Arsenal: Unai Emery away form reason proves patience vital

Unai Emery has blamed mentality for Arsenal’s poor away form this season. Such reasoning proves that patience is vital as he looks to change the very culture of the club.

Of late, Arsenal’s away form has not been the best. A 5-1 hammering at Anfield. A 1-0 defeat at London Stadium. A consummate 3-1 loss to Manchester City on Sunday. In fact, the last time they won away from was November 25th, a 2-1 win over Bournemouth.

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If the Premier League table was calculated based only on away matches, the Gunners would sit ninth, behind the likes of Watford, Leicester City and Wolves. In contrast, Spurs have won 11 of their 13 road matches. Arsenal have won just four of their 12.

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This week, Unai Emery was asked about why he believed his team was struggling on their travels. Specifically, he was questioned on whether he believed it was a tactical or mental vulnerability. This is what he had to say:

"“We can have better balance [in performances] when we prepare by thinking it’s going to be very difficult. I spoke with the players [and told them] we need to think this match is very important for us. Every player needs to be ready, be focused and be thinking we need to win this match. We must impose ourselves from the first minute and throughout the 90 minutes but first is the mentality. It’s to think this match will be very difficult. For us tactics are the second issue. The first is to think we need to win and after that it’s how we can win – preparing tactically and individually.”"

In essence, Arsenal’s away problems stem from a weak mentality. Arsene Wenger often made the same argument when his teams were struggling away from the Emirates.

Emery’s reasoning alludes to the culture of the club. The individual mentality of the players is born out of the atmosphere, the teaching, the culture of the collective organisation. Changing the mentality of the players requires a changing of the culture. And that is a grand old ask of any manager.

It is why Emery must be given time to embed his principles. Emery is not being asked to fine-tune an almost complete squad and add that little bit extra that is needed to challenge for a title and win a trophy. His job is to rip everything out and build from the bottom up once again. He cannot do that if the ground is being pulled from under him. He also cannot do that in six months. It will take years.

Now, that does not mean that he is exempt from criticism. Even in building a house, you can see the progress of the foundations being laid before any of the actual building work begins. Progress should still be seen at Arsenal. But to expect a fully-fledged, complete team with a winning mentality in the first season of the project is utter madness.

Arsenal’s poor mentality on their travels is not the only element of a detrimental culture of the club. Their wasteful spending, the soft underbelly of the squad, the apathetic pressing and defensive work. All of these are symptoms of a poor culture, and that takes years to overcome. Emery, then, more than anything else, needs time.