This match against Brighton was a bit of a letdown, and the feeling that it could be a trap game., coming after a great North London Derby win and an international break.
This felt like a match between two teams who I am uncertain about how good both of them actually are, and I feel roughly the same after watching the match. The result of this match could feel very different in a month.
Brighton 0-0 Arsenal: By the graphs
Brighton 0-0 Arsenal: By the numbers
8 – Shots for Arsenal, the matches against Brentford (22) and Norwich (32) are looking like outliers with Arsenal settling back into a more modest shot total per match.
25 – Final third entries for Arsenal. Arsenal was only able to get into the final third on 26% of their possessions in this match. This is the second-lowest percentage of possessions to reach the final third that Arsenal has had this season.
4.2 – Passes per possession for Arsenal, the second-fewest passes per possession that Arsenal has been able to put together this season.
37 – Final third pressures from Brighton, the third-most Arsenal have faced this season.
72% – Arsenal’s pass completion percentage for passes that started in their own half of the field. Arsenal’s defenders pass completion rates: Gabriel 88.6%, White 74.2%, Tomiyasu 71.9%, Ramsdale 51.4%, Tierney 46.2%.
42 – The number of times Arsenal went long in their own half against Brighton.
One of the things that was very obvious from this match was that Arsenal did not handle the Brighton press well at all. Arsenal struggled to get the ball out of their own half of the field, with Brighton cutting off all access to build through the middle of the field.
The connection between the central defenders and midfielders and Arsenal’s creative players was really cut off in this match. Martin Ødegaard really struggled to get into the game, finishing with just 29 touches and the biggest pass combo between him and the players behind him being just 3 passes received from Tomiyasu.
The passing networks are a good illustration of some of this disconnect, Arsenal’s defenders average position is significantly deeper and with much fewer connections to players up the pitch than Brighton.
Aubameyang struggles to hold up play
36 – Passes aimed at Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang
15 – Passes that were completed to Aubameyang
41.7% – Pass completion percentage for the targets to Aubameyang
2 – Progressive passes received
8 – Touches in the final third
6 – Passes completed, of 11 attempted, 54.5%
Both Aubameyang and Arsenal struggled in this match. I think that Aubameyang’s hold-up play is a bit underrated (the opposite of Lacazette where I think his is overrated) but in this match, it was clear that the balls aimed at him did not stick. Partly it was that Arsenal was under pressure and was sort of aimlessly hitting passes in his direction, with other half Aubameyang really struggling to control the ball.
This was also the case of Aubameyang not getting the ball in areas of the pitch that suit his skills. Looking at where he got the ball in open play there are just a handful of spots where he was able to receive the pass and then run at a defender or run into space.
With Arsenal’s lack of ability to cope with the press, Aubameyang looked like the wrong type of player for this match.
Thomas Parety’s Shooting
35 – Shots for Thomas Partey in the Premier League
5 – Shots inside the Penalty Box
1 – Big chance
25.7 – Average distance in yards from the center of goal for Thomas Partey’s shots
5 – Shots on target, 14% of his total shots
1.6 – Expected goals, 0.8 post-shot expected goals (based on where in the goal frame his shots end up)
14% – Probability of scoring 0 goals given the expected goals of each of his shots, 43% with the post-shots expected goals values
Against Brighton, Thomas Partey took 3 shots (1 from a free-kick which is fine, Arsenal should probably keep taking those types of shots). The shots were on average 29 yards from goal (32, 24, 30), none of these shots were on target, with all three leading to Brighton taking over possession.
This is a common story for Partey with Arsenal. He has taken quite a few shots with Arsenal (1.7 per match), most from poor shooting locations and far too many resulting in the opposition taking control after the ball goes out of play for a goal kick. When he was with Atletico Madrid his shooting was much better, managing 12 goals and 21% of his shots finding the target.
One of the biggest differences is that just 17% of his shots came from “established final third possession” where his team had made 5 or more passes inside the final third before the pass came, compared with 40% for his time with Arsenal. I think that this is a big factor as it signals that more often than not, his shots have come with several opposing players in the way of his shots.
I’m obviously not his coach, but I think the data is telling us a pretty clear story here, he needs to cut out some of the long shots that he is attempting, especially the ones that come with 8 players behind the ball. Those are the lowest quality shots and the ones that are least likely to turn into goals.
Great analysis of Partey’s shooting which was one of the features of the game and brought up memories for me of John Jensen. They were very speculative efforts and managers like Wenger used to hate low percentage tactics like this. Perhaps a lack of obvious passes ahead of him led to these efforts, without being too critical they are preferable to making a sloppy pass that leads to a quick turnover and dangerous counter attack against us. There seems to be misconception of Partey as a creative force when he is primarily a midfield destroyer and combative presence. Odegaard needs… Read more »
Partey definitely has a pass on him. He had played some exceptional balls with arsenal. But absolutely he needs to pick his shots much better, woeful. It felt like he was getting closer to his first goal, but I don’t feel confident about that at all anymore. Overall I thought he was OK, not great, but I think the bad shooting skewed people’s view of his preformance. Both he and sambi got through mountains of work and covered huge ground and defensively they were good. Its probably going to take a few games to build the combinations between sambi and… Read more »
In terms of taking a shot to score a goal it is absolutely woeful. Some of his shots go so far up in the air it could be a rugby conversion.
But sometimes taking a long shot is the right thing to do to prevent a possible counter attack.
There is a third option and that is to try one of those scooped passes over the back line. But for a right footer I think those work better from the left channel, rather than the right channel…. Similar with shots…
Aubameyang has always been a player who thrives in space where he can show his pace. His all round game is average and he can disappear at times. Expecting him to hold up the ball is a mugs game. Giroud is much missed in this regard, a reference up front can bring so much more out of the rest of the team.
Pierre is an on the shoulder striker, he thrives on through balls. Its something that is never really something you can truly observe on TV because the cameraman just follows the ball. But next time you get the opportunity to watch Arsenal live in the ground, just watch and see how many times he makes really good intelligent runs in behind, that aren’t too difficult for quality midfielders to spot, yet for some reason we hardly ever seem to find him. So whats going on? Are the midfielders we have not good enough? OR Is it a tactical/systematic thing? Now… Read more »
True Aubameyang is a master of the off the shoulder run, the great players with vision will find these runs sadly we don’t have a Bergkamp or Fabregas. Sometimes watching you can spot these passes from the stands yet the player doesn’t look up or have the awareness or sometimes that perfect weight of pass. It is a matter of football intelligence and seeing the picture, Bergkamp would play the perfect weight of pass and had such wonderful vision seeing the move ahead in his mind seconds before mere mortals- how privileged we were to have seen such footballing genius… Read more »
Firstly, we don’t have any Bergkamps in the team. Not even close. Odegaard and ESR and Saka provide good levels of creativity, but we don’t have a genius on the pitch like DB10. Secondly, I think most of our players get their heads up quickly to have a look where Auba is when they get the ball — I think what we’re lacking at the moment is the confidence to get it right. That should come as this team continues to gel together and create those instinctual patterns of play. Thirdly, I think the endgame of Arteta’s coaching philosophy is… Read more »
Does Brighton have one, you make excuses for Arteta everytime by over analyzing things. Conte would make us look really dangerous at least against teams like Brighton. I mean we can lose matches but how about we lose playing with an identity and playing to the strengths of the players available.
Tuchel is doing that with Chelsea. No more excuses for Arteta he is not a good manager and I am not surprised he is just a novice.
My apologies for overanalyzing things. Let me restate it: we’re on a five-game unbeaten run at the moment, and during that spell we’ve played with some identity and played to the strengths of the players available.
Teams like Brighton are capable of beating teams like Liverpool and City, as they did at the tail end of last season.
I don’t think, from what I’ve read, that Conte would like to coach Arsenal Football Club. Tuchel looks awfully happy at Chelsea. We’ve got Arteta for now; sorry about that.
Has football ever worked like that though? You might as well say that because we beat Brighton and Sp*rs at the end of last season, we should be beating Man City. I don’t get this logic that Conte wouldn’t be willing to come here. It’s just not grounded in reality. Juventus had finished 7th twice before Conte joined. Chelsea had finished 10th. Inter had barely finished 4th. The man literally has a track-record of taking on jobs at downtrodden big clubs. All he just requires is time and support with player acquisitions – something we’ve literally showcased with Arteta. But… Read more »
Of course not — that’s not my point. My point is in response to the claim that another manager would make us more dominant against the presupposed lesser teams like Brighton — no one is guaranteed a win, and you can dominate a team offensively and still come away with a draw or even empty handed. From what I’ve read, which is admittedly not much as I really don’t care what Conte is doing right now, he is not interested in the Arsenal project — he is reportedly more interested in United, but is quite happy to have some time… Read more »
Conte literally just quit at Inter after winning the title because they told him they would have to sell players instead of spend more. Arsenal are not big-budget enough for him.
Antonio Conte at Inter Milan: Transfer expenditure – £270 million Players purchased with fees – 19 Fee per player – £14.2 million. Mikel Arteta at Arsenal: Transfer expenditure – £232.8 million Players purchased with fees – 11 Fee per player – £21.1 million Like I said, I don’t believe the logic that Conte wouldn’t consider coming here is grounded in reality. How is Arsenal not big-budget enough when Arteta has literally spent more per player. Have the board forced Arteta to sell any of his best players since he joined? Did they not continue to back him after another mid-table… Read more »
Arsenal do not go for short-termism expensive coaches. There isn’t more evidence needed than that.
Arteta completely turned over the squad with the goal of resetting the club on a path to consistent, renewable success. Conte, like Mourinho, could care less where his club is two or three years from the now.
It would be a complete about-face in terms of the way the club has operated for the past 25 years to go in for Conte.
As I said above, if you want to replace Arteta with someone, you’ll have to look elsewhere than Conte.
I think the only real identity we have under Arteta is in certain moments of the game. We look very dangerous in the positive transition i.e. when we manage to win the ball back in our defensive third, we are getting fairly good at launching counterattacks when the opposition are committed. We are not good at playing out from the back — it is a bit of a myth that’s being banded around because we have scored a few goals over the last few seasons from front to back, but largely we are fairly terrible at it. Brighton pretty much… Read more »
I dont think its necessarily a question of having someone like Dennis in the side, because that is a truly unrealistic expectation to have given he was one of the greatest players to ever represent the club. I was more using his and Wrights understanding of each others game as the point of reference. And the reason they were able to develop that understanding was through a holistic approach to attacking play that was the underpin of Wengers managerial philosophy when he was at his peak. And like I mentioned before — if you watch Arsenal live, you will literally… Read more »
It’s a fair point you make, but I do think it is just a matter of time before our players have the confidence to make those passes more often than recycling possession. I don’t know when those Odegaard/ESR moments happened in the Spurs match to which you refer, but if we were already well up on them the hesitancy to take a risk with the through ball might be easier to justify. That said, Arteta knows as well as anyone else that with Auba firmly entrenched in the striker role, we have to find him in dangerous areas in order… Read more »
Like I said, it’s not a question of player confidence, it’s the methodology being implemented that’s the problem. Pierre can run his balls off but ultimately never ever get the passes he wants because that’s not what Arteta is looking to do. It’s all about creating overloads in wide areas — that’s what he wants to achieve and I’d argue Pierre is practically useless when it boils down to the delivering any sort of consistent goal scoring form from that approach play. If you actually look at the goal he scored against Spurs, it was unbelievable. A one touch finish… Read more »
Spot-on. Partey is capable of slide-rule passes but Arteta prefers his (un)lucky horseshoe. We were beyond lucky to be level at half-time.
I don’t agree Aubameyang was the wrong player for this match. You can see how far up the pitch Brighton’s centre backs were, there WAS space for him. It’s just our midfield could not beat their press. For me, the right side is totally dysfunctional, and the derby last week papered over the cracks. We have zero width out there with Saka and Ode both coming inside and stepping on each other’s toes. We need Pepe in the team, to offer this width and directness, as Saka prefers to come into the 10 role. Personally, I’d start Odegaard deeper next… Read more »
Pepe has the same issue on the right (cutting in on his left). I think in time tomi will grow more and more into an attacking force, he showed glimpses of that against spuds, but not much yesterday. He struggled a bit overall.
Yes, but Pepe still wants to go in behind and make runs, often out wide. Saka is capable, but he nearly always comes to feet and plays like a 10.
I don’t think Arteta wants Tomi to attack, in-fact he isn’t very good at it: see his poor dribbling and crossing percentages. He is a defensive right back.
I agree that pepe is the more direct player, but he does still struggle to give proper width on the right. This is why I’d like to see him with a chance at striker, because then he can get into both wise areas, add a little in hold up play and still offer something direct through the middle. I wouldn’t write off tomi yet going forward, he’s shown some glimpses and he has the pace to cause some damage. You’re right though he’s seems a bit more defensive than attacking so far. The game does highlight the importance of Odegaard… Read more »
Maybe it should be more the WAY Arsenal ended up playing the match rather than simply the wrong player for the match.
can we analyze arteta’s impact in terms of subs and tactics change when games arent going?
I think Tierney was knackered and should have been taken off.
Also Aubameyang and Saka were dreadful to watch and maybe should have been subed both but you can’t help to think that if there is a goal scoring opportunity you need them to be on the end of it.
What’s there to analyze?
If a game isn’t going according to plan, we lose or draw.
He was abysmal in that regard last season. Not much of sample size in that regard this season but nothing of note happened in this game or the first 3 to indicate he’s improved.
Might be a bit basic opinion but it doesn’t seem very good. In the EPL, our record when losing at halftime is 0W 4D 12L. The four draws are Bournemouth(A), Chelsea (A), Southampton (H) and West Ham (A). If we disregard being in a losing position at half-time. Arteta has made game-changing substitutions (rescued a draw or win) subs in about 11 of 65 EPL games since 2019. Including the above matches, there was also Everton (H), West Ham (H) in 19/20 + West Ham (H), Brighton (A), Fulham (H), Crystal Palace (A) in 20/21 Which brings us on to… Read more »
I like how your statement of facts got three dislikes.
If reality is against Arteta, some people will dislike reality, I guess.
🤣🤣🤣 So true. It’s also interesting to see that we’re back to the days of conceding double digit shots like in the last week’s of Emery. That is another seldom-discussed issue.
It’s nigh on impossible to win from a losing position when the gaffer’s tactics produce zero quality shots.
For me Tierney Tomi Auba really underperformed and Saka Mø where average.
To be fair the weather was really an issue because it made it really hard for the precision game Arteta wants to play.
On the positives we have some brave players now. I can imagine losing that game a couple of years ago.
On the negatives bar the previous game the attack is dysfunctional
It has nothing to do with bravery, everything to do with luck. The number of free headers they had in the first half was silly. Hilarious to read praise of a defense that allowed 21 shots.
This team has shown what it can do. Arteta needs to give them the freedom to play the Arsenal way.
Tbf Brighton have really good set pieces or we made them look good.
Luck was a factor you are right.
So if I understand it correctly, Brighton, despite missing their best player and having a much smaller budget, had 60% possession AND aggressive pressing.
Seems to me like they have a really good manager who has set up an exciting style of play despite serious financial constraints.
Meanwhile, we trust in Arteta and his £200 million project – and we apparently spent the game hoofing it long to Auba.
Potter is definitely a good manager, but considering the number of new faces it is going to take a bit of time to build the right combinations and get players in the right areas for their strengths. The big thing is we are actually seeing something different (youth and more direct, higher tempo footy), considering that I’m willing to give some time for those connections and positionings to build and grow. The shitty results with the same old “experienced leaders” and slow boring play was what had me weary of the system.
Our entire front line has been playing together for 8 months now. Odegaard has been there since January.
I never noticed that. My goodness. How is possible for a team with more money to lose, or draw, or not to demolish, a team with less funds on hand? That seems wrong. And how is possible Arsenal took 22 shots against Brentford, and Brighton took 21 shots against us, and neither team was able to score? That doesn’t seem right. I know that some people say that Potter merely flatters to deceive, beating some big teams and drawing some others, and yet finding a way to finish just above relegation every single season, but come on, he’s clearly a… Read more »
Seems he’s not the only sarcasm bot 🤣😉
Potter doesn’t flatter to deceive. He simply doesn’t have a very good squad. Last season, Brighton consistently created chances and defended well. The reason they didn’t finish higher is that their players couldn’t convert those chances, because they’re poor. We complain about Aubameyang being out of form and Lacazette being slow, but Brighton has nobody close to either of those players. The fact remains that you have two managers, of whom one has been able to build a team that plays attacking football – and the other has been able to convince the supporters to buy his – ever changing… Read more »
Fortunately you don’t have to make excuses for the fact that Potter only barely keeps his head above relegation. Well, only the excuse that he has a poor squad, that his brilliant coaching potential is untapped in the dry well of Brighton, which is hardly an excuse. This reminds of when everyone was going on and on about how Eddie Howe should be managing Arsenal because he’s all about attacking football. We missed the bus on that one, too. I mean, if we’re looking down for managers, we have to consider that Burnley coach — we’d never be accused of… Read more »
Good thing we never dropped into the relegation zone under Arteta.
And Brighton is comfortably above us. If Potter is somehow doing a bad job, isn’t Arteta doing a more bad job by being more bad?
Of course, the four points Brighton have on us are insurmountable. I mean, I know we’re only 6 points off the leaders after a disastrous start to the season, but you know we’re mid table — things won’t change.
I don’t think he deserves a bottomless pit of time, I think if we aren’t seeing improvements by Christmas he should switch from a gooner to a goner. Before there was evidence of recent shifts in the age profile of the team and a bit more positivity in his tactics I saw his future in days or weeks. I think 6 months should be the window now – we’d need to be there or there abouts the European places by then and evident progress forwards occurring.
I think he’ll definitely be given at least until Christmas – “the board” would look like idiots if they fired him sooner.
I’m relatively open to jumping on the bandwagon if I see enough improvement, but the one worrying sign is that in the games we’ve won, the gameplan was almost completely different to the horseshoe he kept persisting with all of last season.
If a manager can only improve by doing something completely different to what he had been doing, it might be better to just get someone who does it naturally.
TBH, I think the only way he can improve is by doing something different. The horseshoe is pretty rubbish – and teams are sweating on Tierney a lot more this season, which should be the final death of the horseshoe. A good manager should have more than one system – especially one that does at least appear to have a good mind for the game and who is still learning his trade. I’ve always been in the corner that the biggest issue all along with Arteta was experience. And to date is inexperience has resulted in a lot of mistakes.… Read more »
Personally, I’m completely opposed to appointing former well-liked players as managers.
If they don’t work out, fans will support them far longer than they would anyone else. See Lampard, Frank, Fat.
I don’t think it’s so cut and dry. I think one of the biggest things that needed changing at Arsenal was our soft mentality, I’m hopeful that has been addressed a not now. And it has been that way for years. We could have brought it some other (but more experienced) promising manager (i.e., Stegen) and we still might face the same issues. Emery certainly didn’t fix it, and until now Arteta didn’t either, but it seems as though he also now sees that as a key thing that needs changing. For sure Vieira would not have stood for BS… Read more »
I agree to a point. While I wasn’t one of Ozil’s biggest supporters, I wonder if Wenger’s “live and let live” attitude towards him wasn’t better for us in the end. I think Arteta’s treatment of players has been wildly inconsitent. For my money, starting Xhaka in the NLD was unconscionable. That has to be it for the non-negotiables. You can’t have a player who can fuck up as many times as he wants and all he gets is a slap on the ass and talk about “culture change”. Fuck, does nobody realize that if he hadn’t gotten that moronic… Read more »
I actually agree with all that. Arteta has made massive mistakes in regards to man-management and again that really comes down to his inexperience. That is on the hirers – it was absolutely known at the time of his hiring. Let’s hope he has learned and moves forward, but I 100% agree on Xhaka it’s been the same throughout his time at Arsenal. I mean some of the challenges he made against Spurs he was very lucky they didn’t turn out worse and it was a miracle he didn’t get a yellow. I don’t mind the rough stuff, but he… Read more »
This was a very good point considering where we are and the trajectory of this team. One good win against a really bad Sp*rs side was never going to represent a team achieving full maturity—not even close. Not losing and not conceding away in the slop against a well organized Brighton side is a solid result for this new young team. The real plus is our defense. (Close your eyes and imagine the scoreline if Tierney had to play the match with Leno, Cedric, Holding, and Mari…) The defense is looking promising. It was a mature performance considering how confused… Read more »
I did say here before the game that BHA midfield numbers would stifle our attacking players, what I didn’t forecast was the shocking passing and ball control. Neither the immediate use of long balls to a CF not renowned for his heading or hold up play. It quickly became apparent that Laca could be a better option ( not Martinelli as some suggested), and that midfielders needed to track the lumbering giants that Albion sent forward. How on earth we didn’t exploit the space these left is a concern. A game where we got a point from a return to… Read more »
What’s going on Tierney this season? I have impression that getting the ball to him in an attack is not really working – he is just lumping a blind cross into the area. Is he worse than last season in term of passes in the attacking third this season? I feel like players don’t even want to pass to him because if it is proving such a waste of time
Other teams have scouted him
Yup, it was literally our only outlet last season. Naturally teams are going to try and lock that down going forward. Tierney is a class player and we’ll work out ways to get him involved. Another factor is again Auba being the wrong guy to be swinging crosses in to.
See, this is why I wasn’t over the moon about buying Tomiyasu. He’s clearly a very, very good defensive right back, and I love his character, but he doesn’t really provide an offensive outlet – which we might need if Tierney is having a bad game.
I remain unconvinced that building a team to deliberately have a left-sided bias is a smart move.
Didn’t Tomi almost score against Norwich? In the games we’ve played with him, he’s very much forward and working combinations down the right side. I think he’ll score his first pretty soon (sooner than Partey, unfortunately!). Don’t underestimate him.
The more attention Tierney receives on the left, the more room is opened in the middle – we just have to do better, much better, exploiting them and make our forays count for something.
I’m not a fan of the left side imbalance either, but I think many are coming down pretty harsh on Tomi after his first slightly rough game. Against Spurs he was excellent going forward and obviously defensively. Like Futsboller said he also nearly scored against Burnley. He’s fast and can make a run – I have hopes he can be a strong attacking player in time, maybe not to quite the same extent as Tierney, but not useless. I think the left side imbalance is a big part of why it is going to take time for this current squad… Read more »
This game is a pretty good indication of why Arsenal wanted Tammy Abraham and why Chelsea did not want to sell him to us. He would have been a great target for long balls (which he would have knocked down to saka and smith rowe!). Auba just doesn’t provide that. As a result, Brighton was able to press much higher and more compactly than otherwise. Ramsdale made that pretty obvious in his comments after the game. In other words, a team that wants to play out from the back needs a big target man to keep the opponent’s press honest.… Read more »
I have to disagree. Tammy Abraham is about as much of a target man as Auba is. The idea that a big and tall striker is automatically a target man is a bit reductive. Tall strikers like Auba, Tammy and Haaland thrive on finding and running into spaces behind defenders. None of them are target men in the traditional sense. Despite being big/tall, they’re not particularly combative in duels and headed goals account for less than 13% of their goals scored. The personnel won’t matter as long as Arteta keeps persisting with his one-dimensional and risk-averse interpretation of positional play.… Read more »
Abraham has a young hungry Adebayor look about him, he can shield the ball well and retain possession. Like Adebayor in that breakout season when he was surrounded by Fabregas, Hleb, Rosicky before Beyonce turned his head.(Google it if you can’t remember). Abraham has good pace, can bring others into play in a way Aubameyang can’t and contributes well to a counter attacking style that Mourinho is employing so well in the Italian capital. He wasn’t the worst option that we looked at in the Summer. It’s good to see him grow as a player and take the opportunity of… Read more »
Abraham is a target man, that’s his whole game.
Just read most scouting reports on Abraham. They’ll highlight that through-balls, finding space and shooting early from low cutbacks are his strengths.
We’ve watched him a fair amount in the Premier League. He often struggled when under pressure with his back to goal. How does his game suggest target-man to you?
Like with the transformation Lukaku went through, he’ll be trained to be a Serie A target-man to improve his link up play but he is not there yet. Alex Isak is more suited to that role in this current moment.
Off topic, with a limited budget , a limited squad , Would pay good money to watch Brighton every week , I’d imagine if they had a striker like say Auba who whatever u think of him at the moment would put huge amounts of them chances away , the only thing Brighton are missing is the end product . So what I’m saying is what would Graham Potter do with our squad , as unfashionable as he is ?
I’d be curious to see the theatrical events he’d get the players to perform in, which would provide endless entertainment for us all, but I don’t imagine he’d progress our club much at all. He’s a good coach for the bottom half of the table, no question, and Brighton are lucky to have him right now, but he has finished 15th and 16th, just above relegation with 40ish points. Let’s not even think about going there …
I see your point given that Brighton’s league finishes in the last two seasons are not any better than what Chris Hughton achieved. I can imagine Barca fans probably view Arteta the same way you’re describing Potter (minus entertaining football).
In comparison, Pochettino, Dyche and Eddie Howe had achieved top half finishes by their second EPL season in Southampton, Burnley and Bournemouth. If we compare him to that standard, he’s not there yet.
Admittedly, Potter does seem to have implemented his philosophical and cultural changes on his team to much better success than Arteta.
Potter has done that, and has finished just above relegation.
Arteta is getting there, but we’re not there yet — absolutely correct. His players acknowledge there is a long way to go yet, but they believe. We’re unbeaten in 5 – let’s see what comes next.
I remember that theatrical report too, I think Old Trafford might be the best place for him in the future, not for their famous Christmas panto but to keep their penalty count high.
I feel this is a ‘work in progress’ thing. Mikel knows how to fix it for sure. Even without new personnel. But he just need time on the training ground. That is the problem with a modern style of play. If it was easy everyone would be doing it. Ok Graham Potter is doing it well with Brighton but his team hasn’t had massive change and he has less internationals. I think he cleverly forced play to the touch line and then absolutely suffocated our right side from even switching play. Heck their winger from the opposite side was involved… Read more »
How do you know mikel knows how to fix it? He’s had 1 managerial job and has shown nothing to suggest that. The opposition coach doesn’t have a hard time nullifying anything he tries to do. If we all know his tactics so do they.
With training on we could have utilised Tomi’s left foot lofted pass to bypass the ‘donut’ shaped Brighton press and into Sambi who could have been prepared to step into the middle of that donut.
Interestingly two players who could carry the ball to the edge of the final third have both left the club in Willock and Guendouzi.
And we have someone in the training ground who is expert at it in Wilshere.
I’m not saying he would come back but his coaching would help the youngsters like Patino to develop and use this game as a case study for their own game.
With all due respect due, what do you know about Jack’s coaching ?