{"id":2316,"date":"2020-11-30T11:22:17","date_gmt":"2020-11-30T11:22:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/uncensoredarsenal.com\/?p=2316"},"modified":"2020-11-30T13:27:27","modified_gmt":"2020-11-30T13:27:27","slug":"how-long-will-arteta-last","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/uncensoredarsenal.com\/index.php\/how-long-will-arteta-last\/","title":{"rendered":"How Long Will Arteta Last?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"

Arteta: How much longer?<\/strong><\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

In football, as in war, final defeat never comes from the loss of a single battle. It is an accumulation of of losses or failure to win key battles that signals the end of a manager.<\/p>\n

Take Arsene Wenger for example, while his consistency in keeping Arsenal in the top-4 will never be matched, \u00a0there is no doubt in my mind that most Arsenal fans lost confidence in him because the club consistently lost the battle for the title in his last 13 years. Falling out of the top-4 in his last two years may have been the final blow but it was the cumulative effect of these annual losses that enabled the malcontents to successfully convince a majority of fans it was time for Wenger-Out.<\/p>\n

Similarly, in my opinion, Unai Emery\u2019s fate was sealed after that very heavy defeat suffered by Arsenal at the hands of Chelsea in the Europa League finals in Baku in May of 2019. I recall then how it dramatically undermined faith in him by many Arsenal fans. Not even a streak 22 undefeated games could save him when Arsenal was being outshot by the likes of Aston Villa and Watford, the worst teams in the League at the time. Losing 1-0 to Sheffield United would normally be a loss to shrug off but that was the punch that sealed his fate. The damage had been done much earlier.<\/p>\n

Mikel Arteta was supposed to be the antithesis of Unai Emery. On his appointment one year ago last December he said all the right things:<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have to have passion, we have to be dominant, we have to be aggressive. We have to play in the opponent\u2019s territory as much as we want.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>\u201cI want the ball, I want to attack them as much as possible, I want to prevent them from attacking me as much as possible.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

After a year of insipid Emeryball, marked by frequently excluding Ramsey and Ozil from the team, de-emphasizing clever possession and relying on long balls and crosses; most Arsenal fans greeted Arteta as a Savior who would implement the technical brilliance learnt from his mentors, Pep and Wenger, with an added bit of steel.<\/p>\n

The reality is Arteta has been rarely of the things he promised. Take yesterday\u2019s defeat to Wolves for example.\u00a0 In their match report, whoscored.com provides a map of Attack Sides reprinted below:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

It shows Arteta\u2019s set-up is very reminiscent of peak Emery. The center of the park was literally surrendered to the opposition; a mere 19% of attacks coming through the middle. In comparison virtually 50% of attacks were down the left side with Saka and Tierney tasked to fling hopeful crosses into the box. Back in the day, it was Kolasinac pumping them over in the general direction of Auba and\/or Lacazette with little to show for it. The old saying \u201csame herring, different barrel\u201d comes to mind.<\/p>\n

In contrast, Nuno Espiritu Santo and \u00a0Wolves were certainly more balanced in the origin and focus of their attacks, thus presenting far \u00a0greater defensive problems for the Gunners.<\/p>\n

As for wanting the ball in the opposition\u2019s territory, in a preliminary analysis I did of data from Orbinho.com earlier in the season, I found that Arsenal was, by far, the worse among the traditional top-6 clubs in simply circulating possession in our own half<\/strong>. (Don\u2019t laugh, top-6 was my prediction.)<\/p>\n

I doubt that stat has changed much. What has changed is we are currently in a downward spiral and while top-6 is not beyond us, something must radically change just as it did when Arteta took over from Emery. \u00a0Then we moved from mid-table and flirted with top-4. Who believes any such change is imminent?<\/p>\n

As me and Blackburn George, the Arseblagger, have emphasized repeatedly in our podcasts, Arteta is not an attacking coach. He sets up the team to stop the other side from playing. It is not geared \u00a0to create multiple chances and to score, rather the primary goal is to nullify the opposition and to score on the break. Against Wolves it was plain to see how attacking is alien to Arsenal. In the second half, the midlands team simply decided to defend their one goal lead, inviting Arsenal to break them down while they would do the occasional counter-attacking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
ARSENAL<\/td>\n<\/td>\nWOLVES<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
56.2<\/td>\nPossession %<\/td>\n43.8<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
2<\/td>\nShots on target<\/td>\n5<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
13<\/td>\nShots<\/td>\n11<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
683<\/td>\nTouches<\/td>\n599<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
494<\/td>\nPasses<\/td>\n405<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

As the data from the Premier league demonstrates despite all the possession, touches and passes Arsenal could only muster 2 Shots on Target.<\/p>\n

There was a grand total of 13 shots by Arsenal this match, which must be a season record or close to, but needing to score goals on a team defending a lead they could only create 8 shots in the second half.<\/p>\n

This poverty in creating shots is no accident. Ever since Wenger left the club, in what was arguably his worst year, the shots per game have fallen off by 44%, from 15.6 to 8.8. Yet we still have fans blaming the \u201cold man\u201d for the current state of the club.<\/p>\n

\n

Arsenal Shots per game<\/p>\n

2020\/21 – 8.8
19\/20 – 10.7
18\/19 – 12.3
17\/18 – 15.6
16\/17 – 14.9
15\/16 – 15.0
14\/15 – 16.1
13\/14 – 13.8
12\/13 – 15.7
11\/12 – 16.8
10\/11 – 17.2
09\/10 – 17.4
08\/09 – 17.4
07\/08 – 16.5
06\/07 – 16.8
05\/06 – 14.6
04\/05 – 14.9
03\/04 – 14.2<\/p>\n

— Orbinho (@Orbinho) October 25, 2020<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n