Rebuilding Arsenal: 5 steps to success for Mikel Arteta

Step 2: Create a new Arsenal philosophy

During the most successful of Wenger’s years as Arsenal manager, Arsenal were known for their one-touch style of play and their formidable, clinical finishers like Thierry Henry.

As the years progressed, the calibre of players might’ve declined, but Wenger sought to continue with the one-touch football philosophy.

Under Emery, this identity fell away completely and Arsenal had no real game-plan going forward.

Worse still, they had an even more clueless defence, which is where things really began to unravel and have continued on a downward spiral ever since.

This is where Arteta needs to implement his own influence on the game.

He was an Arsenal player under Wenger and shadowed Pep Guardiola at Manchester City as assistant manager.

Tactically, Arteta has positioned himself ideally to make a success of the club’s efforts going forward.

The likes of Liverpool, City and Chelsea all utilise team pressing when off the ball in order to then counterattack.

We have seen Arsenal try to emulate such characteristics since Unai Emery (and now Arteta) took over, but too often enough it isn’t the team that’s pressing, but rather, individuals.

This proves totally self-destructive as individual pressing is ineffective 99% of the time becuase it leaves pockets of space in behind the player for the opposition to play into, immediately placing their weak defence under constant, high-levels of pressure.

Arteta, then, needs to consider the following.

Is this lack of cohesion in his team down to the players, the ineffective teachings of his coaching staff at training, or a combination of both?

I would argue the latter and look to learn from Frank Lampard’s Chelsea as much as possible, in this regard.

When Lampard took the reins at Chelsea they were under a transfer embargo so everyone knew they couldn’t make any signings.

So, Frank trusted and invested in a youthful side featuring Tammy Abraham, Mason Mount and Callum Hudson-Odoi.

This has led his team to create and continuously develop their own style and philosophy on each game, feeding off of the youthful vigor of his players… and where do we find Chelsea now?

In a Champion’s League spot having just confirmed to the world a second outstanding summer signing in Timo Werner (the first being Hakim Ziyech).

Not spending money was Chelsea’s biggest blessing in disguise.

With or without the funds available to him, and whether or not Arsenal win the FA Cup this season, Arteta needs to follow a similar path.

By investing in your talented youth players you give a new generation the chance to shine in a time where they’re the underdogs, so there will be limited pressure on them to succeed.

Moreover, the world will see Arsenal as a club that trusts in its youth program which should help entice young players to join their academy, benefitting the club in the long run.

There’s nothing worse for a fan than to hear someone from the club say that the team is in a period of “transition” for more than one season.

Arsenal, however, have been in transition since the season of their last FA Cup win in 2017, but perhaps even since the 2015/16 – when Arsenal last finished in the top 4, which was considered a huge succes for the club.

This means they’ve spent at least 4 seasons, gone through 2 managers (Wenger and Unai Emery) and invested approximately £450 million without achieving anything except a lower position in the league table.