Unai Emery’s mix of grit and total football has rejuvenated Arsenal but his start to the season does not match that overseen by Joe Montemurro with the women’s teamHaving lived in London for a long time I have a lot of friends who are Arsenal fans and, like many of them, I was critical of the club during the final years of Arsène Wenger’s reign as manager. Everything seemed to have gone stale and there was a desperate need for change, which finally arrived in the shape of Unai Emery. Watching on, it’s been interesting to see the immediate, positive impact he has had.The Carabao Cup win against Blackpool on Wednesday made it 13 games unbeaten for Arsenal. Emery has...
Whether results are good or bad, we fixate on the idea that managers are accountable for what happens on the pitch. But how much can they really change after the whistle blows?This weekend, in keeping with most others, a much-scrutinised if seldom enlightening ritual will have been enacted once more: the post-match managerial interview. It’s a strange phenomenon, if you think about it, but coverage of a football match without quizzing the manager at the end would now seem as unnatural as the police not questioning the prime suspect in a crime.It has become an integral part of the mechanism that bestows upon managers a position somewhere between a god and a fool, depending on the result. But once a...
Arsenal’s predictability in possession against Everton meant they were reliant on bursts of inspiration from their strikersHow did Arsenal secure their fourth consecutive Premier League win and the first clean sheet of the Unai Emery era? Was it with solidity in defence, enterprise in midfield and breathtaking invention in attack? Were there signs of a team slowly getting to grips with their new manager’s demands after a summer of seismic change? Could it be time to declare Arsenal are back?Not quite. Slow down, step back. Resist the urge to look at the result and declare that this was a routine stroll for a rampant side. Listen instead to Marco Silva, who pithily observed this is football. It is not always...
The Italian has made the most impressive start of the seven managers new to the top flight or on fresh assignments, while doubts already dog Manuel Pellegrini and Neil WarnockThere are no fewer than seven new managers in the Premier League this season, four of them completely new – Maurizio Sarri, Unai Emery, Nuno Espírito Santo and Slavisa Jokanovic – and three others with previous experience but in new club situations. As the domestic programme returns with two from the latter group meeting at Goodison Park, it is already evident that at least one of the fresh faces – if Manuel Pellegrini has ever been thus described – is under pressure.Before we move into the nitty-gritty of the season, with...
Post-Wenger era at Arsenal gives the semi-explored player the chance to become the complete midfielder under EmeryHow can I begin anything new with all of yesterday inside me, a wise man once wrote: not talking about Arsenal in the post-Wenger days but still kind of talking about Arsenal in the post-Wenger days.Most likely it won’t hit home until the first Premier League match at the Emirates next week, one of those August days when the grass is a wild lime green, when results and goals pass in a sun-drunk daze and football feels like a dance or a lark or a bit of fun. At which point there might be the first pang. Related: Joey Barton: ‘I’ve been through many...