If Arteta has done anything to convince me he deserves more time at Arsenal, it has been the success he’s had at reshaping our defensive fortunes. 1 concerning trend that spanned Wenger’s demise and Emery’s tenure, was Goals conceded. In his last year in charge Wenger’s squad allowed a dire 51 goals passed the goalkeeper, that was more than Burnley and Newcastle. Unai managed to better Wenger’s 6th place finish, conceding the same amount of goals and scoring 1 less, ending the season in 5th.
In his second season, much like Arteta finds himself now, the fans depleting patients wore thin, and after 7 games without a win, Unai was sent packing. What great manager had the Arsenal board lined up amidst those 7 games? No one. In stepped beloved Arsenal Legend Freddie Ljungberg, to pick up the pieces.
With no one new in mind Vinai and Raul, rambled through the draws of Gazidis’ former office and found the piece of crumbled paper Ivan must have scribbled the names Mikel, Vieira, Howe and Emery on to, under the title of “Cheap Managers”. Raul even seemingly entertained the idea of flirting with long time Arsenal antagonist and former Spurs coach, Jose Mourinho!
Amongst the picks, the only man with an untarnished record, stood Mikel Arteta. With the experience of having been schooled, played and coached under some the beautiful games greatest names, why not? Hypocritically, I’m being obtuse towards our current Manager, not only because I preferred the other former Arsenal captain, but I don’t believe Arsenal needed a big name Manager. It just would have been nice if the executive branch had done some home work and actually looked around at all.
Unlike most other Arsenal fans, I was privileged enough to be at Wembley to see Arteta and the squad lift the FA Cup. Like most other Arsenal fans, Arteta had won me over. Over a year later and at cost of creativity and goals, Arteta has massively reversed the trend of conceding, down to 39 goals last season. This reduction is almost the same number of goals that we failed to score in comparison to Unai’s last full season.
Whilst Arteta has the international break to start pondering how to get this team to score more goals, Edu, Vinai and Josh Kroenke have got to learn from the previous error and start at least preparing for, if the team doesn’t start scoring goals. Although I am looking towards Germany, I don’t fancy Per Mertersacker just yet.
There is a whole host of managers/coaches waging it out for the chance to be the next Bayern Munich Manager. Whilst Julian Nagelsmann is arguably still the best of the lot, and Hansi Flick has replaced Joachim Low, there’s an opportunity for Arsenal to take a pick at the bunch.
One man having no trouble getting goals out of his squad is 42 yr old, Swiss coach, Gerardo Seaone. Seaone arrived at Bayer Leverkusen this year, on the back of 3 straight title wins and a Swiss Cup with, Young Boys. Like Wenger and Arteta, Seaone is multi-lingual and has high regard for developing relationships and understanding with his players.
More so intriguing than the 442 set up Seaone deployed at Young Boys, that first caught my attention, is the parallels his current 4-5-1 draws with Arteta’s. Both utilise and accommodate a wing back that likes to get forward in Tierney and Jeremy Frimpong. Frimpong a player I would have chosen over Tomiyasu. Both teams thriving from the endeavours of 2 young talents, in Saka, Smith Rowe, Florian Wirtz and Moussa Diaby.
What currently sets Arsenal and Leverkusen apart is movement. The forward line at Leverkusen seem to be able to move and interchange effectively, whilst the Gunners look like statues of themselves at times. What Seaone has in his locker that Arteta doesn’t, is Patrik Schick. Schick is so important in how Leverkusen progress up the pitch, whether it’s receiving the ball to feet, a one touch, running in behind, dragging defenders out of position you name it, it makes up for his lack of prolific goal scoring, which he may yet develop. Where as Aubameyang has the prolific goal scoring status, but him and Lacazette just aren’t quite the outlet the teams needs at times. Most significantly this is likely something Arteta has already identified, and why we are being linked to player with the profile of Tammy Abraham and Domonic Calvert Lewin.
Like most teams trying to replicate Pep and Klopp, Seaone and Arteta both demand a high press, high line, and a team that can play out from the back. Where Arteta succeeds in tightening up Arsenal’s defence is probably Seaone’s weakness. Seaone loves attacking football, he encourages his team to get forward, much like at times under Wenger, it sometimes feels like Leverkusen are much more exposed to a counter than most. Either way Leverkusen are sitting pretty in second place with 20 goals in 7 games, whilst Arsenal sit 11th with a measly 5.
Arteta still has games to impress before arriving at Anfield next month, and I am backing him all the way, but if KSE want a fine running “business”, this is potentially a backup plan they cannot ignore or risk being caught with their pants down again. The replacement wouldn’t be a big culture shock for the players, in some way Arteta has set them up for Seaone, the only question’s that remain;
Would he take the job and how much will it take for Leverkusen to forget about the 3 year contract Seaone just signed?
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