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Arsenal’s best results under Mikel Arteta have come in a style markedly at odds with the philosophy the Spaniard outlined when he took office last December.
“There are some things that must have a plan,” he said at the time. “We have to have passion, we have to be dominant, we have to be aggressive. We have to play in the opponent’s territory as much as we want. I want the ball, I want to attack them as much as possible, I want to prevent them from attacking me as much as possible.” .
Four wins stand out from Arteta’s first year in charge: a Premier League win over already crowned (but still record-breaking) champion Liverpool in July, back-to-back victories against Manchester City and Chelsea to claim the FA Cup before a first league triumph at Manchester United in 14 years. In those 360 minutes, the Gunners had 10 shots on target and averaged 35% possession.
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Many Arsenal fans expected an approximation of Pep Guardiola’s tactics after Arteta’s three-year apprenticeship at Manchester City, but as he excelled at neutralizing opponents in one-off matches, there have been closer parallels between Arteta and José so far. Mourinho. Thus, Sunday’s North London derby presents a great test for Arteta: The managerial rookie who has earned accolades for doing a tactical number on top-talented rivals takes on the enthusiastic master of the art form himself. for a renaissance that has led Tottenham Hotspur to the Premier League Summit.
The era of Mourinho’s masterclass has not passed, as many believed. The 57-year-old posted his own remarkable double against Manchester City and Chelsea, clinching four points in a week with a resounding Europa League win in between. In those two league games, the Spurs had three shots on goal and averaged 37% possession.
And yet both clubs are still trying to eradicate some bad habits. A persistent theme of Mourinho’s public narrative at Tottenham has been the desire to instill a winning mentality, a tough cruelty that can help a talented team take the final step towards silver after five years of progress with Mauricio Pochettino. Arteta initially wanted Arsenal to be tougher, eliminating the squishy belly that originally formed in the final years of Arsene Wenger’s reign, as underperformance was met with resignation rather than defiance – the thought was “solidity now, arrogance. after”.
The problem for Arteta, 38, is that those promising and undeniable early signs of solidity are fading. Only Leeds United’s extravagance in front of goal kept the Gunners from suffering a third consecutive loss in the league, and he now leads his beleaguered team to the Spurs in an attempt to plan another clash and hold against the restored master of that art in particular.
Mikel Arteta’s best results come from playing with a pragmatic style against better opponents. But Sunday sees him face the master of this tactic, José Mourinho. MOLLY DARLINGTON / POOL / AFP via Getty Images
Wednesday marked a year since Unai Emery beat Tottenham 4-2 in his first North London derby as Arsenal manager. The Gunners rallied from 2-1 against in poignant fashion, roared by an Emirates Stadium crowd rallying behind a renewed work ethic and new momentum; one commentator later described it as a performance that “pushed and pushed the Spurs into submission, [providing] more evidence of his transformation under Emery. “
There has been a rush in some quarters to rewrite Emery’s too brief era as 18 months of confusion and misery, but his first season was only a handful of good results from Champions League qualification and a first Europa League win. in the history of the club. Three defeats and a draw in their last five Premier League games, combined with a 4-1 humiliation by Chelsea in the Europa League final, marked the beginning of a capitulation that, in November last year, finally it cost Emery his job and left Arteta struggling. from the beginning to rebuild a sense of purpose.
This work started from scratch, on and off the field, forming the genesis of a more disciplined tactical approach. He prioritized and rewarded hard work and a focus on excessive expressionism, essentially reversing the opposite balance of the Wenger era. Arteta acknowledges that multiple transfer windows will be needed to create the team he wants, and thus a short-term pragmatism has permeated his tactical approach, perhaps best exemplified by regularly switching to three defenders in an effort to provide greater defensive stability. to a notoriously fragile team. . However, that threatens the alarming price of aggressive returns.
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Arteta has come under fire in recent weeks for an overtly rigid setup, seemingly restricting his forwards in a way that awkwardly contrasts with the scoring generosity of Son Heung-Min and Harry Kane across town. It’s a point Arteta acknowledged this week when discussing the team’s lack of goals, having scored just 10 in the same number of Premier League games and recently went more than seven hours without a league goal in open play.
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“We have been winning games producing similar numbers, but we have been very efficient,” he said Wednesday. “That is sometimes a state of energy, a state of mind, a state of confidence that you are doing everything right. When the time comes when you hit [the ball] And it doesn’t hit the post, and if it hits the post, it goes in. That is the difference. Soccer, in the end, is about team cohesion, energy and faith. “
It’s also about individual form. Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang’s remarkable scoring record held up despite the turbulence of Emery’s tenure, but he has only scored once in the league since the first day of the season: a penalty at Old Trafford. Combine that with Alexandre Lacazette and Willian’s continued downfalls, Nicolas Pepe’s struggles to justify his £ 72 million price tag, and Eddie Nketiah’s inexperience; Arteta has only been able to rely on Bukayo Saka to provide a constant threat when deployed to more advanced positions.
Son Heung-Min is flourishing at Tottenham in a way that Arsenal’s forwards are struggling to replicate. Michael Regan / Getty Images
Shifting Aubameyang to a center-forward position is both an admission that Arsenal’s best player has been too peripheral of late and an acknowledgment that they lack a forward capable of joining the play as efficiently as Kane, who has thrived on a No 10 role this term.
Son has scored nine goals in 10 Premier League games with just 20 shots. His expected goals are 3.9. With Son and Steven Bergwijn or Gareth Bale ahead on the fast break, Kane has nine assists in the league to date. His expected assists are 4.33. Both Son and Kane are excelling in terms of maximizing opportunities, and their partnership is thriving as Lacazette and Aubameyang did under Emery.
Arteta’s build is based on its players providing similar efficiency, but they are falling short for a period long enough to cause concern. Similarly, Granit Xhaka and Dani Ceballos were excellent against City and Chelsea in giving Arsenal a foothold in the game, but the suspicion remains that those displays were an exception to a more mediocre rule. Therefore, they do not yet possess the defense or midfield capable of controlling the matches to dominate the big opponents and thus they are deployed in a more conservative way, although not in the more extreme parking levels of Mourinho, in an effort to nullify an opponent. and take risks when they come.
While Mourinho palpably delights in playing the spoiler role, this approach is a means to an end for Arteta.
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“Even when we were winning, we were still very, very far from what I wanted,” he said. “And when we are losing, you obviously see things even further, but again the margins between where we were losing and winning have sometimes been very, very small. There are reasons for that and it’s going to take time, sorry.”
Arsenal are heavily invested in Arteta and are determined to give him time to realize that vision. He has worked hard behind the scenes to instill greater professionalism in a team prone to slacking off and the players, in turn, have responded with a higher level of commitment, for the most part. But at the same time, you’ll need to get results in the short term to avoid further scrutiny of your methodology and ability to get the best out of a team that, while flawed, still possesses enough quality to at least challenge the top four.
If both Tottenham and Arsenal continue on a similar line, Sunday’s game is likely to be a tactical affair and both teams will be reluctant to take the initiative, preferring to limit their mistakes and pounce on their opponents’ shortcomings. Spurs did this flawlessly against City and consequently Frank Lampard was more cautious than usual in adapting Chelsea’s approach a week later. Perhaps Arteta has in mind the July meeting, when Arsenal had 63% possession and controlled long stretches of the second half, only to record just four shots on goal and lose 2-1 to a pair of poor goals.
Mourinho has managed Spurs, Chelsea and Manchester United, arguably Arsenal’s three biggest rivals, but never lost a home game to the Gunners, winning six and drawing four times. Arteta will have to hatch a plan on Sunday. The difficulty is, however, that Mourinho has seen them all before.
Source: espn.co.uk
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