Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal developing new balance within team

Football is more than just the goals. It’s more than the assists. The reason we love it so much is because football is about character and style just as much as it is about the end product. Arsenal’s slick one-touch passing under the French genius Arsene Wenger was renowned for its aesthetically pleasing style.

This would come at the cost of wins later in his era as tough, physical teams battered those in red and white.

Unai Emery’s reign, by contrast, was incredibly amorphous. While he may have had a plan on how he wanted to play, nobody could see it on the pitch. Next comes Mikel Arteta. To say his road has had its ups and downs would be a gross understatement. Added to his battle with COVID-19 and the three month shutdown of the Premier League was the dejected squad.

While he hasn’t had much time to bring in players cut in the cloth he wants, the style he wants to implement becomes clearer with every game. He has found the right combination that his predecessors could not; a way to combine technical security with work-rate and grit.

Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal developing new balance within team

Wenger’s later teams were often criticized as too soft and unwilling to run the hard yards to defend and fight for the team. They were too focused on ‘pretty’ passing. Arteta has found balance.

One only needs to look to the squad and performance against Tottenham to see the order Arteta has brought; technical players are still included in the team. The likes of Emile Smith Rowe, Martin Odegaard and Bukayo Saka are all players who are elegant on the ball.

All three (unlike certain German playmakers) track back and press all over the pitch. The midfield also boasts a neat blend of technique and resilience. While Granit Xhaka‘s renaissance is a marvel in its own right, he has been helped greatly by Thomas Partey’s ability to scrap and win the ball back and then slalom through opposing players to get the ball up the pitch.

Balance is incredibly difficult to find in a football team. Arteta’s previous team, Manchester City, was accused, like Wenger, of being too attack-minded at the expense of defending. Defending is half of the game after all. This season, they’re finding stability.

Although the table may seem to say otherwise, Arteta is giving Arsenal an identity of their own.