Arsenal: Unai Emery must change the culture of unforced errors

Mental mistakes and unforced errors have plagued Arsenal for years. If Unai Emery can’t fix this, Arsenal will continue to lag behind England’s elite clubs.

The toughest task facing Unai Emery at at Arsenal is not making out team sheets or devising match day tactics. Mastering those issues is of course an essential component of any manager’s job.

In the Gunners’s case however, Emery needs to focus his attention on one single issue: how to keep the club from beating themselves. This starts with changing the culture of unforced errors and absent-minded football that has plagued them for the last half decade.

Perhaps the most frustrating aspect of Tottenham’s first goal Sunday is the fact the squad was prepared for it; or at least they should have been. In his post match press conference, Unai Emery said the team worked extensively in training on defending the long ball to Harry Kane. In spite of this, Sokratis, one of the Gunner’s most experienced players, threw Emery’s entire game plan right out of the window on the first Tottenham long ball.

The rest of the play was even more shambolic. Bernd Leno failed to get a strong enough hand on the shot. The cherry on top was David Luiz failing to track anyone at all, which allowed Christian Eriksen to saunter in and notch the easiest goal he’ll ever score. In less than five seconds, three unforced errors gifted Spurs the lead in a game where they were literally being blown off the pitch up to that point. That’s unacceptable.

Yes, Arsenal’s fight back in coming from behind was admirable. However, Unai Emery should be deeply concerned about how cheaply and easily his team lost the lead in the first place. The longer Unai Emery allows the kind of unforced errors which led to Spurs goals to go unpunished, the longer Arsenal will continue leaving winnable games (and points) on the carpet.

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During the glory days, it was Patrick Vieira who pulled your coat and told you to shape up or ship out. Since his departure, no one has enforced a culture of mental awareness and accountability at Arsenal. The fact that the traditional ‘leadership’ positions in the outfield, center back and central defensive midfield, are currently occupied by Arsenal’s most error prone footballers only complicates matters. How can Granit Xhaka, David Luiz or Sokratis give anyone stick for unforced errors when they are the usual suspects and most frequent offenders?

That leaves it up to Unai Emery to make players realize accountability is not a post game apology on social media. Accountability is an acknowledgement of wrongdoing by an individual player and a subsequent commitment not to make the same mistake twice.  There has to be a punishment for the continued failure, by any player, to honor that commitment. If Emery doesn’t set that standard and enforce it, who will?

Changing Arsenal’s culture from one which accepts unforced errors to one which demands accountability is also one of the only issues Emery can fix without spending money. There is a good reason Arsenal can’t have Manchester City’s talent level.  On the other hand, there’s no good reason Arsenal can’t have Manchester City’s mental focus level. City’s payroll is obscene but it was their ability to lock in and stay locked in last season that won them the championship. Unai Emery should absolutely look to emulate this key aspect of Pep Guardiola’s footballing culture.

The Gunners can’t consistently beat elite clubs, or even mid to low table clubs for that matter, if they are consistently beating themselves with unforced errors. In fairness to Unai Emery, Arsenal’s culture of unforced errors predates his arrival in North London. Nevertheless, Emery’s success or failure at Arsenal hinges on how effectively he changes that culture. That’s why it’s imperative for Unai Emery to send a clear message to the squad that any player who can’t stay locked in and focused on his job for 90 minutes will find himself on the substitute’s bench until he can.