Well, it has certainly been a rollercoaster season for Arsenal so far, with our awful start under Unai Emery, and then even worse short period under Freddie. It looked Like Mikel Arteta had got us back on track in the New Year, and we went unbeaten all the way until our enforced lockdown and he looked to have steadied the ship.
But then we were destroyed by Man City and humbled by lowly Brighton, but since then we have gone on to win three games in a row again, and looked totally in control against Norwich yesterday. Does that mean that the Arsenal players have finally accepted and understood Arteta’s philosophy and tactics?
Arteta himself certainly thinks they are catching on, and he said on Arsenal.com after yesterday’s win: “Yeah, it’s part of the process that we have to respect and we can give them so much in certain moments. It’s been a really difficult season since I joined with the amount of games that we’ve had in December and then the break that we’ve had in lockdown, but they are so willing and they are completely onboard with what we are trying to do.
“A lot of things that happened today will convince them even more that this is the right direction for us to take as a team, and we still have to work on many things like the way we handle the game in certain moments. We cannot give anything to the opponent and we gave that again tonight, but overall I’m really happy with the attitude, and as well with their understanding of the game and what the game requires for them to control it and exploit the opponent as much as we can.”
We can certainly take heart from looking at the Premier League table again, after climbing up to the heady heights of seventh, and even ahead of the Spuds for now!
If we can win yet again up at Wolves next week we can start closing the gap on the Top Six as well. Maybe there is still a bit of life in this season yet….