In the March of 2019, I wrote my first and only Alternative Match Report when Arsenal beat Manchester United 2-0 at the Emirates. I talked about the shiny luck of the new manager for Ole Gunnar Solkskjaer who had led his team on an inspired winning streak until the loss to Arsenal. The same manager, far from shiny or lucky now, was in the dugout for Manchester United last night, while it was Arsenal’s turn for a new face in theirs. However, there had been no such respite for Mikel Arteta, hired for a job many believed (maybe still believe) was too large, too overwhelming to comprehend.
Following a draw in his opening match in charge at Bournemouth away and a heartbreaking loss to Chelsea at home, anything less than 3 points, at a time when Arsenal was closer to the drop zone than the top of the table, wasn’t an option. The signs were there that the Spaniard was already imposing a much-welcome structure and order to proceedings. Team-work, desire, intensity, discipline on and off the ball. A result was all that was missing, and voila.
I’m loath to chalk it up to the “new manager effect” because that would be doing Mikel Arteta a disservice, with his visible, immediate impact. It takes, on average, 66 days for a new behaviour to become automatic. Probably more when dealing with something as complex as building a cohesive, consistent team; particularly when the style of play is physically and mentally rigorous. As David Luiz pointed out in his very candid post-match interview, the team isn’t yet physically ready to sustain the intensity demanded by their manager. But, and this is important, he also said, “but when physically you’re not there, you have to put your heart.”
Arteta is already imposing his philosophy on this squad, very much like Emery tried to when he first came, and later. The 2-0 win in March 2019 came through a gutsy team performance where Unai finally started all of his best offensive players together. It saw the brief but glorious return of the press and counter-press we were promised early on. As a manager, he also demanded concentration, valued work-rate and did, initially, seem to be organising us into a better unit. That match felt like a minor turning point in the then narrative, not because of the 90 minutes but what it seemed to symbolise. For the first time since the 2007-08 season, Arsenal had 10 points at home against their big-six rivals and had 12 points more after 30 league matches than the season before.