Thierry Henry has defended Mikel Arteta’s style of play at Arsenal, insisting the manager deserves respect for transforming the club into champions.
Arsenal were in decline when Arteta replaced Unai Emery, having conceded too many goals and struggled to compete for major honours. Arteta had never managed a club on his own before taking the job, having spent three years as Pep Guardiola’s assistant at Manchester City.
The decision was criticised at first, but Arsenal remained patient. Seven years later, the Gunners are one of the most feared teams in Europe and have ended their long wait for another Premier League title.
Henry Defends Arteta’s Style
Henry believes Arsenal’s critics are overlooking the progress Arteta has made. He says the Gunners were once easy to play against, but they are now tough, dominant and difficult to break down.
Speaking via the Metro, Henry said: “At a certain point, you’ve got to get ahead of Liverpool and City, so the guy [Arteta] is working, he’s trying to find a way to overtake City. Suddenly, we’re tough, we dominate, it’s hard to create chances against us, we don’t get walked all over, but now they are saying they are not playing pretty.”
Henry added that Arsenal had waited too long to win the league, and Arteta had to find a way to get the job done. He believes the manager should be respected for ending the club’s 22-year wait for a Premier League title.
Arsenal Now Hard to Beat
‘For me, it had been a long time since the team won the league, so at some point, you have to find a way to actually win it.’
The Arsenal legend also defended the team’s approach in their Champions League final defeat to Paris Saint-Germain. He argued that Arsenal’s method was not malicious but simply a way of operating against elite opposition.
Henry accepts that Arsenal may not always play attractive football, but he insists results matter most. For him, Arteta has done what was required by building a team capable of winning the Premier League again.
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Brighton, sure made it look easy. Just sayin…🤷🏾
So much for being invincible this season. Just sayin…
You can’t judge Arteta by One match, just sayin
@Stephanie
I didn’t judge Arteta. I simply replied to the caption”Arsenal now hard to beat”. Jus sayin…
A fantastic coach! What he achieved in a relatively short football life is commendable especially circumstances surrounding Man City’s last three championships. Arteta built a solid team that is bound to dominate for the next few years. Today, no team is comfortable facing Arteta’s Arsenal in any competition and that fear factor is real and quite an achievement.
Ndu,
Brighton looked pretty comfortable to me. 😂
@DEREK
Exactly…
Arsenal decided not to expand the capacity of Emirates which is the 7th largest even behind Spurs’, Liverpool’s and only better than Chelsea’s.
Wenger laid the financial foundation but neglected the
structurethat MA has rectified, hope we can win the PL back to back.
But on real note the style is turn to be boring serous, Arteta must try to make his guyz more faster than what there are now, there are too slow opponent are easy to mark on n close the spaces i give credit to David raya with his magnificent performance.
Brighton exposed all our weaknesses in one game. Now everyone knows that to beat arsenal you just need to stop them from playing the ball out from the back by pressing them relentlessly hard n high up the pitch, and to beat raya, just let fly from long range. I suspect we will be seeing a heck of lot of that from now on.