Arsenal Vs Blackpool: Unai Emery and being professional

Unai Emery has instilled a will to win and game-management in this Arsenal squad that was not previously present. It showed again on Saturday, in a very professional and controlled 3-0 win over Blackpool in the FA Cup third round.

During Arsenal’s 22-game unbeaten run, there was a continued debate among analysts and fans regarding whether the team was lucky, determined or both. Repeatedly, the Gunners would put in poor performances, especially in first halves, and yet somehow scrape out with a win.

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Was this luck? Or was the team showing a greater resilience and winning mentality that had previously been lacking? Or was it a bit of both. In the end, the luck — or mentality — ran out, and the lacking performances eventually caught up with them. But one thing remained clear: Unai Emery had taught this team how to win.

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Those very same qualities were present again on Saturday in a consummate 3-0 win over Blackpool in the third round of the FA Cup. It was this time last year, remember, that Arsenal embarrassingly fell to Nottingham Forest when defending their FA Cup trophy, a 4-2 defeat signalling the end of Arsene Wenger’s reign as the team subsequently began to crumble around him.

The conditions were very similar this year. An evening kick-off. A storied ground, historic opposition and fired-up fanbase, if only for protests against their owners, not against the opponents who were visiting. A rough-and-ready pitch that was not the kind of carpet surface that the visitors are used to playing on. A reserve team filled with young players. Before kick-off, it was easy to see how this could go very wrong, very quickly.

And yet, the north London club was calm, composed, controlled. They scored early. They doubled the lead. They defended stoutly, if a little hesitantly at times. They scored the final goal on the break with Blackpool pressing to get back in the game. This was a very professional cup performance against lower-league opposition.

Arsenal obviously plenty of these performances under Arsene Wenger. They wouldn’t have won three FA Cups in the last five years if they hadn’t. But this felt very much like an un-Wengerian showing. There was steel, grit, preparation, coolness under pressure, mental traits that the players were often criticised for lacking under Wenger.

You obviously cannot solely credit Emery with this change in culture, atmosphere and mentality. The players have played their part, especially those signed in the summer — Sokratis and Stephan Lichtsteiner have a special bite to them that is counter-cultural at the Emirates. But the professionalism that his team showed in this match is a sign that his managerial processes are being understood and executed.

As absurd as it may be to say it, but Arsenal are now a team that knows how to win. They knew how to beat Blackpool. And then they did it. That is what being professional is, and it stems from one man.