Has Mikel Arteta Broken the First Rule of Football Management? by Eric McConnell
Every medical doctor is guided by a principle known as the hippocratic oath. It says, “First, do no harm”. It means that if you can’t cure the patient, avoid doing anything that makes their condition worse.
A similar ethos also applies to managing EPL football teams. If you can’t make the team better, at least don’t make it worse. After David Raya and Kai Havertz’ tepid performances vs. Newcastle, one has to wonder if Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta has violated football’s hippocratic oath.
Arteta, not VAR, Must Shoulder the Blame for Today’s Defeat
Yes, VAR was utterly shambolic on Saturday. There is no way Bruno Guimares should have been allowed to remain on the pitch. The shove in the back on Gabriel before the goal is a clear foul. And while Arteta has a right to feel hard done by that obvious missed call, the fact remains there is no good reason for David Raya to have failed in cutting that cross out.
Most pundits would expect even an average keeper to cut that ball out, let alone one who starts for a side with title aspirations. At this point it’s worth noting that one of the reasons Raya was bought here is that he supposedly “controlled his box better” on crosses than Ramsdale.
Simply put, if Raya does his job on that cross, there is no VAR controversy. Instead he whiffed completely, and left the club’s fate in the unreliable hands of VAR.
Arteta Has Created a Problem Instead of Solving One
The other advantage Raya was supposed to offer over Ramsdale, playing the ball out of the back, has also failed to materialize. He’s made countless amateurish mistakes with the ball at his feet. Imagine how ineffective he would be without Saliba, Gabriel and Rice protecting him.
Unfortunately, benching Raya now would destroy his confidence and force Arteta to turn to Ramsdale, who he obviously thinks is inferior to the error-prone Raya. But there may be no other option because Raya is playing so poorly it can’t be allowed to continue. How does that conversation with Raya and Ramsdale even go now? What do you say to Ramsdale after benching him for no reason and giving his job to someone with just as many flaws?
Can you say ‘awkward’?
In other words, Arsenal is now stuck with two keepers who will be looking over their shoulder after every misstep. It’s not a winning recipe. Arteta gambled by putting David Raya into the line-up without any real cause. He can deflect the truth by commiserating about VAR or “mistakes being part of the game”, but the fact remains that Arteta’s gamble on Raya is backfiring spectacularly.
The Havertz Gamble Looks Worse Every Week
Unfortunately, that’s not the only Arteta gamble that isn’t paying off. There was also a 65 million quid outlay on Kai Havertz, a player who spent the last three years at Chelsea looking more like a toothless housecat than a top class attacker. With no Odegaard and no Gabriel Jesus, wasn’t this exactly the kind of match Kai Havertz was brought here to win, or at least make a positive impact?
Yet his most notable accomplishment vs. Newcastle was “throwing his body around” and barely escaping a red card. You would expect a $300,000/week attacker to be making incisive passes and well-timed runs toward the goal in must-win away games. Instead, Havertz created next to nothing, and not for the first time this year.
Whatever upside Arteta saw in gambling on Havertz, the returns are simply not there. Kai Havertz and David Raya are collectively making Arsenal worse, not better. Both of them are players Arteta wanted. He needs to stand tall and be held accountable for that; or they need to start justifying their manager’s faith with quality play. Because the constant excuses and rationalizations from the manager are no longer cutting it.
Only Three People Can Get Arsenal Out of this Mess
To be certain, this is not an “Arteta out” article. He deserves credit for his role in bringing this club back to respectability and healing a very fractured relationship between the club and the fan base. He played a pivotal role in helping bring Declan Rice here, and it’s frightening to think of where this club would be without him. Collectively, Raya and Havertz have been so poor, they almost cancel out Rice’s brilliance.
The ugly truth is Arteta created this problem and it’s up to him to fix it. Unless there is a dramatic change of form, Raya, Havertz, and Arteta himself, are going to be remembered as having doomed Arsenal’s chances of winning major silverware before the season even started.
First, do no harm. Don’t make the team worse. Sadly, Arteta is past that point with Havertz and Raya. Now, it’s just a question of mitigating the damage.
Eric