Upon winning their sixth Champions League, and finally helping themselves to another form of silverware in the Premier League, Liverpool seemed to be unstoppable. Their style of play reflected that of Robin Hood and his men stealing from the rich- or in the Premier League's case, Manchester City.
We’ve had numerous comparisons barring the two sides by couch supporters on Facebook comments plenty of times, no doubt. But recently what has caused a major rut in the modern heart of social media was something else.
Both Liverpool and City encountered complexions that built up to be a problem, leading to losses and draws.
Bearing in mind that Pep Guardiola is a tactical genius when it comes to positional play- the woes might not last long for the citizens. Whereas Jurgen Klopp will also look to re-ignite his men’s flames ahead of next season
Arsenal, Burnley, Southampton have all created a big mess for those two managers. There’s a common similarity between the three sides that will build up to make a new type of sense.
If you take Arsenal’s new system and implement it with Burnley’s defensive capabilities plus instilling Southampton’s drive a big bonus, you’ll have a perfect premier league “dark horse” team which could potentially break down the biggest mentality monsters like City and Liverpool.
Managers like Sean Dyche, Nuno Espirito, are feared in the best league in the world for a reason. They’re clear workaholics and philosophy men. Their approach to creating new pathways for the team can be almost labeled as autocratic (referring to the “iron leaders” of the world such as Vladimir Putin and more).
Workaholic - Someone who works excessively hard for long amounts of hours, the term derives from Alcoholism - but being addicted to hard work instead
And I believe the latter statement perfectly describes Mikel Arteta.
His experiences working with managers such as Pep Guardiola, understudying him in the past with Manchester City, learning from Arsene Wenger as a player, adding his playing experience in not only the Premier League, will no doubt equip the man for what's to come.
Speaking of Mikel - what we have seen that was used to stop the title-winning teams from further walking all over, was simple but a new ideal- defensive, positional, and mental play.
In addition to this, there were small, smart decisions that could have easily been missed by anyone. Check Arsenal’s FA cup semi-final face-off with Manchester City.
Arteta’s decision to have Ainsley Maitland-Niles -a right-footed midfielder- play on the left defensive flank to be able to captivate Riyad Mahrez’s frequent and swift cut-ins, a technique Riyad has been using since his Leicester City days.
That was just one example of Arteta’s “mini mastery”. There was less time for Arsenal to be able to move on the ball but when there was, immediate attacks were played from the back three- with Emiliano Martinez’s expertise of communication with his defenders meaning extra control at the back.
A back three was established for this match for some specific reasons, not only that it worked against the champions but also because whilst having David Luiz as the centerpiece- we were able to churn balls from either both Shkodran Mustafi and Kieran Tierney’s sides while the opposite sided defender stays on the side to prepare for any unexpected counters to back Luiz up.
What is crucial to this style of play is to have defenders who can control the ball and play it. This is something Arteta must have organized a specialized type of combined explosive and game-controlling training for during the Gunners' background work at London Colney.
The attacking partnership between Aubameyang and Lacazette is just a no brainer. However, the attacking formation was different than usual. Alexandre was playing a much deeper role which isn’t what your mind would usually whip up at first glance- he was filling in the area Manchester City like to play the ball in rather than cleanly up front- giving no valuable rest to Ilkay Gundogan and his midfield men.
If you noticed Aubameyang’s head and vision scanning motions during the game, whilst he was primarily focused on making runs latching onto the balls played out from the back, his focus was on the opposite flank too, looking for Pepe and his plays into the central area.
His finishing has helped us clinch wins as we took our scarce chances very well. At Liverpool, it was Lacazette and Nelson’s well-taken attempts which ignited our triumph- indicating a rehearsed attack-on-the-break move in training until we honed our finishing ratio.
A smart choice by Arteta- giving Nicolas Pepe the role of crossing the ball more into our number 14 instead of going for chances on goal, we may have finally figured out how to make use of the inconsistent man's limited qualities until his confidence finally arrives from France.
Arteta seems to have reshifted his priorities really well since Arsenal’s bumpy road began, reserving players who didn’t show the attitude that our results were the first priority- making a massive impact on our swift creative play and fighting spirit in the process.
So what we’ve seen is the tactical and technical domination of both top sides from Arsenal within a few days ever since Arsenal’s loss to Spurs- something that may not happen often but it is a great foundation for Arteta to build on.