Praise from Raheem shows how Arsenal has evolved!
Mikel Arteta has received a lot of praise since he has taken over as Arsenal manager, but the latest bit of praise to be thrown his way is from a rather surprising source.
Manchester City’s Raheem Sterling has spoken out on Arteta and his Arsenal side after he scored the only goal of the game to get a tightly contested 1-0 win over the Gunners at the Etihad on the weekend. Speaking about our gaffer and the way Arsenal played he stated:
“Arsenal are a ‘tough team, Arteta has made Arsenal more aggressive”
Of course Sterling knows Mikel well from when he was assistant to Guardiola at City, and he has praised the way he has come in and changed the Arsenal state of play and mind, although it is not a shock to Sterling himself, adding:
“(Arsenal) closed the pitch well and they had some good chances as well. It was a tough team to play against and Mikel has them well drilled. He’s a person that had a lot of say here. The manager trusted him here and he had a lot of influence on the players here, and the team as well. So I knew once he went into Arsenal that it would be a great opportunity for him, but also he would definitely implement what he wanted to bring in. And he’s a person that will put his foot down and not let things slide as you can see with the boys at Arsenal. They know if they don’t run they are most likely not going to play.”
Sterling goes on to say that Arsenal have always had a strong side but Arteta has challenged them to match their skill with work rates:
“You can see the change that he’s brought in there, you can see the energy, you can see how much he’s put into them with their off-ball work. We all knew before Mikel got in how much good football they could play, how technically good they were but probably off the field they weren’t as aggressive as they are with Mikel. They run their socks off now, you can see why they benefited with some good results recently.”
AND LONG MAY IT CONTUNUE!
This is big praise indeed from Sterling, but of course we all know the big job Arteta has done so far and is still yet to do and if it will be half of what it was like when he was helping Pep then I am sure we are in for a lot more successes. Gooners?
Shenel Osman
Great words from a great player. Certainly MA has improved the team and made us more difficult to score against and beat us. The off the ball work rate is also great. Had it not been for the fantastic stops from their goalkeeper, maybe we could have come away with a point. Europe next, Up the Gunners!
Arteta have made arsenal more timid and coward especially against bigger clubs.
Though we have recorded alot of improvement in the defense since arteta took over the job, there is still room for improvement in the midfield area.
The backward and sideway passes must stop. We are among the teams with the best forwards in epl but our midfielders keep feeding the defense with ball instead of the attacks.
We can’t beat any top 6 with this pattern .
Backward and sideway passes quite often occur when there is no free player in the final third. Not giving the ball away to the opposition is a good thing. When players are free we tend to see passes into the final third. So how much are our midfielders to blame and how much are our forward players to blame? Also, could the opposition do a good jobb with marking and blocking passing lanes?
TDO, agree with your observations and, as long as we have the ball, the other team cannot score, is an old adage that holds true to this day.
Of course it’s the midfield who will, on the most part be doing the sideways, backward and forward passing, but we do at times seem to be a little excessive in the sideways area!!!
Hopefully, with the signing of Partey, who, from the clips I have seen, looks ultra confident in his own skills, we will see less of this and more of the forward passing game.
I hope Arteta can improve the contributions of Arsenal’s midfield in goals and assists, the crossing and assists from the fullbacks and make the finishing more clinical and less profligate from the forward players.
Agood and positive article Shenel. Our short term problem, which is stilloverlooked by so many who moan at MA,is that we lack creative forward passing midfielders, with ONLY Ceballos and Saka being of the standard we need.
When you play such as Xhaka and Elneny in midfield, even though I realise he has little other choice right now, then our forward creativity is bound to suffer. We lack an effective wing back on the right side and need more effort from such as PEPE in particular, and also Willian, somewhat to my surprise , having always thought him a very hard worker when at Chelsea.
There is never any effective substitute for all eleven being flat out hard workers ALL the time. The real top sides always have that in spades. We are far more aggressive and hard working ,OVERALL, under MA but there are still those who coast a bit at times – leaving aside the arch coaster of all time, who is not now in the squad at all, thankfully – and that holds us back.
Maybe Xhaka and Elneny, much maligned as they are, are the players who provide protection to the back line and occasionaly build from the deep in the current system? And yeah, maybe if the RCB developed a good understanding with the RWB and RW, maybe we could be better? In your own words, lets give MA tike to organize the team rather than jumping on certain players.
Funfact- Bellerin has the most assists by a fullback/wingback this season.
it was a reply to Mr. Fox’s fine post.
*time