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The much anticipated North London derby has come and gone. It is no longer news that Arsenal triumphed over their North London rivals by 4 goals to 2, thanks to a brace from Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and one each from Alexandre Lacazette, and the man of the match, Lucas Torreira.
Arsenal were slight underdogs going into this contest, going by Tottenham's perceived superiority over The Gunners in recent seasons. They have finished above Arsenal for the past two seasons, which seemed to suggest there is a power shift in North London.
From this game, it is quite obvious for all to see that Arsenal have greatly improved under Unai Emery as manager. There are a number of things we noticed from the game, lets take a look at some of them.
#1 Arsenal are adapting to Unai Emery's philosophy
When Emery became Arsenal manager, he was quite clear about what he wanted from Arsenal. When he was asked about his style of football, this is what he said, as quoted by the Guardian UK
“My idea is to be protagonists,” he said. “The history here is a team that love playing with possession and I like that personality. When you don’t have possession, I want a squad that are very, very intensive with the pressing. The two things are important for me to be protagonists – possession of the ball and pressing when you don’t have the ball.”
From his above statement, it was clear that he wanted Arsenal to always dictate games with their style of play, and press the opponents to retrieve the ball, doing this with strong intensity.
Though the game against Tottenham likely motivated Arsenal to use the tactical philosophy almost throughout the game, we have seen in many games this season that the players are really buying into the coach's philosophy of pressing the opponents to retrieve the ball and counter with full speed and energy.
Arsenal pressed Tottenham for large parts of the game, in fact at a point, referee Mike Dean had to ask the Arsenal players who were doing the pressing from the Tottenham's 18-yard box to give them the required 5 metres mark, that is to show the level of intensity from The Gunners.
If Arsenal can continue with this intensity in games, it would be difficult for them to be beaten.
Unai Emery has also brought intense work rate to the team, as the Arsenal players seem to be running more and covering every blade of grass on the pitch.
#2 Emery is maximizing the potential of the team
When Emery was at Paris Saint German, he had the luxury of true wingers, that is players whose natural position was from the wings. He had players like Angel Di Maria, Neymar, and even current Tottenham winger Lucas Moura.
These options allowed the team's wing play to be very effective, with the likes of Serge Aurier also bombing forward as well.
The present Arsenal team lacks proper wingers. Aubameyang is not a proper attacking winger, neither is Henrikh Mkhitaryan. The only player in the attacking position who comes close is Alex Iwobi.
Unai Emery has preferred to play a 4-1-2-3 or 4-2-3-1 or even a 4-4-2 formation to accommodate wingers who can provide support defensively for the full backs when the team does not have the ball.
As a result, when playing teams who are technically good on the ball, as seen in Arsenal's recent games against Bournemouth and Tottenham, he has decided to go for a back three to give room for the full backs to join the attack wholeheartedly.
Sead Kolasinac and Hector Bellerin are providing the necessary width in attacking positions for Arsenal. You just have the feeling that Unai Emery needs two transfer windows to really make this team his own, and they will be very difficult to beat.
#3 Arsenal are more incisive with their passing and attacking
The incisiveness and the way The Gunners have played through the lines of opposition defences this season has been particularly impressive, and once again the The Gunners did this to good effect against Spurs.
Unlike under Wenger, The Gunners have directness in their attacking play this season. Passing the ball sideways without any real desire to penetrate through the opposition defence often made The Gunners come unstuck most times, especially when they lose the ball in the middle of the park.
Unai Emery has brought belief and desire to the team while they are attacking, making them more incisive and direct.
Lucas Torreira has also been important to this directness of Arsenal's attacking play. He is always looking to thread a pass forward, not sideways or backwards.
