Rio Ferdinand has praised Mikel Arteta for making Arsenal's players believe in themselves again after beating Manchester United.
The Gunners secured their first victory of the Arteta era with a 2-0 win against United at the Emirates Stadium, following first-half goals from Nicolas Pepe and Sokratis Papastathopoulos.
It was a much-needed boost for the North London side after a draw with Bournemouth and defeat to Chelsea in the Spaniard's first two matches in charge.
The performance showed vast improvements for Arsenal that have been implemented by Arteta, which Ferdinand identified after the final whistle - with a thinly veiled hint at what had been going wrong under the Spaniard's predecessor, Unai Emery.
“Those smiles are great to see but you've got to look deeper than that," he told BT Sport.
"In the performance today we saw a discipline we've not seen on a consistent basis in an Arsenal team.
“There's a structure, there's a confidence now starting to brew with this team that comes with goals and games like we've seen today.
“They were quicker, they were stronger, they were more aggressive and they're traits that we've not been able to say about Arsenal on a consistent basis but today they were great.
“There's new ideas, it's freshened the place up, it went perhaps a little bit stale under the previous manager. They lacked belief in the managers tactics and his methods maybe.
“We've both been there under managers where you don't believe in what the guy is doing and it takes an edge of a performance subconsciously."
Robin van Persie, Ferdinand's fellow pundit in the studio and ex-teammate at United under Sir Alex Ferguson and later David Moyes, nodded in agreement.
"These guys, you see their reaction when Arteta goes onto the pitch," added Ferdinand. "I've not seen Ozil smile like this in 18 months.
“That tells you a story. Pepe, a massive signing who hasn't produced, but today he looked like a new player.
"That comes from confidence in a manager, he's showing belief, there must have been conversations behind closed doors where he has told them ‘you're my guy'.”
