ARSENAL’S comeback at Stamford Bridge on Tuesday night had Gunners fans purring – with many believing they’ve got their old fight back.
New boss Mikel Arteta certainly seems to have put the spine into supine — Arsenal’s prior pushovers have now got some fire in their belly.
Despite poor results, Arteta is leading Arsenal in the right directionCredit: Getty
Arsenal have already been shown two red cards under ArtetaCredit: Rex Features
At least that’s the message David Luiz’s red card against Chelsea seems to send. His dismissal was the second of the Arteta era already.
That red card rate even surpasses the early days of Arsene Wenger’s management.
But the aggression is not all that’s changed at Arsenal since Arteta became the long-term successor to Unai Emery in mid-December.
Arteta’s old team-mate, Robin van Persie, told BT Sport: “You can clearly see a different rhythm of the Arsenal side, they play on and off the ball, they seem to work harder.
“So you can already see his hand. But he needs time to really get them going.”
Although Arteta hasn’t had much time yet – six matches so far, against 14 for Emery this season – there has been a marked shift in the way Arsenal play.
A common criticism of Emery was that he had no style of play. But he did. Arsenal under Emery favoured two distinct ways of attacking.
GONNA GET THROUGH THIS
FIRST and foremost, what set Arsenal apart from all the other teams under old management was how often they could pick apart the opposition with through balls.
Under Emery this season, Arsenal threaded the ball through the eye of the needle in opposition defences THREE TIMES as often as the average Premier League team.
But it takes time to play that perfect through ball, and Gooners found all the patient build-up about as enjoyable as watching 90 minutes of needlework.
Even though the other team that favours the through ball the most is Manchester City – home of Arteta’s old mentor Pep Guardiola – the new Arsenal boss has slashed the number played by two-thirds.
It means the Gunners have gone from being the most prolific through-ballers to the fifth least.
DON’T BE CROSS
THE other way Emery had his team playing was to hit lots of crosses.
Under their former captain, the proportion of crosses Arsenal play has also fallen dramatically.
This means Arsenal are no longer keeping company with the likes of Burnley, Sheffield United and Newcastle at the top of the crosses-per-passes table.
The Spaniard’s reluctance to have his players sling it in from wide make good football sense.
Although they don’t suffer from Dennis Bergkamp levels of a fear of flying, Arsenal’s forwards are not the strongest in the air, so finding other ways to service them seems a good idea.
Instead, Arsenal are trying to move the ball more simply. Sometimes this means going from back to front more directly and the number of long balls played is up 13 per cent in the Arteta era.
This tells us he recognises Arsenal’s backline doesn’t have the technical ability to play it out from the back.
BREATHER FOR BERND
KEEPING the ball away from their own goal has helped Arsenal.
Under Emery, Bernd Leno was the busiest goalkeeper in the league, making more saves than any other.
Now the defence is less vulnerable.
So, Arsenal are certainly keeping things tighter, but this has come at the cost of some creativity.
TAKE A CHANCE
THE number of chances Arsenal are getting under Arteta is down. But Arteta will not be too worried.
One key thing that has dramatically improved is the chance-conversion rate.
There might not be so many chances, but the Gunners are sticking away more of the ones they do get.
In fact, Arsenal’s overall chance-conversion rate is higher than any other team’s right now.
And that’s even with the Premier League’s third-deadliest striker, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, unavailable for two of Arteta’s six matches in charge through suspension.
None of Arteta’s changes has had a big impact on results yet, but it is worth bearing in mind the quality of the opposition.
Emery’s 14 opponents had been averaging 1.3 points per game at the time they played Arsenal – the six sides Arteta’s team has played had been averaging 1.5 points per game.
It’s not been an easy ride for Arteta so far – the current win rate of 16.7 per cent (one win, four draws and one loss in six games) shows that.
But, as Van Persie says, there’s a new rhythm to this Arsenal team and a clear picture of how he wants to play.
It’s surely only a matter of time before the wins start to flow once more.
Robin van Persie talks about Martinelli, Pepe and Arsenal under Arteta
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
