Relying On A Young Squad, Mikel Arteta Revolutionizes Arsenal

Arsenal coach (Photo: ANTARA)

JAKARTA - Facing a giant team like Liverpool at home at Anfield with ten men for almost an hour after Granit Xhaka was shown a red card by the referee in the 24th minute, was a harrowing experience.

How could I not, in the first leg of the League Cup semi-final, Arsenal was constantly terrorized. However, the Gunners managed to keep the goal even though the Reds were constantly bombarded by the Reds.

Coach Mikel Arteta's quick reaction and ability to read the game and recognize his squad kept his team safe from defeat. This 0-0 result was also thanks to a calm but biting appearance for the Arsenal players, who on average were still young.

Granit Xhaka (Instagram @granitxhaka)

That match became one of many examples of a revolution in Arsenal which was not only concluded from an attractive and offensive game, but also from the results obtained by Arsenal.

After a poor start to the season having lost three consecutive league games, Arsenal won 15 of their last 22 matches in all competitions.

Arsenal has only lost four times, two of them against the two dominant teams in the Premier League; Liverpool and Manchester City.

Before being silenced 1-2 by Man City last January 1 at the Emirates Stadium, Arsenal won five games in a row by scoring a total of 19 goals and conceding 2 goals.

Like when holding Liverpool in the League Cup semi-final, Arsenal is in high quality. On January 1, City was almost arrested by the Gunners, who played with ten players since the 60th minute. Lucky Rodri scored in the last minute of added time.

The story of Arsenal's transformation into an interesting part of the Premier League this season, moreover the revolution rested on a young squad until Arsenal legend Lee Dixon said, "Big credit must be given to Arteta for giving opportunities to young players."

In fact, according to Dixon, Arteta's move was a gamble because inconsistency can happen at any time in the youth team, and this did happen at the start of the season.

But it didn't last long because Arsenal then became one of the teams who had a great chance of finishing the season in the top four areas.

As Steven Gerrard rejuvenated Glasgow Rangers and now Aston Villa, Arteta is focused on lowering the average age of his players by allowing senior players who don't fit his philosophy to step down.

Willian, David Luiz, and Sokratis Papastathopoulos are among such players. On the other hand, young players such as Ben White, Bukayo Saka, Martin Odegaard, Gabriel Martinelli, and Kieran Tierney were encouraged to go further.

Armed with experience as an assistant to one of the greatest football coaches of all time, Pep Guardiola, Arteta leads Arsenal with a strong affinity for the club he played for many years. He fully understands Arsenal's tradition and the way the Gunners play.

At first, his coaching was met with skepticism from many circles. The reason is, he has no experience coaching a club, let alone a club as big as Arsenal, even though he was Guardiola's assistant at Manchester City.

But there is capital that other coaches don't have, namely, Arteta knows Arsenal inside and out, perhaps like Guardiola when he first coached Barcelona, ​​who he also knew inside and out for being a legend during his time as a player.

Unity is the key

Arteta himself has a special characteristic in the form of calm in leading the team but the composure that makes a terrible team. The proof can be seen from the results 5-0 and 4-1 at home to Norwich and Leeds. Then they won 2-0 and 3-0 over Southampton and West Ham which were not random teams.

For fans of the old Arsenal era, Arteta's revolution is similar to that of George Graham, who coached Arsenal from 1986 to 1995 before Arsene Wenger.

Graham inherited an extraordinary young squad like Arteta currently has. Both have inherited established star players who are cherished by Arsenal fans despite not going according to their coach's plans.

In his first season at Arsenal, Graham invited senior players such as Stewart Robson, Tony Woodcock, and Tommy Caton to leave.

But it was precisely without such stars that Graham presented the League Cup in 1987 which was his first trophy to the Gunners in his first season.

Graham's success formula is similar to the one formulated by Arteta now, which combines young players with experienced players who fit into the coach's philosophy.

But two seasons later the experienced defenders had to contend with young players who had matured and become Graham's first choice. This saw fan-favorite players such as Viv Anderson, Kenny Sansom and Charlie Nicholas leave Arsenal.

The same situation exists today where players who match Arteta's work ethic and style will be retained by the Spaniard. On the other hand, players who do not fit into his philosophy are welcome to leave the Emirates.

Arteta is as firm as Graham who does not hesitate to let players move to other clubs, even if they perform well.

Both view the management and coaching of the club as a joint effort where everyone in the club believes in their role and each role relates to each other to achieve a greater common goal.

This view also makes Arteta actively work with technical director Edu and Arsenal youth academy manager Per Mertesacker and other elements of the club to bring back things that have become Arsenal's identity, especially team unity. "Without unity, you can't achieve what you want to achieve," Arteta was quoted as saying on the Goal page.

According to him, team unity requires everyone to work in an organization that sets aside egos and discards personal agendas. "That's what we wanted to create," said Arteta.

His will is as strong as Guardiola when he made Barcelona and now Manchester City becomes deadly teams that like Arteta rely on young players who have been polished by experienced players.

For the sake of this young player, Arteta even regularly visits youth team matches and training with Mertesacker, in addition to involving Arsenal legends to help polish young talent, including legendary goalkeeper David Seaman who he asked to help produce great Arsenal goalkeepers.

However, he admits Arsenal is still in the process of becoming as big as they used to be and as big as he wants them to be. The drums of revolution will still be beaten.

But if you look at how energetic and explosive Arsenal has been lately, then this club seems to be in the best shape to be the best, now and in the future.