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Change of a manager is a serious headache for any football club. The task becomes even more challenging when a manager leaves the club after years of building a legacy. Manchester United failed to maintain the same status as the one left by Sir Alex Ferguson five years ago. Following Sir Alex’s departure, the club gambled with its gaffer thrice in the last five years to achieve success.
David Moyes, Van Gaal, and Jose Mourinho all failed miserably to deliver the same standards set by Ferguson. After just two years into the job, the future of Jose is under severe scrutiny once again as the thirteen-time Premier League Champions are currently lying at position 8 after game week 12.
Last season Arsenal took the long-awaited step of first managerial change in 2 decades. Unai Emery was given the charge to fill the massive shoes of the legend of management, Arsene Wenger. Initially, many pundits of the game were questioned Arsenal’s adaptability to this shift.
According to some experts, like the Red Devils, Arsenal were also destined for a serious hiccup due to a sudden change of system, mentality and playing style. Every Arsenal fan was uncertain about the future of the club post-Wenger era.
However, newly appointed boss, Unai Emery raised many eyebrows by immediately improving the club’s performances as compared to recent seasons. After a couple of setbacks against Manchester City and Chelsea in the opening two games of the season, the gunners have performed exceedingly well.
Unbeaten in last 16 games in all competitions, Arsenal are now on the high once again. Let us look at 5 major developments at Arsenal under Unai Emery by extracting some crucial findings from the stats.
#1 Upgrading the traditional ‘Arsenal Style of play’
Arsene Wenger was a huge admirer of free-flowing football. His philosophy was clearly seen in Arsenal’s style of play. It is for this reason Arsenal were often nicknamed as the ‘Barcelona of England’. Domination of possession, series of short passes with eye-pleasing combination play in the attacking one-third was the trademark of Arsenal’s football under Wenger.
Unai Emery decided to keep the beautiful Arsenal style of play intact, yet upgrading it by introducing work ethics and efficiency into it. The new gunners’ boss worked tirelessly in the preseason to push the limits of the club's players; mentally and physically. As a product of this, Arsenal is now playing with a lot more fluidity not only against mid-table and lower positioned clubs but the stats suggest considerable improvements in Arsenal against Premier League heavyweights as well.
The match between Arsenal and Liverpool played on 3 November 2018 finished 1-1. When the Gunners encountered the same opposition at the same turf last term the final score was 3-3 (on 22 December 2017). Although, on both the occasions teams had to settle for one point each yet statistics signifies sizeable enhancement in Arsenal under Unai.
Arsenal dominated possession in the latest fixture against the reds. The gunners enjoyed 61.8% of the time on the ball which was more than 8% as compared to their previous meeting. The passing accuracy of the team also improved by 10%. Despite the monstrous figure of Van Dijk, Arsenal won 56% of the aerial duels. There were 100 more passes and 4 more crosses by the home team. Arsenal also bettered their average passing streak from 4 to 5 passes.
#2 Made playing from the back more effective
Teams like Barcelona and Arsenal prefer to build up play and playing from the back is a prerequisite for it. Involvement of center halves and goalkeeper in build-up play invites opposition’s attacking players to press high up the pitch. This provides more space and time for the midfielders to pick key forward passes.
In the past under Wenger, Arsenal suffered a lot when defenders were often caught on the ball. Cech, who was once the best in the world, also struggled to adopt the buildup play. He often took the option to clear the ball when under pressure. This not only cost Arsenal possession but also drained out a lot of energy of team members who had to immediately fall back in order to defend.
The newly recruited German, Bernd Leno was not able to show his skills until Cech's injury. But when he was provided an opportunity, he grabbed it with both hands. Now, Leno is a key figure in making Arsenal’s playing from the back more enterprising. In the game against Liverpool, Arsenal was able to maintain a huge chunk of ball possession due to Leno’s effectiveness with the ball at his feet.
Leno attempted only 7 long balls in the entire match and was able to register a passing accuracy of 85.2%. Not only this, but he also nullified gegenpress by his accurate chip passes over Salah, Mane, and Fermino. If compared with Cech, Cech’s passing accuracy was mere 48.3% and he attempted 22 long balls when Arsenal faced Liverpool at the Emirates last season.
In the same fixture, Leno’s save percentage was 75 which was almost 9% more than Cech’s last season percentage of 66.66. Arsenal’s center back pairing of Mustafi and Holding also had the passing accuracy of 92.6% and 91.4% respectively against arguably the best pressing team in Europe. The passing stats of the Arsenal backline clearly complement Unai’s efforts in this department.
#3 Positioning
In the 2017-18 Premier League season, Arsenal conceded a total of 51 goals in 38 matches. This sum was even more than Burnley (39) and Newcastle United (47). To cut short this goal-against figure the ratio of 1.34 goals per game was the preliminary goal of the newly appointed boss.
Unai identified lack of positional discipline as the chief factor for Arsenal’s poor defense. Under Wenger’s free-flowing football philosophy many players repeatedly went too far away from their expected positions hence leaving spaces for the opposing teams to exploit.
An insight into the average positions of Arsenal players in the game against Liverpool last season clearly demonstrates team’s lack of shape and players’ positional sense. Under Wenger, the home team ended up allowing football to cross the goal line on three instances.
On the contrary when the average positions of gunners (under Unai Emery) against the same counterpart is taken into account; a substantial enhancement can be witnessed. Unai installed positional discipline into the team. The shape of the team looks more organized. New Uruguayan signing Torreira has been a sensation since his arrival.
His partnership with Xhaka provides extra stability in the midfield. Under the Emery management, both the players look more disciplined in defensive duties. The effect of the duo was so massive that they were able to keep Liverpool’s three men midfield on the back foot for most of the time.
A defined role to midfielders has also provided extra liberty to the German talisman, Mesut Ozil. The World Cup winner was able to provide 4 key passes in the latest match against Red team from the Merseyside. This figure was three better than last season meeting between the same Premier League giants at the Emirates stadium.
#4 The Final Product
In the past, Wenger was criticized for lack of final product despite playing beautiful football. However, the present demonstrates a whole different story. Arsenal under Emery, have the best in the division shot conversion rate of 18%.
This conversion rate is almost 5.5% more than last season stats. Having scored 26 goals in a dozen matches, the gunners are third in the list of the most goal-scoring team just behind Manchester City (36) and Chelsea (27).
What is the reason for this drastic improvement? On extracting useful stats and formulating them into a more meaningful form, this question can be answered.
Last season in the match against Liverpool at Emirates, Arsenal attacked 30% of the times from the middle of the pitch while 45% of shots came from either flank. Emery transformed it upside down. Unai prefers to attack from wide while shooting from the center. So this year against Liverpool at Emirates, only 21% of the Gunners’ attacks came from the middle while 75% of the total shots were from the center.
Shooting from outside of the box against top goalkeepers rarely creates goals. Under Wenger, Arsenal shot 55% of the times from outside of the box which substantially slumped to 25% under Unai Emery.
#5 Mentality
Strong team wins you matches, Strong mentality wins you titles. The current Arsenal boss, Unai Emery has won 3 Europa Leagues in last 5 years. He also won 7 major trophies with PSG in his brief tenure of two years. He has immediately infused his winning mentality, desire for success and never say die attitude in the current Arsenal team.
As a result of this, Arsenal are currently on a 16-matches unbeaten streak in all competitions. Not only this but at present, the club is also the leading second-half goal scorers (20) in the Premier League. 77% of the total Arsenal goals have come in the second half. The Gunners’ resistance to defeat has seen them earn 9 points coming back from losing positions in various matches. This shows an improvement in the mentality of the Arsenal team recently.
Last year Arsenal’s penurious away form was the leading cause of Arsenal’s below standard final league position. Arsenal lost 21 points from teams outside of top six on their travels. Arsenal lost to inferior teams like Bournemouth (1-2), Brighton (1-2), Leicester (1-3), Newcastle (1-2) and Watford (1-2). Not only this, but the gunners also surrendered against Stoke (0-1) and Swansea (1-3) who went on to suffer relegation ultimately.
The key feature for any team to finish among the Champions League places is not to lose the absolutely winnable matches. Emery’s team hasn’t lost to any team not regarded as one of the top six teams in England up till now. This is a positive sign as far as Arsenal chances to finish in the top four spots are concerned.
Normally any new manager requires at least 2-3 transfer windows to build a team of his personal liking. Given the fact that Emery is only a few months into the job, his accomplishments are praiseworthy. The new Arsenal manager is also eying some gems for January transfer window to further strengthen the squad.
Emery’s job until now one thing can be surely stated that he did not transform Arsenal’s traditional style of play but simply upscaled the system that Wenger incorporated in his 22 years of managerial span. Unai’s management, coaching, and transfer policies have certainly bolster Arsenal’s resurgence.
The stats and results also favor optimistic future of the gunners. Arsenal becoming a Premier League contender once again in the near future will not be an extravagant expectation. One can’t predict how far Arsenal can take their current 16 matches unbeaten run. But one thing is confirmed, the gunners can only get better from here.
