Arteta is maximizing Arsenal – like all great managers do…

Arteta is Maximizing Arsenal. by AI

One of the best markers of the level of a manager is what he can consistently do with what he has.
A world-class manager like Jurgen Klopp can beat Bayern Munich back-to-back in the league with Borrusia Dortmund. He can challenge Pep Guardiola and his Abu Dhabi assembled fleet with Liverpool. He won promotion for Mainz and kept them in the top half of the Bundesliga the next season. That is what explains his level.

Arsene Wenger got to the Champions League 16 consecutive years with squads that went through huge swings of quality. Pep Guardiola won everything possible to be won, and basically forced a new interpretation of football on the world with one of the best teams ever.

With Bayern Munich, he improved one of the best teams of the era, popularized the concept of the inverted fullback and reached three consecutive semi finals in the Champions League. And in England, well, we all know what he did. He literally broke the Premier League with one of the best sides in the history of the division.

The point is, you can only do as much as you have been given. Some like Guardiola have had the best of tools and have achieved the best possible while some like Klopp or Wenger overachieved. A world class manager simply maximizes the tools at his disposal. And that is what Arteta has been doing.

Since Arteta came in, we have become incredibly difficult to beat and literally all of our losses have been flukes. The loss to Chelsea early on in his reign was a rare mistake from Bernd Leno. Olympiakos’ was also another defensive blunder from both Leno and Luiz. The 3-0 loss to Manchester City was very much instigated by David Luiz. I can’t remember much else. It’s incredible to be able to make this case.

We have become a very compact side with deadly ability in transition. We can score from setpieces, pressing, in transition, against a settled defense and out of the build up phase. While we have not yet reached the incredible level of Liverpool in the different ways we have of producing goals, we can see that we are on our way there.

With rumours strongly linking us to the likes of Thomas Partey and Houssem Aouar, you can tell that the club is looking at improving in many areas.

Arteta is maximizing output from our current bunch of players and you can’t ask for anything better. Once the inherent quality of the squad improves, Arsenal will only get better.

The title of the third best club in England is up for grabs. Understanding that Liverpool and Manchester City are 99-points teams makes it a great thing to be the best after them. It means you are maybe 10 points worse on average. Last season, Chelsea got… 66 points and United a little more. Chelsea might have all the money in the world to reinforce their squad with but it’s not clear if the coaching can get them there. Manchester United also look strong and compact but it’s not yet clear how far Ole Gunnar Solksjaer can take them. These teams all have far more money to spend than we do and are spending it but Arteta gives us hope.

And as Johan Cryuff famously put it, a bag of money does not necessarily translate into goals and results. Having great coaching and great players does it. It appears that we are very well on our way towards both in Arteta and the coming reinforcements.

Agboola Israel

35 Comments

  1. I will make this bold claim,I would not swap any EPL manager for Arteta including Pep himself.I had doubts before because of his team selections formation and contracts for soares,mari and luiz but,he’s redeemed himself.IMethinks at the start we forgot he was new here and needed sometime to understand his players,I was quick to judge him like he used to trained with these players before.Wrong.I believe Arteta is a better manager than Wenger.Wenger was exposed immediately the league became competitive with Chelsea and city in the mix.With Wenger constant praise of midiocre players and statements like we don’t buy for the sake of buying but only if we get the right players,oh and we know every player in Europe,can afford any player in Europe except messi.Wenger was simply a deluded average coach but as a human he was great.If he mastered the invincible he would have repeated it ,03/04 season great team but we got some luck also points tally says it all that season

    1. He finished 8th !!!!!!lol
      What is wrong with people
      Now he’s better then Pep Guardiola and Arsene Wenger
      I like Arteta but lets just calm down

      1. He didn’t start the season..
        So 8th place wasn’t entirely his doing..
        We had two coaches before him during the season.
        He steadied things when he came in.
        So chill

        1. No mate you misunderstand
          Im not having ago at Arteta im trying to find why he’s being called better then Mr Wenger and Pep Guardiola
          So I have to go off 8th and winning the FA Cup?
          How disrespectful to our most successful manager that an FA Cup is enough to make Arteta better

          1. Technically i don’t think we can use the league position to judge Arteta’s performance. Arsenal was 6th on the table when he joined and we ended up in 8th position last season.
            The fact is we have seen significant improvement in the team, the team has moved from been predictable to an unpredictable.
            We have been so compact in the area of how the team is setup, winning difficult matches and making all anti Arsenal pundits to eat their words(vomit)… The team is still work in progress, they can only get better

    2. Lord Denning, why do people on JA have to lift up the person they are praising, by criticising their predecessor?
      Arsene Wenger is rightly lauded for his successes and critiqued for his failures. The same will happen with Mikel Arteta. It is too early to start passing judgement, as time will tell. So far, so good.

  2. Good article but there’s nothing special about Liverpool and City. Leicester did with average players and with MA we can do it.

    The starting point will be our game with Pool next week. If we can walk away with a draw then we’ll be track.

    1. might have to walk away from our fan base for a while
      we finish 8th , our worse finish in 25 years and yet we can win Prem
      But City and Liverpool who got what 98-100 points when they won title , they are nothing special ?

      1. I’m sorry Dan but to blame Arteta for finishing 8th is you forgetting a few truth facts .
        1 – having to take over from the worst manager in our clubs History (Emery not Freddie )
        2-having to work with the said managers players which was brought in under his tenure,12 players in total (probably half not 1st team worthy )
        3-Covid hit disrupting his plans 2 months into the job .
        4-The team was in a shambolic state ,no leaders ,no direction ,spirits were completely in the gutter ,fans and players alike (blame lies with fact one )
        5-having to come in and work under that boardroom at the time (the fantastic new regime 🤦🏻‍♂️)
        All in all he has come in and changed the club form top to bottom ,if fans can’t see that then maybe they need to open their eyes just that little bit wider .

          1. Yea I agree Dan ,he’s got along long way to go before that happens ,some weird fans always need to knock out greatest manager for some odd reasons .
            I saw some idiot actually write yesterday that Arteta was already Tactically better than Wenger was ,mind you he also said we should have signed Jose before Arteta .

            1. thats who I was responding to buddy
              Lord Denning I think – that he wouldn’t swap Arteta with Pep Guardiola or Arsene Wenger

    2. Howard, Arsenal cannot count on its top class opponents all imploding in the one season.
      Let’s not put undue pressure on Mikel Arteta given that Ranieri was a vastly more experienced manager with a great resume, when he took Leicester City to the title, yet he was ultimately sacked.

    3. I made bold claims abput Unai…he decided to shoot himself in the foot. Arteta on the other hand…for a start he is not taking the player to go and draw at Anfield. That alone speaks volumes. Iam not saying we will beat Liverpool but from what I’ve seen so far, it’s not even a pipe dream anymore its like 80% probable. Initially he demanded competitiveness despite the gulf between the 2. When the players started realizing they could go toe to toe with the likes of Liverpool and city, it was the other way round they are now demanding more of themselves. For that he is showing us a glimpse of our destination. The real challenge , I realize for us, is not beating The likes of Liverpool but being consistent against the small sides especially with the many competitions. This is why arteta is also emphasizing consistency of performance. Personally I think it’s not beyond possibility to win all big games till October. It’s how we fair afterwards

  3. I like Arteta don’t get me wrong but is it me all are some gooners getting carried away?
    You don’t lose 3-0 as a fluke . Yes we went down to 10 men but that’s part of football, like we wouldn’t say we were lucky to win Cup Final just because Chelsea got a red card
    Difficult to beat ?
    You say you can’t think of any so let me help
    We lost at home to Olympiakos
    lost to Brighton in a terrible display
    lost at Villa without a shot on target
    lost the NLD
    I love Arteta , think he can do great things but way too early for comparisons of Klopp or Wenger
    lets wait till we even get back in the top 6 first mate

  4. The sleeping giant of London is starting to awake under Mikel. May take another season or 2 to actually compete for the title but I’m confident at this moment in time that Top4 and possibly winning the Europa League is realistic targets & very achievable even with the players we have now.

    Adding Partey & Aouer to this team could take us to a level where Arsenal are no longer napping, they will be well woke and ready to do damage in England.

    Exciting times to be a gunner! 1st time in years where we are all not just blowing smoke but actually seeing where Arteta can take us. He has lit a fire under this club that has only begun to burn & will burst into flames of glory in time.

    In Arteta we trust

  5. Dan Smith

    We were ahead 2:1 before a Chelsea player got the red card. Is not like we beat them after he has gone off. Note that we drew 2:2 with them at Stamford Bridge and we were one player down.

    Check your facts Dan

    1. wow I have no issue with how we beat Chelsea
      Im saying we cant have it both ways
      I was responding to article saying it was a fluke we lost to City due to going down to 10 men
      City were ahead before Luiz’s red card so we can’t say that’s a fluke

      1. If not for the early injury to Mari and Xhaka,then came Luiz horrendous blunders in spaces of 10 minutes he came on,i bet we wouldn’t have lost that game to city.

          1. Declan On a technicality, I think not. If she’d been born with balls, she/ he would not then have married the man who was her partner or husband and so would most likely not be a relative at all. I’ll tell you what though; it is weird being the pedant, that I am!

            I actually perform a monologue, which I occasionally recite in my regular concerts (pre-Covid) called “I am my own Grandpa” which touches on the subject of “if only” with ones relatives!

  6. Arteta is certainly doing a great job and I only hope the Board supports him to the fullest and after selling some players if we get Partey and Aouar, Arsenal will be at the level of Liverpool and City. With the current form of Auba and Laca, the skill and guile of Willian, the strength of Gabriel added to Partey and Aouar, Arsenal will compete with the best.

  7. What I always love about your articles Al is how they relly make one think deeply about what WE personally think. I havebeen confidently predicting a 5th place finsi thisseason Until reading your excellent article and am now reconsidering my view No firm conclusion as yet but I am busy thinking, for sure!

      1. Dan, A pedant like me could argue that as right now we are top of the Prem, we are ALREADY challenging for the title. I COULD, but I WON’T!

  8. Lan Wright is more like Alex Lacazett,
    Auba more like Thierry Henry
    Bellerin = A Cole,
    Tierney = Lauren,
    Holding = Adams (I know this makes no sense but Rob can go that far)

    Willian = Robert Pires

    The thing is.. We still miss our Dennis Bergkamp and our Patrick Vieira (get Partey and Aouar now)

    1. is this a wind up lo,l
      Has Admin paid everyone to be silly ?
      Auba is better then Thierry Henry ?
      Bellerin Ashley Cole?
      Willian -Pires?
      are you being serious or just too young to remember how good these players were ?

      1. Never really said they were mate.. Only said they could only get that good or live up to that standard.. So chill man.

  9. What a ridiculous article, too soon and a complete overreaction and estimation of the mans ability. Are we that starved of happiness?

    I will judge the man at the end of a full season before lauding him like most of the Arsenal fans –

    God it’s almost embarrassing – the Arsenal marketing dept. and board must be loving this fake positive bubble we’re in!!!

  10. The thing is you can hear from Arteta and the players that they WILL be challenging, for the premier league and next season for UCL. It’s a belief instilled by the manager and his players wholeheartedly seem to be believing in it. We’ve always said Arsenal were weak mentally, and now they seem hungry. Who cares about reality, a teams mentality makes a huge difference nowadays in football. Let the boys shoot for the stars and me as a supporter I’ll be there also believing and pushing them towards it. We’re so used to underperforming that our standards have dropped so low, enough with the top4 “trophy” mentality, we should see it as simply a gateway to us competing in the UCL, not just for the finances and to be among the big boys.
    All the best the Arteta and the boys 100%, bring the premier league title home

  11. It’s too early to judge please , the season has just started we should not overrate Mikel now..I hope to qualify in the top 4 season winning the EPL ,,I don’t think so unless we sign Partey and AOUR. I believe we will have the audacity to challenge for every title , participated in this season.

  12. I’m not getting carried away.

    For one it is practically the same team that good ebening left offensively bar Willian.

    And secondly this team don’t like pressure so when the fans start returning and they can’t hear MAs instructions then I will judge.

    But what I am seeing I’m liking but you cannot compare him to AW just yet until he continuously wins silverware.

    OT. Does anyone else think that PEA may beat TH AFC goal record? I reckon he possibly can at the rate he is going and on a new 3 year contact. Just hope he don’t get ozilitus.

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