Arsenal: Pablo Mari prerogative realistic, but open-ended

Arsenal have made it abundantly clear that Pablo Mari is going to be the defender of the Europa League, but even still, there’s this thing called “making a good impression.”

Arsenal‘s newest centerback, Pablo Mari, isn’t going to play against Newcastle. Mikel Arteta has made no bones about that. Instead, Mari is going to be saved for the Europa League, when we face Olympiacos.

Arteta has made a tremendous decision in meeting this situation head on before it can become anything other than exactly what it is.

The fact that the Gunners signed a new centerback at all has fans excited. Even the mass who had never heard of Mari are optimistic that he could be a solution. And he very well could be, we shouldn’t lose our belief in that.

But by meeting this “prospective savior” narrative up front, two things happen. Two really good things that are absolutely necessary.

For starters, the pressure is taken off Pablo Mari. If there was any hint of “oh man, I’m here to fix a faulty defense,” you eradicate that right from the start. Even if you communicate to a guy that those kinds of things aren’t expected to him, as with anything, actions speak louder than words. The action speaking to Mari now is that he isn’t expected to do more than he can handle.

That’s good, because it then allows him to handle more, if he so desires.

Secondly, it works the same way for fans. Fans are notorious for harboring ridiculous expectations. The club says they sign a centerback, the fans think he’s here to save the world. That is rarely the case, especially for a guy we’re pulling in on loan from Brazil. Of course, the fact remains that you never know, but you don’t want to even go in with hidden expectations, thinking that he could surprise us and change the world.

I really like that Arteta is doing this. He is essentially removing all pressure and expectations from all parties involved while still adding a valuable commodity. You can never have too many centerbacks when you’s gone through what this team has gone through on the defensive side of things. So who knows where he goes from here.

No matter what happens, I’ll not have anything bad to say about Pablo Mari, and this is an added help in that. Kill the expectations and let the player thrive.