus and Martinelli.

Jesus is just so dangerous, his pace and movement, his tenacity and his skills are such a step up from Lacazette.

Martinelli was amazing and looks stronger physically this season, lets see if he can take the league by storm in the way Saka has done.

Saliba recovered really well after the own goal.

We let Leicester back into the game too easily and it still feels like something is missing from that central midfield area. Not sure its Tielemans though.

Anyone know the story about the group of black-clad ‘ultras’ crammed in, two-to-a-seat at the front under the clock? Maybe 50-80 of them. Not kids. Standing, very loud and animated throughout.

Must be club-sponsored and it really worked. Lifted the place.

A day ago, Ten Hag said he could restore the glory days to MU. Today, Tim Howard, former MU GK, claims Ten Hag has has enough time.

Irregardless of what or how anyone thinks of Willian, there's no excuse for the death threats he and his family are getting from Chelsea and Corinthian fans recently.
He's chosen to leave Corithians to possibly go to Fulham. So what if they sign him. He may do well for them. Alexis Sanchez may do well now at Marseille.

Ten Hag needs time, we professed that for Arteta so the same must be true of ten Hag. There are endless similarities. Unbalanced squad, overpaid, underperforming, ageing. To an extent, the extent being an FA Cup win, Arteta bought himself time by finding a system (a back 3) which got some results. It was far from his preferred way of playing but it got a few results and allowed him to see who he could trust and who could cut it in our team.

Ronaldo is a huge problem for ten Hag, an Aubameyang size problem(?) I’m amazed they haven’t bought a ball playing defensive mid. They’ve chased de jong but he obviously has doubts about joining them, lower expectations and sign a slightly lesser player who you can mould in to the next de jong. I’d say drop de Gea but the back up is Tom Heaton! I’d say every single position on the pitch has problems for them

If there is one area I think Arteta needs to sharpen up in I think its his use of substitutions. We've got some cracking players on the bench now and can use up to 5 subs so he needs to start giving them some game time. They need confidence and trust and match fitness too. We will need all of them once the midweek games start coming.

If United keep blaming the managers and getting new ones, it is fine by me!

They should bounce back in their next home game: Liverpool

Morning Soc ... I had similar thoughts , Saka wasn't at his most effective , I'd have put Nketiah on 30 from the end .

Funny I think Jesus's burning desire to score the hat trick led to him abandoning his natural finishing if that makes any sense ... one through on the goalkeeper I'd have thought normally he would have chipped him .
Great performance the amount of chances he creates for himself is staggering , great role model for Nketiah , Martinelli Smith Rowe and Saka .

What was it 50 m for Madison 40 for Teilemanns ...? I'd stump up the extra 10 and buy the former ; thought his performance very impressive .

after watching the Brentford highlights I was thinking first two games have been against minnows they must be due some stern opposition
.... and here we have it ; their worst nightmare , a high quality team that hates them .

Their home advantage nullified Liverpool and Man City don't care whether they play Man U home or away these days ; Old Trafford no longer the daunting citadel it was under Ferguson .

Lose that one , next up it's a stinky little trip to the South Coast to face Southampton who can be a burr under anyone's saddle on their day .

Four games in zero points ..what a mouth watering prospect ....... shouldn't laugh something sh**ty might happen to us

How United would love a pleasant coach to somewhere like Carrow Road next week to rebuild their shattered confidence .

How wayward is Bruno Fernandez's shooting he's like Thomas Partey on steroids .

On the net there’s all these people blaming the Owners for not investing. How much did Ronaldo cost per year. They were all high fiving when they signed him and they have spent a lot of money in the last 5 years. Just like us it was not spent wisely. If I didn’t despise them so much I could give a f…. There fans remain self entitled but players are reluctant to head to such a mess. I hope we get 10 more years of it.

I’ve heard a few sound bites from Ralph Rangnick recently, he was bought to Man U to be the director of football and oversee the rebuild and recruitment…..but they gave him the boot because of half a season of mixed results as their manager - a job he wasn’t even lined up to do.

When they got Rangnick I thought they’ve finally made a good decision

Greetings Kiwi. Arteta is understandably a bit cautious about changing things when we are only a goal or two up. However, the bench is so good now that the rewards outweigh the risks. So hopefully we will gradually see earlier substitutes. On your last point, I guess it depends on what sort of midfielder we think we need.

Question for the forum. What is it that you think has changed in the Kronke's in the past couple of years that has seen them seemingly take a sudden change in the amount of effort, interest and expenditure in the club?

We now have Josh very much front and centre and coming across as intelligent, likeable, clear thinking and certainly invested from top to bottom.

It was fascinating to see how far forward Xhaka was getting yesterday. He had the header tat hit the post, he was in the box for the short assist for Jesus' opening, in the box again for his tap in.

He's had a good start to the season carrying on some excellent performances at the back end of last season.

They were probably unwilling to pour money into the club before. Who can blame them? They've gradually figured out a good business model.

I also think it is a matter of fans' perceptions. People were pretty determined to dislike Stan and that takes a lot to shift ... There was massive cognitive dissonance last season with all the money being spent.

Good question. I wonder if it could be the overtaking of Arsenal by Chelsea as London’s biggest club. Look, I think there are various factors that translate into how big a club is. Worldwide fan base size, the stadium and filling it, well known players (look at the impact of Best and Beckham on Manchester United’s fame), a club’s wealth, newsworthiness, history and trophies.

There are no doubt others too, but rather than looking at the factors separately they are linked. For example, a very obvious overlap is that of trophies and fan base size. Prior to Abramovich Arsenal had a bigger fan base than Chelsea. That’s no longer the case and they’ve comfortably overtaken us. Believe it or not we still have more trophies (albeit not the biggest, the Champion’s League, that Chelsea have won twice). But Chelsea’s success is much more recent than Arsenal’s. That is vital in attracting new fans. Arsenal’s success in the 1930’s won’t drive our fan base upwards, apart from people like my dad making his children fans and me doing the same with mine.

It is recent success that is most important. As an example, Machester United always had a much bigger fan base than City. They still do. But I’m convinced City have closed the gap since their takeover.

Arsenal will surely have people that realise the crossover between success and fan base size. Venkatesham I would imagine, maybe even Sanllehi before him. I reckon they would have pointed out to Josh that relationship and he’d have told Stan. Because the bigger a club’s fan base size, the more sponsorship, merchandising and commercial revenues it will attract.

From that, I honestly feel Stan will have been convinced about the importance of Arsenal enjoying success on the pitch. He will have more business acumen in a strand of hair from his wig (let alone little finger) than the rest of us. You don’t accumulate the vast fortune he has without it. As a result, he’s now ‘putting his hand in his pocket’ to enable it, as he’ll be motivated to make Arsenal a good investment. I’d like to think Josh will also enjoy seeing Arsenal have success on the pitch, if we do. That’s what I reckon anyway.

https://youtu.be/nhsWrkP7h88

This was Neville and Carragher dedicating a lot of time to criticism of Be. white after one game at Brentford.

The image is both of them dancing along and laughing with the celebrating Brentford fans after the game.

They were obviously critical of Man U yesterday but we didn’t see anything like this critique of Martinez who got hauled off at half time and couldn’t beat a standing Ben Mee to a header to prevent the 3rd goal. And we didn’t see the disrespect of joyously celebrating with Brentford fans - of course not because Neville is Man U through and through but he’s far too biased and clouded in his views of them now to objectively commentate on them…..and at points last year I think he went far too far the other way commentating on us. His famous comments saying ‘I can’t see what the plan is, what the direction is’ were utterly bizarre as it was clear to everyone else what the plan was

Having a cheeky pre-match beer on the concourse when Sir Kier Starmer walked past.

Do you think it is any factor that his other ‘projects’ have succeeded? He built the amazing Rams stadium, they won the super bowl, I think his ice hockey team won the Stanley Cup recently(?) perhaps now Arsenal is the one to take his focus?
I don’t know enough about his American teams and the money generated but I think the teams he won with invested in a young progressive coach and players. I’d assume there is still more money in the biggest American sports than football but football is certainly more global and perhaps Kronke wants to or sees football becoming even bigger in America (it is already huge in the womens game).

What’s more important to Kronke? Making money? Or the prestige of winning? The latter one assumes also gives the former, but the former is probably easier to do if you already own a big and stable club like Arsenal

I think his other projects beginning to succeed may well come into the equation. But for years I was hearing that none of his American teams had much success. His ownership philosophy has appeared to have changed. However, that may well be as linked to making money as much as the prestige of winning because they go hand in hand.

Of all his teams, I am confident Arsenal have by far the biggest worldwide fan base and therefore global appeal. If you asked kids across the world to name an Arsenal player or LA Rams player, I’d be astonished if a lot more couldn’t name an Arsenal player.

So which is more important, (a) prestige from winning or (b) making money? With (a) leading to (b), for Stan I suspect it’s (b). For Josh it may well be (a). Pure guesswork either way, of course.

Yes I did Hodd.

Logically, I should want a draw in the derby today, but I'll go with Chelsea...cough...spit...because I consider Tottenham to be the much bigger threat this season.

I am also very fearful Aubameyang will be huge for Chelsea. He was very productive for a time with us and after his slump he's been very productive in Spain and I don't see why he wouldn't be for Chelsea, especially since he doesn't need any adjustment period.

I think our attack is the best its been for a while and our defense is solid comparatively to most clubs in the league. Our midfield is good and while I think Partey is doing a fine job, I would like to see us have another good defensive midfielder behind him in the pecking order.

Jesus is a joy to have and watch but then again, he's from City. They, like Barca, buy great attackers for fun and usually can't accommodate them. Ødegaard is a fine, fine midfielder and if given minutes would have done very well in Spain as he does with us but you just can't be good or even very good at Real Madrid or Barcelona. City is like that, PSG as well. And now to some extent Liverpool.

I also don't expect us to be undefeated by the time we face Man Utd. No team wins the matches they 'should' . Points get dropped unexpectedly all the time. Always has, always will and we are no different. I hope we win all the games till then but I won't be shocked if we don't.