Robin van Persie branded Arsenal as a “joy to watch” in the first half of their match against Manchester United at the Emirates.
Mikel Arteta’s side produced arguably their best 45 minutes of football against United and raced into a deserved 2-0 lead at half time against the Red Devils.
Nicolas Pepe put the Gunners ahead after just eight minutes before Sokratis Papastathopoulos doubled his side’s three minutes before the interval, firing home from close range.
And Van Persie, speaking in the BT studio, praised the work ethic shown by Arteta’s side.
“Arsenal are playing great. It is a joy to watch,” the Dutchman said.
“On the ball and off the ball, everyone is working hard for each other and what I like is that they run when they have the ball in behind.
“They are making runs for each other and [Nicolas] Pepe for example is playing out of his skin. Really good.”
Meanwhile, former Manchester United defender Rio Ferdinand was also full of praise for the Gunners' first half performance.
He said: “They are very intense and their structure looks solid.
“All their players looked to have tuned in to this and they were the better team by a mile. If they would have went in 1-0 up it would have been a very disappointing end to that half.
“They look like a team who could have had two or three goals so to go 2-0 up was fair.”
