Arsenal: Unai Emery now does two things Wenger struggled with

Arsenal are learning to make adjustments in the middle of matches, and that’s thanks to Unai Emery. That’s two upper hands on Wenger now.

You’ve heard it said a ton of times already, but Arsenal‘s match-up with Newcastle United was a tale of two halves. The first half was so stale that it was damn near hard to watch. The second half was completely different. The club looked fresh and determined.

I’m not alone when I state how foreign this feeling is, to see such massive changes occurring after half time. And this is what gives Unai Emery his second major skill that Arsene Wenger never really had.

The first, as I mentioned a few weeks back, was the ability to make dynamic substitutions when necessary. With Wenger, it was always the same players coming on and off and it wouldn’t happen until the 60th minute.

With Emery, if you aren’t performing, you will be yanked. If you are performing, you can stay. Think about how varied his substitutions have been across these first five matches.

At first, Xhaka was being consistently withdrawn, as he should have been. Ozil was too. Now, Aubameyang is being consistently withdrawn, as is Guendouzi. And these are just a couple of examples. The best part is I don’t think anyone has any beef with the substitutions he is making.

More from Pain in the Arsenal

• 3 standout players from 1-0 victory over Everton
• 3 positives & negatives from Goodison Park victory
• Arsenal vs PSV preview: Prediction, team news & lineups
• 3 talking points from Arsenal’s victory at Goodison Park
• Mikel Arteta provides Gabriel Martinelli injury update after Everton win

The second major skill, as I alluded to already, is his ability to change the flow of the game at half. While the introduction of Lucas Torreira was the primary force behind that change, it still required everyone else in the team to be on board with this change, on the same page, and ready to take the fight to the hosts.

They did. Everyone did their part. Like an actual fricking team, they operated together and looked like a completely different team in the second half.

How many times were we as fans left joking about how passionless Arsene Wenger’s half-time team talks must be? Because nothing ever changed at half. Literally, never. Sometimes it would even get worse.

With Emery, if things are bad, they get better. And if things are good, they stay good. At least that is starting to be the norm.

Granted, that won’t happen every single time (probably) but for now, it’s a beautiful thing, and we should enjoy every minute of it. This is a man that can read the game and read the opponent, and he is in charge.