I was listening to Factory Showroom by They Might Be Giants yesterday on the way to the grocery store. I’d never listened to that album before and after a few tracks found myself wondering what they were doing with some of these songs. I had committed myself to listen to the whole album so I didn’t quite venture into “this sux” territory and turn it off but I found myself wondering what it must have been like to be a fan of the band in 1996. They Might Be Giants had released Flood and Apollo 18 which were incredibly fun and memorable albums, followed that up with John Henry in 1994, which was ok. And then Factory Showroom.
It was the same band, the same lyrical style, the same musical style, but yet, just not quite on the same level. It felt flat. And almost as soon as I thought that negative thought I realized “yeah, but they put a lot of work into this and I should probably listen to it a few more times before I decide I don’t like it. A real fan would give the album a lot of chances.”
And that’s the kind of positivity that you get when Arsenal beat Manchester United 2-0. Not just beating them but winning after playing a half so unbelievably perfect that it felt like I was watching a simulation. Then holding on for 45 minutes without looking too bothered. And finishing the game up with smiles all around.
Five minutes before kickoff Arsenal were a mess: Xhaka, Aubameyang, and Torreira wanted to leave, Pepe was being dropped because he was reportedly not training properly, Ozil was disinterested, Lacazette hadn’t had a good game in months, most of the players were injured, fans wanted the entire midfield and back line replaced, and dim bulb pundits like me expected United to cruise to a victory. But Arteta had something else in mind.
Arteta had been secretly working on this thing called “tactics” and “teamwork”. He’d been teaching the players how to press as a unit, who to target for the press (Maguire and Fred), and how to space themselves to maximize each other’s strengths and minimize their weaknesses. He then somehow convinced players to run and to track back to help their teammates when they lost the ball and couldn’t recover it right away.
The result was a first half of unbelievable football from Arsenal. We dominated possession and when we lost the ball won nearly every duel. Torreira was constantly nipping in, winning the ball back, clearing out the danger. Ozil was tackling and pressing high up the pitch and then dropping to collect and spring counters. Aubameyang ran tirelessly up and down the left side, covering and trying to get counters going. Pepe rinsed Shaw time and again and got his fifth goal of the season, a beautiful curling shot – the Pepe special – with his left foot. Pepe nearly had a second goal but hit the post and also would have had an assist off the corner, but de Gea had a moment of decent play and kept the header out from Lacazette. But Sokratis was there to put home the inevitable rebound. Lacazette held up play magnificently against the £80m Englishman Maguire, even turning him inside out at one point and having a shot go just wide.
And that was just the first half. In the second half, you could see that three games in the last week plus the high tempo of the first half had drained the players. Arsenal sat deep and tried to protect their lead. That was a bit nerve-wracking because for some pretty long stretches we couldn’t get out of our own half. And when we did get a counter going, it often fizzed out.
I said Aubameyang ran tirelessly earlier but really he looked done for most of the second half. We could have scored more goals but often when he or Lacazette broke, neither of them had the energy to make a full pitch sprint. Auba kept trying to find a teammate rather than take on the defenders and it didn’t really work.
I thought “this is the moment, this is when we lose this and I have to write about how we played well in the first half but just didn’t quite have the strength to pull through in the second half.” But then something happened, something weird. David Luiz started organizing the players. Players were talking to each other. David Luiz even told the crowd to get involved! The crowd responded. As much as the crowd had been behind the team in the first half, the second half felt like everyone was waiting for the inevitable collapse. When David Luiz got the crowd going in the second half, it wasn’t like a roar or anything came down from the stands but I think it did just enough to shake off the nerves. People started singing, the players got a little more energy.
Everyone knew what was happening: the team were dipping, this was the moment where Arsenal of the last three to five years falls apart, and everyone – I mean EVERYONE – chipped in to win this game. Instead of collapsing, throwing our hands up, and adjusting our shinpads when they inevitably scored, the team and the fans redoubled their efforts. Arteta brought on fresh legs, which didn’t really work but hey, he tried! Meanwhile the old men were out there giving it everything. Ozil was challenging for headers!
I couldn’t believe what I was seeing and by fulltime I couldn’t believe the smiles I was seeing. We had won. We kept a clean sheet! We beat Manchester United! We weren’t celebrating in front of the supporters like we’d won the World Cup – we aren’t Chelsea FFS. But Xhaka was smiling! Ozil was smiling! David Luiz was smiling!
And after the match David Luiz gave an interview which is the most honest recap of what had just happened in the match and for the last 18 months at Arsenal.
“I think it was great. We were great in the first half and showed a maturity in the second. We have to be honest and admit physically we are not ready, but you have to show heart and this team is ready to change a lot of things.We showed that today and we are going to do big things in the future.”
He then added:
“Mikel is a great coach, he knows football, he was a great player. He brings things where I believe in his philosophy and I think he can improve every single player. And in life when you are happy results can be different. If you work with happiness and believing what you are doing it is totally different. Our season started very bad but things can change.”
Sokratis was with David Luiz and gave a similar assessment:
“We know that we are not ready to fight for 90 minutes and for this second-half today, we struggled, but I think every player now likes the way that we play. The fun is back. We have to try more and play better and better every game.”
And Arteta after the match was equally honest.
At the end of the day, we’re getting judged by results. That’s going to give the players a massive lift in terms of confidence, that they can play against any opponent in this league and be better than them, dominate them, and compete against them. That’s something that, in my opinion, for many weeks, they haven’t been doing together. As well, what we are trying to create is not just words, it’s actually happening and you can see that happening. That generates more belief. That’s only about winning games.
There is so much more fallout from this match than I can even cover in the two hours or so that I have available to write today. Xhaka is staying at the club, Arteta said Torreira is playing better under him than he’d been in weeks, all the players seem to be improving under Arteta, Nketiah might return to the club, the players were standing up for each other, the fans were standing up for the players, leaders are emerging from the pack, we are pressing, we are working to improve the fitness so that we can press more, gah.
Obviously, the long dark winter of Unai Emery isn’t over. We still have months of hard work ahead to turn Arsenal back into a team that will challenge for the top four but you have to admit that this is just about the best possible start we could have expected. My only complaint is that we should have appointed Arteta in the summer.
Watching this match in particular (and the first half against Chelsea) made me realise how much I’ve missed watching the ‘real’ Arsenal. There’s the shoots of an emerging identity, a sense of purpose, and an enthusiasm that we’ve been without for far too long. Goodbye ennui, hello a new investment in the team. Arteta will, I think, prove an excellent appointment, and one we could not have made had another club given him his first chance.
I’m more Zen in my thoughts – Arteta in the summer would not have been the right place and time. Now is the right place and time.
Nketiah is going back out on loan, probably Brighton, who are incredibly keen on him and which would be better for Eddie, it will get him some Premier League experience. We don’t need another forward unless there’s plans to sell Laca or Auba in January and although I’d see the value in selling at the top of the market in January, after the way they both played yesterday I can’t fathom how you replace them when we’re still only 10th.
I thought the team was supposedly fitter under Emery? When we had that big 22 game unbeaten run last year weren’t people crediting our strength to keep going in the last 15 minutes? Now Sokratis and Luis are suggesting we’re physically short to play an up-tempo Barca/Gegenpressing style.
I’ve given Arteta’s hiring thought– as far as timing– for many months. Right at 2 years actually. The ‘right time’? Before the Unai Ennui Crater had been blasted into AFC.
All will be good. I’m confident.
Could have been better. Sooner.
Jack Action ->’I thought the team was supposedly fitter under Emery? When we had that big 22 game unbeaten run last year weren’t people crediting our strength to keep going in the last 15 minutes?’
We’ve never been so aggressive and active under Unai. They had stamina to maintain the game played with Unai’s approach. Now every player is on front foot, trying to win the ball higher, not sitting back passively. This way of playing demands much more energy. They may have be fatigued. I just hope that summer preparation won’t hit us during this seasons’ turnaround. It is gonna be tough to prepare players better physically during period where games are popping up every 3-4 days.
I loved the attitude, I loved that I felt energized and like watching the team I have fallen in love with. I am very very impressed by the way Arteta communicates. I watched every interview since he came and every sentence is well-thought, perfect, ideally fit to the culture of the club. Players seem to feel relieved as well, amazing to see underperformers to put such a dedicated, almost faultless performance individually and as an unit.
There are gonna be worse moments, a lot of work has to be done but well, I am excited again which is great. Well done Mikel, well done players!
“. I am very very impressed by the way Arteta communicates. I watched every interview since he came and every sentence is well-thought, perfect, ideally fit to the culture of the club”
So here’s my evolution on the subject of communicating with the players. At first I thought too much was made out of the fact Emery spoke poor English , and since most foreign players speak two or three languages these days, and the Arsenal roster is truly an international one, I thought Emery would’ve been fine.
But then I started to listen Emery’s pressers and it became obvious to me that his problems in that department went beyond his ability to speak English.
Like you , I’m most impressed with Arteta getting his points across in the most efficient and succinct manner.
No pausing, no delaying. His ideas and answers just roll off his tongue in a clear and most coherent style I’ve seen from any football manager, and that includes peak Wenger or Klopp.
We still have some significant issues that aren’t going to be quickly fixed. But certainly came out of that match yesterday feeling a lot more positive than I have in a while. It does feel like Arteta has instilled a new attitude in the team.
And on a further positive note, Mourinho and Spurs have already started having the expected issues, further reinforcing that we were correct in not hiring him to replace Emery.
Today is not for coulda, shoulda, woulda but to bask in the afterglow and listen to Reef “I’ve been down yeah, but I’ve come back brighter”
And I see that the club has confirmed Chambers has a torn ACL and is having surgery today. Crappy on multiple fronts. First, he has been working hard, and has arguably been the most consistent defender this year. Second, he was also versatile enough to be able to cover in several different positions.
Hopefully at least 2 of our 3 recent ACL injured players can come back to where they were. That was supposed to be the core of the young defense.
Tim knows.
Happy New Year, Gooners! I was beaming after this performance and hearing our coach. Just beaming!
One Arteta. (I know it’s a bit early for this, but it feels right)
In all honesty, Arsenal and I mean the entirety of it, should just stop putting “being” in the top four as a target/ goal EVERY season. If it’s about being in the champions league then our target should be the winning Europa league! Now that a sense of self-belief is creeping back in, M8 should in my opinion put alot of thought into the remaining bit of the season by basically improving on the teams consistency in the coming games which should be inturn magnified in the Europa league games otherwise I feel a repeat of Baku might be inevitable. Other than that, on to the next one lads!!!! COYG!
Sigh.
This old canard, again…can we just, like, not go there right now?
I will not be writing about Emery again, but this is my vent in his tenure.
Going around different countries, on different continents, you catch the differences in how people play and their approach to football. In Africa for example, the western countries (Senegal, Cameroon and etc) are very physical and have a lot of individual ability, the eastern countries (Uganda, Tanzania and etc) have a lot of endurance and play at a high tempo for a lot of the game, north African (Egypt, Algeria, Morroco and etc) sides are more technical but focus more on mtacticsind games and cynical tactics (sorry), the southern african (South Africa, Zambia, Zimbabwe and etc) sides are the best technically and are usually more focused on entertainment than winning, but not tactically intelligent or physically gifted.
What you will also realise are the similarities throughout the world. These aren’t really direct similarities in the actions, but the principles. In building a side, across the world, a coach starts by instilling his defensive system first before anything else. Whether that defence is reliant on interceptions, tackles, pressing or keeping possession, the foundation of the side will and should always come first. Secondly, consistency in structure is non-negotiable at the beginning of any coaching tenure. Players should put into practice, all the principles of your philosophy, regularly to become effective and efficient in it.
Everything else depends on how long it takes the side to be able to put the defensive system into practice consistently.
.. Unai Emery arrived at Arsenal saying all the right things and I think we all believed him. We gave him the benefit of the doubt and supported him. But as a coach, he failed to apply the basic principles of starting your reign, he failed to build a foundation for whatever he wanted his team to do, and worst of all, he failed to tackle the clear and obvious weaknesses of a club in turmoil. He instead, ignored them and destroyed the foundation of a good attack left behind by Arsene.
We spoke about spatial awareness recently in this blog, and it was mentioned that it is important in day to day life. It’s the same for coaches off the field. There has to be an understanding of what is bad, what is good and what are the tools at my disposal. Emery never seemed to have any awareness of any of that. He is giving interviews right now, that show how he is still blind to where he was and what he had.
Arteta a speaks of non-negotiables a lot, but coaches are hired with certain things as non-negotiable, and following the basic principles is one of those. It isnt even something that should be told to you as a coach, its just natural, like breathing. Emery went against coaching 101 in everything he stood for and did at Arsenal. It was so bad and unreal that it feels like sabotage to me. I felt and still feel robbed, like when a taxi just goes the complete wrong way and leaves you stranded further back than where you were found.
In a very big way, the Emery time does seem like a waste. A little better coaching on his part, and we’d have gotten 4th last year, had more money from CL, and not been stuck playing on Thursdays.
But trying to take the glass-half-full view, it did give Arteta another 18 months learning coaching in a good environment. Hopefully that’s of enough long-term benefit to Arsenal to outweigh the short-term pain of the Emery era.
I feel the same way. The emery era seems like a sick joke or a nightmare. A David Lynch film. He actively made us much worse. Much less than the sum of our parts. For reasons nobody could understand and that he couldn’t explain no matter the language. His communication is always garbled. He ostracized and alienated our best players for no apparent reason. Chopped and changed lineups and systems every single game, confusing everyone to the point where nobody cared anymore. I truly feel sorry for the next team he manages.
This side has been questioned over and over on this plartform. I have tried to defend the quality in the side and the fact that this squad isn’t even badly built. Maybe a few of the players do not have complimentary partners, but tactics can fix it all if you have quality around you. We have quality, really enthusiastic quality that ran themselves into the ground for Unai, who simply gave them the wrong directions. Form isn’t the same as ability (quality). If you have seen a player play well for a sustained period of time, it’s almost impossible to rapidly fall off a cliff/lose your abilities on the ball. There are many different factors that can come into play to bring about rapid change in fortunes, but nature doesn’t allow top level players to become bad in a 18 months, let alone a few years.
Last night I saw a line-up which should be running through this league campaign, and we are finally playing towards the players’ potential. All those players, outside of AMN, Leno and Aubameyang are pillars of very good national sides. Leno is a world class goalkeeper, top ten in the world, ask goalkeeping coaches and they will tell you. Aubameyang’s qualities are obvious to us all. Emery made them, and most fans, forget how good they were, forget all that they have done before in their very good careers and believe that they aren’t good enough as individuals or as a collective, to stamp their authority on any side.
Unai Emery, as a coach at Arsenal had me questioning his credentials. I do not hate the man, I just feel that he is a terrible coach after what he has done at Arsenal. Deep down, I also feel that I may have misunderstood him as a coach and I can’t wait to follow his next appointment so that I can see if his time at Arsenal defines him as a coach (terrible) or where there circumstances that forced him into the total clusterfuck that was his reign.
For now, I am enjoying a team that is trying to maximise what it has, instead of playing in perpetual change, depression, fear and just plain lack of direction. Long may it continue.
“If you have seen a player play well for a sustained period of time, it’s almost impossible to rapidly fall off a cliff/lose your abilities on the ball. ”
Yes! But if this applies for players, doesn’t it also apply for coaches? Unai doesn’t get this job if he doesn’t have the credentials and communication skills good enough to be hired by PSG and Arsenal. He was not uniformly awful, either. At the very least, he carried himself with class and grace. It’s difficult to fathom how it turned out so poorly for him at this club. Even in his most memorable game in charge, when he had us saying we had our Arsenal back, we were down 2-0 to Tottenham before that stirring comeback. His lasting legacy will be that demolition in Baku at the hands of Mauricio Sarri, who was the PL’s most predictable coach for one season.
Sometimes coaches do fall off the wagon. Their ideas become stale, they lose their connection to their players, belief sags and performances dip, but the coach simply doesn’t have it in him to innovate. Unai is too young for that. Other times, ideas and concepts fail to resonate with a team from the word go and the fit, or marriage if you will, was wrong from the start. I think Unai belongs in this category. The Arsenal hierarchy were impressed with his depth of football knowledge but they didn’t give enough consideration to how he would jive with the club’s best player(s). I think the team skated by on talent and enthusiasm for as long as it could but it all came crashing down when the players realized they weren’t improving, the team was playing worse and worse, and that the coach had no answers but to double down on the same tactics that yielded poor results previously. Unai had his methods that were effective for him before, but he and those methods never belonged at Arsenal.
Good summary, doc. These things are never black and white. Not that many people agree, but I thought that the choice of Emery was rational. Arsenal was a bad fit. Not an inspiring or revolutionary hire… a rational one. I was fine with it. We all lapped up the “protagonists” talk, didnt we? A lot hires seem reasonable on paper. There’s no truer test than doing the job.
“Man management” is probably as important a skill as tactics. I look at Arteta’s clean slate approach and I think of a mistake I made with a recent management role. I let the board convince me that a senior manager and one of my DRs, “Derek”, was a troublemaker, and an early test of my management acumen would be to effectively manage him out. Turned out that the corporate culture was rotten, and Derek didnt take s*** from slackers. But by then, it was too late. Trying to navigate it, I managed to lose both Derek and the slackers who hated his methods.
Football is a different corporate cuture, but I should have evaluated the situation with Derek and co fresh eyes. Clean slate can sound like management-speak, but it is a darned important concept. Arteta got that, Emery didn’t. It’s why everyone is busting a gut, and seemingly playing for him. Arsene and Emery believed in having some distance from the players; Arteta is all Kevin Keegan and Kloppian hugging. That guy. There’s be bumps on the road, but I can wait to see what else he unlocks.
Thanks for sharing that Claude. My own Story of leadership failure was when I was nominated to captain my team. It was coed ultimate frisbee, mostly college kids and not much in the way of athleticism, experience or talent. Tone deaf to all of this, I started by sending a dense, self indulgent manifesto outlining my proposed structure and expectations for the season. Despite that, early attendance and enthusiasm was good but soon dampened by an excessively prolonged warm up
Routine, overly complicated drills that were way over the skill levels of those present, and frustrations started to build to the point that the women on the team eventually started their own separate team. It didn’t help that I tore my ACL on the first game of the first tournament we went to and my time was already consumed by medical school. When I reflected back on it, I realized I tried to build my dream without building a cohesion first. I tried to focus on being competitive without first establishing competence in basic skills. I prioritized structure over fun. I wanted to build a team for me and my needs rather than to suit the needs of those involved and that is why I failed. It is one of my favorite failures because of how much I learned from it. Unai wasn’t as bad as I was but the thread of tone deaf insistence on a certain style despite poor results rings true in both stories.
Interesting Doc! Ultimate was perhaps my best game. And the sport where I’d captained most. Like football, you can play it with many people and one disc. And it is fun at whatever level you play it.
Played for the first-ever Rice University club team (1980). We weren’t very good. Took us 3 years to win our first game. At cap. Versus the Texas High School for the Deaf at Austin. 😁
Later played for some very good club teams in Houston. A couple of WFDF Worlds in the ’90s. As I got older played a lot of coed as well.
Where was your team from?
Interesting story, doc. I played cricket, but not very well. Certainly not well enough for any fool to put me in charge of a team.
If or when Aubameyang and Xhaka leave Arsenal, David Luiz will become captain. He doesn’t currently wear the armband, but he is clearly the leader of that team.
And I’m pleased for the guy. Been singing his praises, swimming a bit against the popular tide much of the time. Indeed he’s been culpable in errors leading to goals, ball watching being the most egregious. But anyone who watches our games closely can see that he is a top quality defender, who is also a very important distribution option. He is our most intelligent, and in my view, best all-round central defender.
Playing in the compressed field that Arteta ordered he looks a totally different player, as does Sokratis and Xhaka, I have to say. Arteta is simply not letting opposition ball-carriers run unchallenged into acres. In this setup Torreira (Emery’s false 10, weirdly enough) has been terrific. He was dead on his feet yesterday, but recovered after eating a magic protein bar 🙂
Excellent review, Tim. Youre right… EVERYONE chipped in to win the game. Did you even recognise Maitland-Niles? Who the heck was that Lauren/Cafu imitator?
+1 Ainsley Maitland-Niles (Conservative!)
Honstely can’t believe what’s happened to AMN. He had one bad pass but that’s nothing to cry about.
I will say that over the last two games he’s played far deeper than he did under Emery. But it’s not his positional change that’s impressed me, it’s that he’s barely had a bad touch in the last two games. It’s like Arteta taught him how to control a ball in one week. That can’t be true, though, can it?
An army of sheep led by a lion…you know the rest lol
A lot of songs I dislike at first I eventually end up loving. Things that are layered and complex often take time to parse, and what can’t be parsed can’t be properly valued. Of course the songs you dislike could also just be bad songs. It happens, not everything you try comes off.
Maybe football management is like writing music, a kind of alchemy. Maybe Arsenal was Emery’s difficult 4th album, where his muse deserted him. Though I’ll follow his career with moderate interest I doubt his trajectory is up from here on in.
Unlike ours? Because sometimes, you hear the first few chords and think ‘Yes. This is going to be my jam’. I’m excited to see what Arteta has made with our lumps of lead, and he’s still tuning up.
Saw my first Arsenal game at the Emirates last week against Chelsea. Amazing experience despite the loss. AMN was the player who stood out. Looks a completely different guy than the one Emery ushered to the bench. Touch was incredible and his reading of the game impressive. Starting to even wonder whether Bellerin will have a spot when he returns. At least one good problem to have. AMN was just as good v Utd. Still a lot of upside to his game.
Congrats on your first game! Where did you sit? Did you get to any pubs before the game? Did you know folks there?
Thanks Tim! Response on experience is below – it was like a religious pilgrimage. Loved it!
Congrats, LA! Shame that the occasion could not be marked with a win.
Thanks Claude. Long thread below on my experience below. it was like a dream despite the result.
Agree with the folks piling the love on AMN. I had previously identified him as a player with sell-on value who we might move on to generate funds elsewhere, but these recent performances have given plenty of momentum to the thought that he should remain in the squad. His versatility has worked against him in some ways because nobody knows what his best position is, but he reminds me of a young Flamini. Remember that emergency stint at LB in 2006 that launched his career in earnest? It feels like AMN might be on a similar trajectory, though it’s early days to proclaim that.
Squads and coaches like player versatility; the players themselves not so much. That’s why we lost Ox. He wasn’t interested in being Mr Versatility.
Ainsley had talked himself into a corner, saying publicly that he was not a RB. Im going to engage in rank speculation here….
Specuative theory 1 is that that belief that he was one thing and not the other translated into self-belief… he often looked lost tactically.
Two, the coach could have him, play the position like you own it. Youre not deputising for Hector… you’re competing with him
Three, he could have told him that any chance to get in the starting Xi should be seized with both hands… the majority of players do not.
Four, he could even have told him that he stands a greater chance of playing in the position that he does not prefer.
As I said, speculative. Knock on wood, he may or may not sustain his form of the last game. But whatever tactical or motivational thing Arteta did with him seems to have worked.
I dug around for a long time for this, which seems so fitting for this post:
https://www.arsenal.com/news/news-archive/mikel-arteta-player-of-the-year-2012/13
Thank you sooooo much for finding that!
Pleasure! I quite clearly remembered it was on this blog, didn’t know it got lost..
We joined as red members a few months back and I honestly didn’t think we would get tix for chelsea, but right after the Brighton loss, when things looked very dark, someone gave up 2 tix on the exchange and I snapped them up. Section 62, I knew nothing about it prior but I guess it was club level. It was stupid expensive but I will not get to London again any time soon so I splurged. We knew no one – but my son and I had a great time. No pubs – didn’t think it was the right call with my boy. But it was like a dream come true. Literally almost had tears when Auba scored. We hugged and jumped up and down. Fans were great. We sang along and got to see a Chelsea supporter get ushered out from the adjacent section too! The outcome was secondary.
Son of LA’s been a big Ozil fan, so to see him play with that energy was huge for him – and me too.