Arteta is gambling with his Arsenal future as manager

Just a few weeks ago there were aspects of Arsenal that offered motivation as fans. The team had a structure, an injection of youth, longer sustained spells of pressure and points on the board.

Now everything is being questioned again. The previously dormant aspects of Arsenal are bubbling to the surface and clouds have covered the sun. It’s all dark.

As bitterly disappointing as the Manchester United defeat was, losing away from home to a billion pound squad is at least vaguely more palatable solely due to the quality of players faced. A minor salvation on a painful evening.

Falling short at Everton was, somewhat impressively, even worse. From back to front and from the first minute to the last, Arsenal contrived to provide another helping hand to a team in crisis hopelessly scrambling for some reprieve.

https://twitter.com/Arsenal/status/1467976216057679880

Mikel Arteta is gambling with his Arsenal future as manager as he continues to make tactical decisions that cost the team

That’s two matches in succession where Arsenal have faced poor opposition at times of weakness and unearthed methods of gifting them victories by fault of their own.

Having worked on a system that brought successful results, the rulebook has been torn up by the manager over the past 180 minutes in favour. Mikel Arteta gets himself into a position of strength, only to go for glory by putting all his winnings on black.

Establishing something that can be put to good use elsewhere, there is this burning desire to top it all off with the spectacular. Showing clever management by handing Sambi Lokonga the chance to respond to his Anfield setback and being rewarded with a man of the match performance against Newcastle, he felt he had to go one better.

Selecting the ’59 minutes of Premier League football’ Mohamed Elneny at Old Trafford was part of a longing to project himself as superior. ‘He played well here last season’, Arteta said. Even the least informed football supporter knows full well that what happened last season against different players and a different manager in an empty stadium has precious little bearing on the game in front of you.

If it had have worked he would have been heralded as a genius. Sparing the legs of his new signings by fielding a peripheral figure on his way out of the club, the world would have stood in awe over how expertly he manages his squad and can circumnavigate his way through hundreds of millions of pounds of talent on their own back garden with a 29-year-old who wouldn’t start for most teams in the division.

This is not an isolated incident, and it got worse at Goodison Park.

Continued on next page…

Arteta’s Longing to Impress is Impacting Arsenal

His Manchester masterplan, far reaching from what had been worked on over the season so far, fell flat. Elneny was far from the problem on the night, he just was nowhere near being the solution. Keeping him on all game despite chasing a goal felt like forcing the issue: this plan had to work and making the change mid-game would emit weakness on his part.

Fast forward to Goodison Park and to account for his failed bet there had to be another even more elaborate move: Alexandre Lacazette and Martin Odegaard dovetailing as duel No. 10’s with barely fit Granit Xhaka in for the full 90 minutes.

There were no great qualms about his selections. Lacazette at No. 9 can work depending on his usage, and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang had been in such awful form in front of goal that his non-involvement was majorly endorsed. Even Xhaka returning to inject some control into midfield in a bid to shore up that area felt valid.

How the team set up, played, moved and positioned themselves was so far flung from the matches where three points had been secured. That entire performance succeeded in distancing itself further away from the norm than at Old Trafford. In order to atone for the mistakes last time out there had to be an ever grander response; one that would overshadow previous failings and reassert the manager as a master tactician.

There was no need to delve into the complex. Everton are a dreadful team in abysmal form. They’re ****. Don’t take that mantle off them.

Across his time at Arsenal he’s shown glimpses of his talent. Unsurprisingly, all of the more defensive-minded performances were most impressive ones from a tactical standpoint.

The Xhaka playing left-back ploy worked until it didn’t, and his refusal to accept its brief success had finished meant he plugged it until it was too late. Whereas everything about the Villarreal tie was an utter shambles. That still hurts. Deep.

If you are going to experiment as he has, especially for a young coach so inexperienced in this environment compared to his fellow professionals, they have to work. Wholesale facelifts of the team and style have no room for error.

It’s as if he’s waiting for his big break. His almighty vindication.

Then across this season you see the Arsenal teams that tore Tottenham, Aston Villa and Leicester apart in the opening half hour of Premier League matches and wonder why that ploy was abandoned. The bones of an effective attacking structure and transition-accommodating team was there. There were tweaks to make in game states but the foundations had been laid.

These mistakes are not costing Arteta his job yet, as there is nothing to suggest he won’t see out the season. But they are costing him supporters. He’s gambling with his future and even if the backing is there and appears to remain firm, further dicing with the odds will cost him eventually.

Football is a simple game. Arteta disagrees.