Arsenal has secured their first win of the year and fourth clean sheet in the season with a 2-0 win over Manchester United.

Nicolas Pepe and Sokratis Papastathopoulos struck before half-time to gift the new manager Mikel Arteta his first win.

The Gunners started the year with an impressive performance in the first 45 minutes to lift the club 7 points off the relegation zone, it is their first major win under new manager Mikel Arteta, they now sit 10th in the Premier League standings within four points of United in the fifth position.

Arsenal started the game with all four attackers, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Alexandre Lacazette, Pepe and Mesut Ozil in what appeared to be an attacking game plan by the gunners, it paid off with the gunners pressing their opponent in waves of attacks which resulted in two first-half goals to seal all 3 points in their first home match of the year.

New signing Pepe scored just his second league goal from a Kolasinac cross with a cool finish to find the back of the net.

The Ivorian was filled with confidence as he continued to rattle United’s backline over and over, in another attempt on target, the United keeper gifted the forward a clear chance with his attempt to clear from goal but instead spilling the ball, Pepe’s low shot to hit the bar as the pressure mounted on United. He was eventually replaced in the 63rd minute by another young forward, Reiss Nelson.

The gunners continued to dominate the first half and scored a well deserved second goal from a corner right before the half time interval, Lacazette’s header was cleared by De Gea only for Sokratis to smash the resulting rebound back into the roof of the net.

United controlled the second half of the game but failed to make their possession count. Andreas Pereira came closest to getting the away side back into the game when he fired into the side-netting from a beautiful Nemanja Matic pass.

Substitute Mason Greenwood also came close, forcing Bernd Leno into a smart save. United’s main goal scorers, Marcus Rashford and Anthony Martial toiled all evening but the Arsenal defence stepped up to keep them in check in their first real showing so far in the season.

Arteta’s men will travel to Selhurst Park in their next fixture against Crystal Palace while United will face Norwich City at home.

Chinasa Asogwa reporting, Obinwannem News