Arsenal: Unai Emery is making them run, which is wonderful

Arsenal top the Premier League in total distance covered and total number of sprints. Unai Emery is making his players run, and it’s wonderful.

Under Arsene Wenger, there was always a focus on the technical side of the game. Wenger, as a studious, intelligent coach, always professed the importance of attacking, attractive football that prioritised aware, creative and progressive play. It was a staple philosophy of Wenger’s and came to define the Arsenal team under his management.

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Unfortunately, however, there is more to football than just having a few nice touches every now and then. This is a physical sport that requires athleticism, speed, strength, power, fight and commitment, many traits that the Gunners tended to lack under Wenger.

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This imbalance of the squad was a key motivator for many fans wanting change. The same shortcomings of Wenger’s teams persisted every year. If he couldn’t change them, then perhaps it was time to change him.

And so, that is precisely what Arsenal did. Wenger resigned at the end of last season, with his resignation clearly a forced one, instigated by Ivan Gazidis and sanctioned by Stan Kroenke. The man who was hired to succeed him, Unai Emery, has now begun to implement a playing evolution.

Emery still extolls the virtues and importance smart, technical, possession-based football. But he allies such a philosophy with a discipline, a steel, a need for balance and awareness of both the offensive and defensive aspects of the game. And it shows in the stats.

Prior to this weekend’s action, Arsenal top the Premier League in total distance covered with 347.9 km. Spurs, a team renowned for their high-tempo, energetic, hard-running style under Mauricio Pochettino, are in second, just 0.3 km behind their north London rivals. Liverpool, in third, are more than 15 km behind.

It is never a stat that Arsenal ranked high in under Wenger. The priority was in moving the ball as quickly as possible and making it do the work, limiting the energy that the players had to expend. Wenger also did not employ a high-pressing scheme, something that Emery has talked about extensively in the first few weeks of his management.

These players are having to run. I’m aware that this is a sport and that sentence sounds somewhat foolish or overly simple. But under Wenger, it was an element that was often overlooked, ignored, or just not executed properly — this team was often overrun, quite literally, by the opposition.

It is wonderful to see. It is nice to see these players work hard for the cause, knowing that they cannot slip into a state of complacency and comfort, under an expectation to perform with a manager who demands it and competition baying to replace them. This is a new era; this is just another symptom.