Henrikh Mkhitaryan says the Arsenal squad will continue to work hard at implementing Unai Emery’s football philosophy despite starting the new Premier League season with two defeats.
The new Gunners coach has come in for criticism from certai sections of the media for the way he’s been trying to get his side to play out from the back after both Manchester City and Chelsea took advantage of defensive lapses.
Recognising that change doesn’t come overnight, the majority of the Emirates faithful seem onboard with the idea that it’ll take time to re-factor players who for so long enjoyed the audacity of Arsene Wenger’s free-flowing style. Patience is something that Mkhitaryan is also calling for.
“Everyone has their own opinion,” he told Sky Sports.
“We know very well what we are playing for and how we have to play.
“If we are just going to kick the ball up front and wait for God to give us a chance to score, it’s not necessary.
“The only thing we have to do is to work hard, believe in ourselves and use the chances we create to score goals.”
While Mkhitaryan spent less than six months playing for Wenger, he appears to accept that the balance between offensive and defensive play in the Frenchman’s final months was somewhat off-kilter.
On the difference between Emery and Wenger’s style, he added: “It’s not too different but there are different things because there is not people playing in the same way or thinking in the same way, the philosophy is different.
“Emery kept the philosophy of Wenger but is building something new on it. He knows he can give something different to this club, like the balance between attack and defence. It’s not easy but I think he’s doing it in the right way.
“We have to keep working because we have a new manager, a new philosophy and want to play in a different way than before under Wenger.
“It’s not too easy but we are trying to achieve that and do what the coach is asking from us. He wants to play football and dominate the game and that’s what we’re doing, we’re not just kicking the ball up front.
“We are trying to play football, our second goal against Chelsea we had 19 consecutive passes and then Alex [Iwobi] finished the attack and we scored.
“It’s a new philosophy, we have to accept that and work hard to achieve our goals.”
I believe in u guys….
#metoo
Stick with it, it’ll surely pay off soon.
Defensively Mkhi is a gaping hole in our right flank.
He must be popular n all after his latest contribution so people would just remember that.
But to me he is a clear problem right there that messes the team’s balance.
I would try him as a part of a midfield 3, if it didn’t work, we should bench him.
We don’t have the luxury though bc the buying team neglected to equip us with the right players out wide. They should have accepted City’s lower offer. Instead they went for United and prey to the agent pushing on us a player we frankly do not need (we already had Ozil and Ramsey) Aside from Iwobi (and I am not convinced his best position is even out wide) and maybe young nelson, we have no capability out wide so Mhkitaryan although limited is still one of our better options. That said, many seem too easy to cast blame solely on… Read more »
Both flanks Mhki started on have been our weakest..Its not for a lack of effort likewise with Ozil its just there footballing flaw.They are both physically underwhelming and it has shown more in recent years where every player is an athlete. I would say Mhki has done some great things with the ball but he does tend to lose it alot more than he should given his talent.
most wingers are like that we probably have to live with it.
I remembered we used to slag off pires too for not helping ashley or silvinho in defending he was already 30 and said he would learn to defend more etc…
i dont rememer limpar, merson, overmars coming back to defend frequently too
probably too we used to have proper defenders as full backs, who are fully back most of the time 🙂
Mkhi is not a Pires or Overmars! Not even close..
I don’t know where that came from!
His offensive input is not that valuable, you don’t “live with” wingers who are inconsistent at what they do.
Unless he was a world class match winner, which he’s not, then we can’t turn a blind eye to his shortcomings.
Most fans in general are impressionists. If a player scores a goal in the 10th game they will forget how badly he was in all 9.
That observation is really fair, I think. But I’d say there is a gaping whole on our right-flank, left-flank and centre at the moment.
The team as a whole simply must improve in how they defend.
Many of us were ready to accept that there might be a couple of years of finishing outside of the European spots, maybe even lower in mid table. I’ve had to remind myself of that after these 2 defeats. Tempering expectations isn’t fun, but it has to be done for the foreseeable future. I’m going to just try and enjoy the good moments, nice goals, etc. and not get hung up on contending for the title.
Chelsea finished 10th i think not that long ago, might take us little bit longer than they did to win title ,, but we will be back
I don’t see why we should settle for finishing outside the top4. Granted Sarri also just took over the helm, they have bought better than us maybe, but we should still be able to find the right balance with current squad to push for top4. That said, we will need to start being effective now. Two games and 6 points gone. The Manc teams, two London teams and Liverpool won’t be waiting for us to sort ourselves out. Within the next 5 games, we need to get things right or its another close to wasted year “in transition”. Foremost is… Read more »
Sarri inherited a better squad than us
We’ve also just had two of the most difficult fixtures of the season back-to-back. If we’d had Huddersfield and Cardiff and given them a good rogering, the mood would be very different. We’ve got a good run of fixtures coming up, now let’s go and batter West Ham.
Mid table is out of the question. Take it from me, we’ll be closer to United, Chelsea and the other lot this season than we were last season. This team will get better as they master the new concept.
If we can finish only 3 points behind a spectacular City team at home, as we did, we clearly have the talent to finish top four. The difference between 2d at home and 12th away cannot be the quality of the players; it is caused by failings that can be solved–by these players.
There is so much quality in this team and the quality of the manager and the coaching staff is already evident to me. So much so I have no doubt that we will be knocking on the door of the champions league again this year. I wouldn’t be surprised if the normal north London order is restored this year.
There is still no way we’ll be down in mid table. Football may have changed since the cost saving austerity early Emirates years, meaning top 4 is no longer a given for a team of our quality, but the lower end has got far more bunched up – the points tally for 8th the last two seasons has been 49pts and 46pts respectively. Two seasons ago 8th and 17th were separated by only 6 points. Even with teething problems I can’t see us with as low a points total as that at the end of any of the next couple… Read more »
Are we that far behind though off Chelsea? The problem is we haven’t bought as well as we could. If I told you we went in for Mahrez before City showed interest last Jan, we bought a 29yr old Boateng instead of a 29yr old Sokratis, we would be a VERY different team than the one still experiencing hiccups concurrently. Some media pundits would deem 3 years acceptable to have Emery transform us. I feel he has one season maybe. Our wage bill is third or fourth highest but we are out of CL for 2 seasons now. Another one… Read more »
Cheers Mkhi.Now go on and burst their bubbles next week.
“The new Gunners coach has come in for criticism from certai sections of the media for the way he’s been trying to get his side to play out from the back”
Is this the Fat Sam attack? Who else? I’m sure I can probably guess. At least G. Neville recognises, for now, what he’s trying to do.
yeah, neville said it right, the walrus is obsessed with relegation dog fights, we are not fighting relegation, so our tactics are beyond his understanding. so it’s fine.
The other dimwit was Jamie Carragher the man of not so many medals!!! I would rather listen to Gary Neville who actually knows what winning is about!!!
Screw the media
boss, i prefer not to screw whores…
Lol.. you’re commenting lots today, SG. Is it because of the PH that you’re enjoying this little breather from work? SG for Singapore?
This section of the English never seem to learn. Three years ago they were crowing on about Pep’s naivety about the EPL. Today they falling over themselves to praise him.
Unai will get it right if he ignores these thick-skulled naysayers
I don’t buy into the manufactured media panic. We’re in the midst of trying to change the way we play from something that has been ingrained in the players for years. It will take time but there have been positives from both games. Certainly more positives than comparable games from last season
Exactly.
Completely agreed.
Task Number One. Don’t go missing in the grass.
There is a terrific player in Mkhitaryan. I hope to see that more this season.
I know quite a few will probably thumb me down for this but I would also like to see Emery try a different formation, i.e. 3-2-4-2 with the three defenders staying in defence and concentrating on that job (lich, Sokratis and Nacho would be my choice) and then have Miki and bellarin battle it out for a place on the right mid/wing – didn’t bellarin start out in this position before Wenger converted him into a right wing back? The other reason I would like to try this formation is that the two players sitting in front of the defence… Read more »
So no goalkeeper? Interesting idea…
No keeper then?
leno must now b very worried indeed
The GK goes without saying surely?
It does, so a 4-4-2 formation has 10 outfield players.
3-2-4-2 is 11 outfield players and would mean no goalkeeper.
Oops my bad lol I meant 3-2-3-2 formation or even a 3-2-4-1 – think I need a bigger keyboard ?
Mikhi you’re so fine !
I hope he as well improves. Missing for 2/3 of the game is not helping to the cause.
ha, I don’t know why blogs thinks that we will have some idea as to how we are progressing by the end of October, because in reality we wont have any idea until a couple of seasons as to how we are progressing, I mean lets face it this team is no where near good enough to get into the top four, until we get rid of wengers deadwood we have no chance, even if the great merlin was in charge, so all you arsenal fans don’t start complaining till then