"I saw something today I never saw last season - we played as a team. It's the most important thing in football." The opinion from Thierry Henry was as simple as a square pass, but the young Frenchman's brief address needed no elaboration. Arsenal did something on Saturday that they managed only five times in the league last season: they won away from home.
No wonder Henry was bouncy afterwards. Much has been made of Middlesbrough having a sports psychologist as assistant manager but this was a mental breakthrough for Arsene Wenger's players, particularly the 10 who saw out the 38 minutes after Ray Parlour's dismissal.
It took Arsenal to the end of October - five attempts - to win away from Highbury last season, an unhealthy pattern established on the opening day at Sunderland where they lost and had Patrick Vieira sent off.
Wenger said that match was going through his mind when Parlour was shown a second yellow for a needless foul on Ugo Ehiogu. Which is why, like Henry, he was pleased that his 10 men not only fobbed off Boro's unambitious attempts at a comeback - Henry had made it 1-0 with a fine volley just before half-time - but even gave their hosts a lesson. Four-nil flattered Arsenal, said Paul Ince, but he was wrong.
Middlesbrough were as bad as the ITV highlights show; Arsenal's comfort even when reduced in number was almost embarrassing. Wenger felt able to joke about the sending off, saying Arsenal practised being down to 10 men. His good humour was based on Arsenal positives rather than Boro negatives. Away wins, he said, "were our weakness last season".
That message has permeated the camp. Henry said: "If we're going to win the title then we're going to have to win it away from home." And from the opening minute, when Ehiogu cleared off his line, Arsenal set an agenda for the season. Whether they can stick to it is now the question; their next two away games are at Chelsea and Fulham.
Given their squad, they should do. Of the summer signings, Francis Jeffers, Giovanni van Bronckhorst and Richard Wright were on the bench and Junichi Inamoto did not make it even that far. But Sol Campbell did feature.
Paying Campbell about £4 million a year constitutes a transfer fee, a vast one, the more so when Alen Boksic left him staring at the Riverside's empty seats and charged towards David Seaman in the first half.
Had Boksic had any kind of support the afternoon might have turned out differently for Middlesbrough and Campbell, but Boro's inadequacy - "timid" was a word Wenger used - meant Campbell had a relaxed beginning to his Arsenal career.
"It was my first full 90 minutes since March," he said. "Being out of the England team helped me form a partnership with Tony in training."
Steve McClaren, in his first match as a club manager, may have wished he had been left out of Team England as well. For him, as for Sven-Goran Eriksson's other henchman Peter Taylor, this was a bad day. McClaren, an ideological optimist, stressed the importance of "moving on". From Bolton Wanderers and Everton away he wants six points.
His team will need to be more adventurous if that is to happen. Seaman did make an important save from Ince a minute after Parlour walked, and though Ashley Cole made a lot of a little connection with Ehiogu in the 87th minute to earn Robert Pires a penalty conversion, enough for Ehiogu to follow Parlour in the cross eyes of the referee Graham Barber, McClaren witnessed some more double Dutch from Dennis Bergkamp as Boro's defence disintegrated.
Bergkamp had made a point to his manager with those goals. But, like Henry, all he wanted to talk about was Team Arsenal. Soon others will. They hope.
MIDDLESBROUGH: Schwarzer, Fleming, Cooper, Southgate, Ehiogu, Ince, Mustoe (Wilson 72), Greening, Windass (Ricard 56), Boksic, Job. Subs not used: Crossley, Vickers, Okon. Sent off: Ehiogu (88). Booked: Job.
ARSENAL: Seaman, Cole, Adams, Campbell, Vieira, Pires, Ljungberg (Grimandi 65), Lauren, Parlour, Wiltord (van Bronckhorst 83), Henry (Bergkamp 73). Subs not used: Jeffers, Wright. Sent off: Parlour (51). Booked: Parlour, Adams, Grimandi. Goals: Henry 43, Pires 87 pen, Bergkamp 88, 90.
Referee: G Barber (Tring).
Didier Deschamps is celebrating winning his second point as a coach, but with four match-days of the French season already passed he is demanding far more from his Monaco team. The principality side were held 2-2 by Paris St Germain at the Stade Louis II on Saturday night, throwing away a two-goal lead.
