The manner in which Arsenal scored their goals away at Manchester City this weekend was fitting.
Thomas Partey’s quick-thinking freed Gabriel Martinelli to set up Riccardo Calafiori’s equaliser and Gabriel took full advantage of Kyle Walker’s feeble attempts to mark him at a corner. Not so long ago, it was Arsenal conceding goals like these as opponents made them pay for lapses in concentration. They were easy to play against.
It was an issue that needed addressing when Mikel Arteta took charge in December 2019, with the competitiveness shown by Leandro Trossard for both yellow cards indicative of the full-circle nature of Arsenal’s evolution in this regard.
Arsenal hosted Manchester City in a 3-0 defeat five days before Arteta was named head coach. He was in the away dugout as Pep Guardiola’s assistant manager, with Freddie Ljungberg Arsenal’s interim head coach. In his post-match press conference that day, the Swede outlined Arsenal’s issues compared to City, saying: “What we can learn is that we got done again in transitions, but if you look at City, when we countered them, they took five yellow cards from just taking us down.
“That’s something we need to learn, to be a bit more cynical when opponents have a chance to counter because that is a weakness of ours. We need to take those fouls. That (cynical fouls) was intelligent by City. It’s obvious to see.”
Arsenal have become more cynical as they have become more competitive in five years under Arteta. A key part of their evolution has been a growing sense that they come to games looking to play on their terms, whether they have the ball or not. A lot has been made of how the side can navigate matches, especially away from home, and game management has become imperative.
An early example came in the 2021-22 season. Arsenal were 1-0 up against West Ham in a game that could move them into the top four when Martinelli went down with cramp. The forward moved off the pitch for treatment but was quickly picked up by Arteta and told to stay on the pitch so play could stop and Arsenal would not be a man down. West Ham already had a man sent off, so Martinelli being off the pitch would have left Arsenal at 10 versus 10.
@tntsports Arteta was fuming with Martinelli for going down off the pitch and shoved him back on to get treatment 🤣 #arsenal #arteta #martinelli #premierleague ♬ оригинальный звук – UFC
It showed how detail-oriented Arteta is and why changing thought process was important. Play was stopped with Martinelli receiving on-pitch treatment and Emile Smith Rowe went on to cement the win minutes later by making it 2-0.
In three years since, Arsenal have revelled in the ‘dark arts’. Ben White is the chief operator, with his antics well documented, but the whole team are more open to these elements. For example, the instinctive reaction from Arsenal players when a free kick is conceded is to stand in front of the ball to prevent it being taken quickly.
Moments like that seem small but were not the norm when Arteta took over. The culmination of these decisions has helped elevate Arsenal into title challengers just as much as the football they play and make a pull of the shirt to stop a counter-attack or a late kick of the ball par for the course.
Going back to 2019 and the 3-0 defeat mentioned above, City received four yellow cards rather than the five stated by Ljungberg. They were shown to Rodri, Ilkay Gundogan, Fernandinho and Benjamin Mendy. Caught out twice in as many months with second yellow cards to Trossard and Declan Rice, whether they feel aggrieved or not, being more mindful and rotating who acts in certain situations is important. Who is situated near the ball cannot be helped at times, but a recognition of who has already been booked may help.
Arsenal were soundly beaten 3-0 in 2019 (Ben Stansall/AFP via Getty Images)
Arteta and Bukayo Saka voiced their concerns over the consistency of refereeing decisions, with Joao Pedro and Jeremy Doku going unpunished for kicking the ball away in respective games against Brighton and City, but it does not change the fact the decisions were made.
Even if certain moments can be handled better, Arsenal are no longer easy to play against. They are a genuine threat to City, which was made clear in how animated Erling Haaland was both after John Stones’ equaliser and the full-time whistle. That comes from how Arteta has made them more competitive in the way they play and how they behave on the pitch, which should be a compliment rather than a stick to be beaten with.
“There’s needle. You can feel that,” Jamie Carragher said on Sky Sports post-match. “I can’t wait for the return fixture. There’s a real needle and maybe animosity that wasn’t there when Mikel Arteta first got the job because Arsenal weren’t a threat to Manchester City.
“This animosity is going to keep building. You think of Manchester United and Arsenal, what Liverpool had with Chelsea all those years ago and there’s that feeling in your stomach. There’s a nastiness about it and I think that’s needed. I love them coming together and seeing the needle on the bench. As long as that friction doesn’t completely cross a line, it adds something to the fixture.”
(Top photo: Justin Setterfield/Getty Images)
Read the full article here