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LONDON – In trying to be the team that Mikel Arteta wants them to be, Arsenal once again revealed what they really are. On Sunday, Tottenham beat Arsenal 2-0 and no one could be surprised how it happened. Nobody, that is, except Arteta, who by arming his team with a greater offensive vocation than in many of the most important Arsenal games, fell cleanly into the trap that José Mourinho was always going to set him.
Anyone with a passing knowledge of the methodology with which Spurs have risen to the top of the Premier League table would understand the importance and how Son Heung-Min and Harry Kane add a sharp edge to an otherwise approach. conservative. Spurs beat Manchester City in precisely this way two weekends ago, but there was at least a sense of danger on that occasion, as Pep Guardiola’s team probed with more determination than Arsenal managed at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. . Arteta’s team could have played for another half hour and not scored, so the happy Spurs had to attack and defend what they had once the damage had been done.
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In truth, it was another entry in the catalog of alarmingly naive and painfully dull performances that have cost Arteta’s predecessors their jobs.
Simply put, Arsenal have been at halftime for years, usually at the Emirates Stadium. The scene changed, but the story remains the same. The Gunners won the FA Cup last season with a highly effective counterattack style from Arteta, handing possession and territory to City and Chelsea before eliminating them at halftime. A back three was critical to achieving this greater balance and stability, but here it went 4-2-3-1 with little effect.
Sunday’s deployment was more in line with the “Guardiola style” expected of Arteta, but this was further proof that they are simply not capable of playing that way against the best teams with their current squad.
“In terms of performance, they did everything I asked of them,” Arteta said after the game. “We play the way that I think we have to play this game. If you look at all the statistics, they are in our favor, but at the end of the day it’s about getting the ball into the box.”
“We had the chances, we probably generated more than ever this season, we put the ball in the area more than ever, we had the numbers, but at the end of the day, you have to score the goals. To build something, you need results.
Arsenal inexplicably strayed from the style that had been successful against the best teams, and in doing so fell into Mourinho’s trap when Spurs were left without comfortable winners. Catherine Ivill / Getty Images
Arsenal lack the necessary quality in midfield to dictate terms without leaving themselves vulnerable on the counterattack. That’s why Arteta tried to sign two central midfielders in the summer; It also explains the gamble to launch Thomas Partey despite private reservations that he had not yet fully recovered from a thigh problem. The acute nature of this problem was best exemplified by the vision of Arteta pushing a palpably injured Partey back onto the court in the desperate hope of preventing the Spurs from scoring on the fast break.
Perhaps the most damning accusation from Arsenal overall was that Mourinho seemed very happy to give them the ball. The Spurs sat on the edge of their area and waited for Arsenal’s attacks to fail. Granit Xhaka was terrified of allowing Kane to spin and launch Tottenham on the fast break, rugby tackled him as early as the second minute, but the England captain was able to free himself too easily to play Son in space down the left with just 13 minutes played.
Héctor Bellerin made the first of a series of mistakes (later in the game, he made his fifth free-kick in 11 Premier League games) by watching the ball to allow Son time to cut off his right foot, before he could. Spurs attacker. he unleashed a superb curling shot that didn’t give Bernd Leno a chance. Son have already scored 10 league goals this season – the same number as Arsenal.
Long periods of Arsenal’s sterile possession followed, interrupted by the threatening Spurs at half-time and once again the visitors would be trapped. This time it ended with Son letting go of Kane, who hit the crossbar with a left foot.
Son and Kane have now combined for 31 league goals, with only Didier Drogba and Frank Lampard (36) boasting a better record. You’ve probably heard that before, because everyone has. However, Arsenal was knocked out. Arteta knows it too, of course. He is a studious and diligent coach who tries to bring back to Arsenal the fearsome presence of Arsene Wenger’s peak years.
Stopping the Kane-Son axis is clearly easier said than done, but Arteta abandoned the short-term pragmatism, which gave him promising results, for a more expansive strategy against Tottenham that ultimately failed. In a sense, he was trying to run before he could walk.
Arsenal finished with 69.2 percent possession and just two shots on goal, both second-half header by Alexandre Lacazette. They tried 44 crosses, a strange approach for a team whose forwards are so bad in the air. All of this, of course, was also due to another superbly organized and disciplined Tottenham performance, with Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg at the center of it. It wasn’t the highest-profile summer signing, but Hojbjerg’s arrival of £ 15 million from Southampton is a major factor in allowing Mourinho to play the way he wants.
Sergio Reguilon’s dynamic style as a left back also helps the Spurs transition at lightning speed. Gareth Bale, like against Chelsea, saw the entire match as an unused substitute.
Arsenal must be equally astute in the market going forward. Arteta previously adapted the style of soccer he wants to play so his team can have greater stability, but somewhere along the way they have lost the attacking threat that gave them the opportunity to fight in almost any game. The difficulty now for Arteta is that he needs to find a route to more consistent short-term results before the Arsenal team desperately needs him.
“It’s very simple. We need to score goals. If not, it doesn’t matter what we do in the other departments of the field,” Arteta said. “If we don’t score goals, we can’t do anything, so we have to urgently get the ball into the net.”
There is widespread recognition of the magnitude of the task that the Spaniard has inherited, but Arsenal are now 15th in the table, 11 points behind their most staunch rivals. Otherwise, there is more pain ahead, exacerbated by Tottenham’s continued emergence as true title contenders.
Source: espn.co.uk
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