manager Unai Emery's debut but were still outclassed by Manchester City,2-0

                                                                                    Emery had just about taken his seat when Raheem Sterling was strutting across the face of Arsenal’s goal to score with an ease which screamed superiority, making Shkodran Mustafi, Sokratis and Granit Xhaka look very ordinary in the process.

Emery did not deny that the goal was very much the old Arsenal. Much like the way that Riyad Mahrez and Benjamin Mendy eased easily beyond Ainsley Maitland-Niles down City’s right. Emery frowned, ground his teeth, chewed his nails on the touchline, though even as City dished out a serious football lesson there was something materially different about Arsenal. 

They chased, pressed and turned over possession in a manner which had become alien to the Emirates when last season’s back-to-back 3-0 defeats against City sounded the death knell for Wenger.

Henrikh Mkhitaryan robbed Mendy — the defender was everywhere but defensively vulnerable at times — before exchanging possession twice and forcing a save. If anything, there was more ambition after the break. Arsenal did search for ways to break City’s lines, though the finish was missing.

Some of the old habits were harder to break. Initially, Mesut Ozil dropped deeper and worked harder, though he was wasteful and vanished to the periphery. It was a desultory start to the new era for him.Emery expressed a desire last night to see his players ‘do more risk in the pitch doing the pressing, more risk when we are with the ball, break their lines and go forward to score one goal and create more chances in the match’. 

Good luck with that away to Chelsea next weekend. Emery’s name was not shouted once and it was Wenger they sang of, when the gleeful City contingent invoked his memory to remind Arsenal fans of the team’s shortcomings. ‘He won more than you,’ they gave back.