Arsenal Will Never Bounce From A Match To Another Again!

After leaving Arsenal and joining Manchester united, Van Persie was put to task about his decision during a media conference and his response summarized Arsene Wenger failure at Arsenal. He said, “at arsenal, we were just bouncing from one match to another, no change of tact”.

Bouncing from one match to another was Wenger’s main weakness. When he started his arsenal career, Arsene Wenger introduced a new philosophy “football should be an art” and he worked on building an entertaining game, but then as football kept on evolving, he found himself torn between adapting a new ruthless approach or maintaining his style. This was even more disrupted by his move to build a new stadium which meant reduced budget for more talent. To adopt this and fit it to his philosophy, Wenger turned to developing talents. We can accredit the success of so many young talents who he developed and incorporated into the first team but they all lack a very important component- ‘KILLER INSTICT”.

Without a plan to cause “harm” on the opponent, Wenger started growing a "social media" team. He seemed to love players who complete passes, rather than those who exercise creativity. He now had young boys who trains how to pass, not to take risks. This is where he lost it!

The approach of entertaining football is inward-looking. Very little attention being given to what the opponent is doing. His after-match interviews would be “we played well, but made mistakes”. Yes, you make a mistake in football because you were exposed to the enemy. You didn’t prepare for him, you prepared for your game- “the art”

Unai Emery is coming with a new philosophy. This is a man who is very keen on details. Those who have worked with him says he watches lots of videos and uses them to prepare for the next game. This is completely different from Wenger’s approach.

At PSG, Emery faced a difficult situation. An over-expecting board and egocentric players who enjoy the backing of the board. At some point, he said “Neymah is the PSG boss”. The board was for “you win the Champions league or go” while the likes of Neymas wanted him to respect them, not to push them. The new coach of PSG has said he will build his team around “the artist Neymah”, and that is what Emery couldn’t do because he prepared for matches.

Up to Arsenal, Emery won’t face such challenges. He will have time to do his best. He will again be running his matches from the touchline and force  the players to deliver. You can watch this space- Arsenal will never bounce from a match to another.