Martin Keown has claimed that Mikel Arteta is making similar mistakes that Unai Emery did, by keeping to change the system in use at Arsenal.
Emery enjoyed a reasonable opening season for our side, leading us to the Europa League final, before the whole team fell apart during his second campaign, and Mikel Arteta is in danger of falling the same way.
The team flourished last season, beating a number of big rivals on the way to FA Cup success, before lifting the Community Shield at the start of the new campaign, but recent performances have been below par.
Martin Keown is now hoping that the manager can stick to one system that the team can find their rhythm to.
‘They keep changing from one system to another and they did this with Emery,’ Keown told Stadium Astro (via the Metro).
‘That’s what I would like to see now, the same pictures, the same triangles, the same movements, the same partnerships, the same relationships.
‘If you keep changing it, you don’t find a rhythm, and that’s something that I found in a very successful team. It was like putting an old pair of slippers on for a game. Everything was there. You’d fire it into midfield to Patrick Vieira, into Dennis Bergkamp, [Thierry] Henry into the channel; it was three passes.
‘These players now are getting the ball now and it’s jamming a little bit, so I think keep it simple and start building from this team. If this is the way he wants to play, keep with it, and try to put the people in it and get the messages right and work on it.
‘It was very static, the front three never really moved from positions, they didn’t make themselves available.
‘This is a brand new project for the manager. We don’t want to be over critical. I believe he’s the right man for the job 100 per cent, super bright manager and he’s going to have setbacks, it’s how he responds to this now.’
I don’t personally have much issue with the system put in place last night, with our finishing having failed us, as our performance in the first half should have seen us lead going into the break, and that left us vulnerable to a backlash.
A change in formation appears to have been needed due to too much negative football being played, and a 4-3-3 system could well be here to stay, but results will need to come with it.
Will Arteta panic after last night’s display? Do we expect the same system to be used against Dundalk come Thursday?
Patrick