Arsenal and Unai Emery: All about the detail

Unai Emery is changing Arsenal, one step at a time. And for the Spanish coach, as he goes about implementing his ideas, it is all about the detail.

In a particularly intense training session last week, in the build-up to the biggest test of the season for Arsenal, new head coach Unai Emery was drilling his players hard. His point was a minute one: the positioning of the midfielders in relation to the ball when a turnover is committed.

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Emery physically pulled Granit Xhaka into the position he wanted the midfielder to stand him, illustrating the body shape and spatial coordination the Swiss international needed to replicate. It seems detailed, obsessive, pedantic and anal, even. But it is in these details that Emery is bringing about change at the Emirates.

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"“He’s someone who really knows what he wants from each player. He tells you exactly what he wants you to do, but gives you freedom to expose your talent.”"

Shkodran Mustafi, speaking this week in the aftermath of the Liverpool draw, is acutely aware of the details that Emery is drilling into. The German centre-half has been known to go wandering. His positioning can be a little loose at times, a little over-eager to recover possession, a tad complacent, suffering lapses in concentration. But under Emery, such mental mistakes are slowly being ironed out thanks to a relentless focus on the training pitch.

Mustafi’s sentiment is echoed by fellow German, Bernd Leno, the goalkeeper highlighting the intensity of the training sessions under Emery last week:

"“The coach gives us much confidence to play like this and we train every day very hard with him, and in the videos as well. That’s the way we want to keep going.”"

And it is not just in training that Emery is pulling players about the pitch. On the sidelines, he cuts an almost estranged figure, forever gesticulating with frenzied hands, bellowing orders, of both encouragement and direction, as well as turning to the fans and demanding more from an oft-maligned Emirates atmosphere.

All of these mannerisms of Emery have had a decidedly positive effect on Arsenal. They are playing with a greater structure, stability and discipline than they ever did during the later Arsene Wenger years. And they are improving, as Leno said last week:

"“Tactically, it is one step better than at the beginning of the season because it needs time and it also needs time now in the next weeks. If we work like this and play like this, we could have a great season.”"

That sense of optimism for the year ahead comes from the raw, untamed passion of Emery, which bleeds into a ruthlessly detailed work ethic. It is his direction that is turning this team around.

And as Arsenal return to the training ground in preparation for a tough run of fixtures in which every league opponent currently resides in the top 11 places over the next four matches, Emery will continue to push and pull his players into position. Because he knows that every, single step counts.