Arsenal: Commitment will bring down players’ protective shield

Arsenal have appointed a new Head Coach. His name is Unai Emery. Suddenly, the protective shield of Arsene Wenger no longer exists for many players. Commitment, therefore, is the absolute minimum expectation.

Arsene Wenger is the last of his kind: an all-powerful, all-knowing manager who has a detailed input in every single aspect of the club, from the tactics on the pitch to the meals served in the cafeteria. In the early years, Arsenal flourished because of it; in the latter, many were protected. Wenger was a shield.

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The board’s hesitance to invest and rival their lavishly-spending domestic challengers was protected by Wenger; the players’ failure to execute his plans were protected by Wenger; the club’s overall ruthlessness was protected by Wenger.

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Obviously, Wenger had an influence on all of these aspects and was as much to blame as anyone else. But precisely because of his control, many others allowed him to shoulder the scrutiny and criticism while failing to contribute positively themselves. That protection has now been stripped away, particularly for the players.

Unai Emery is the new Head Coach. He will not be so loyal to these players that he has not coached before, has no prior relationship with, and will demand a level of immediate commitment from. Here is French football expert Julien Laurens delineating how the players at Paris Saint-Germain were not fully engaged and loyal to Emery’s plans:

"“His first game at PSG was the 2016 Trophee des Champions – the French Community Shield – against Lyon and they won 4-1. PSG played with an intensity like they never had before. It looked like his philosophy – pressing high, running a lot, attacking a lot, defending a lot, full backs bombing forward. But then the players said they should go back to what they know because they were used to tiki-taka football where they took their time. Emery had to evolve a bit to accommodate his players, when it shouldn’t have been like that – it should’ve been the players accommodating his philosophy.”"

It is in this next period that we will see the Arsenal players be thrust into a light that they do not necessarily want to be shone on them.

Will they, like the PSG players before them, act irresponsibly and pridefully, not fully committing to Emery’s ideas and subsequently executing them poorly? Or will they fully abandon the Wenger ways and totally lay themselves down for Emery to build as he so chooses? I sincerely hope that they take the latter path.

And for those that don’t, there is now nowhere to hide. There is no Wenger to hide behind. There is no protective shield with which to cover one’s lack of contributions or effort or quality. Emery does not have the loyalty to any of these players; the fans, equally, can now view the club with the Wenger-tinted glasses.

Next: Arsenal: 3 things that Unai Emery will offer

The question of commitment could well catch out a number of these players. It will be interesting to see which ones follow Emery wholeheartedly and which are exposed in a new light. Gone is the shield; here is the assessment, the scrutiny, the judge, the jury, the court sentence.