How Arteta turned Arsenal around
- Why Arsenal’s revolution worked, while Tottenham and Chelsea flopped
- As the investigations grow, the finances of football clubs look somewhat odd
By Tony Attwood
December 22, 2019: Arteta joined Arsenal. If he had been your average common-or-garden manager that means he would have been out of Arsenal no later than 22 December 2020. And I can write that because at the moment only eight out of 20 managers in the Premier League have been in their job for more than a year.
And it is an interesting issue to contemplate because on 17 May 2022, when he’d been in the job for two and a half years the Mirror ran the story, and I quote exactly:
“It is looking inevitable that the Gunners will miss out on a top-four place and [Piers] Morgan is not happy with Arteta, demanding him to be sacked. He said: ‘Arteta should be fired. Instead he’s been given a new deal and massive pay rise. For abject failure. Utterly ridiculous’.”
in June 2022 for example, the Express said, “Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta tipped to be first Premier League manager sacked next season.” Just so you know who to blame that came from Jack McEachen.
Football London went with “Mikel Arteta faces Arsenal sack question should Champions League qualification failure occur.”
In one sense the media had a bit of an excuse because Arsenal matches at that time had in attendance idiots who shouted abuse at the manager. Football.London for example, ran “What Arsenal fans shouted at Mikel Arteta after Crystal Palace loss as supporters send message.”
But let’s go back. Arteta got the job at Arsenal on 22 December 2019, and the table below shows where Arsenal were on the day he was appointed, and on Christmas Day the following two years (approximately the anniversary of his appointment) and at the end of each season.
What can be seen is that by 2020 the club was in a worse position sitting 15th in the league. If that form had carried on Arsenal would have ended up with 38 points by the end of the season, and come in 17th, just avoiding relegation.
But Arsenal didn’t carry on like that because after 25 December 2020 Arsenal had a total turn around, and in fact if we ran a table from Christmas Day to the end of the season, Arsenal were actually second in the league. (All the facts are published in Key Data Tables 2020/21.)
| Team | P | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 11 | Arteta appointed (2019) | 18 | 5 | 8 | 5 | 24 | 27 | -3 | 23 |
| 8 | End of season 1 (2020) | 38 | 14 | 14 | 10 | 56 | 48 | 8 | 56 |
| 15 | 25 December 2020 | 14 | 4 | 2 | 8 | 12 | 18 | -6 | 14 |
| 8 | End of season 2 (2021) | 38 | 18 | 7 | 13 | 55 | 39 | 16 | 61 |
| 4 | 25 December 2021 | 18 | 10 | 2 | 6 | 27 | 23 | 4 | 32 |
| 5 | End of season 3 (2022) | 38 | 22 | 3 | 13 | 61 | 48 | 13 | 69 |
| 1 | 25 December 2022 | 14 | 12 | 1 | 1 | 33 | 11 | 22 | 37 |
Now we were feeling that by the summer of 2021 the squad was getting sorted out, but in that summer Arteta had a total revamp of the defence, and that season we ended up fifth.
Untold didn’t call for Arteta’s removal however, unlike the people who are actually paid to write about football (which we are not). Instead, we thought he should stay, and the reason for that was simple – we had done our research.
What we wanted to know was how the transformation from 25 December 2020 had happened. We noticed that the number of yellow cards Arsenal were getting had collapsed – which was important because in 2019/20 Arsenal was the most yellow carded club in the league. Now suddenly Arsenal was one of the cleanest clubs in the league (according to the refs).
The answer (which was not apparent at once) was that the tackling was cut to a minimum. And what Arteta did thereafter was bring in defenders who could defend with a minimal amount of tackling – exactly as Manchester City do.
At the same time we noted other anomalies not reported by the shouty media – most notable Leicester’s ability to put in the most tackles but get the fewest number of fouls against.
None of the media followed either that up or the strange story of how Leicester were getting far more penalties than everyone else.
Both these anomalies stopped after our exposure of what was going on, and the gradual sinking of Leicester to their current sorry state began thereafter.
Now here’s the point. Only Untold did this research and published the results. Rather like the fact that only Untold does the research into home and away bias by referees and publishes the results. So while the media was calling for Arteta to be sacked we were showing just what he was achieving and how.
And here’s one final snippet. Arsenal’s two most successful managers who have lasted over one season, in terms of the percentage of matches won at Arsene Wenger and Mikel Arteta, both of whom the media have wanted sacked. If you want proof that the media is anti-Arsenal that surely is it.
I was watching the FA youth cup semi final between Arsenal and Man city on a stream. When I tried to watch it on the arsenal.com it said that in my country I didn’t have the rights to stream it. So I went in search of a stream and found one. Now it might have been that I was watching it on the Man City website (but then why would I be able to watch it on their website but not on Arsenals? )
The match commentators were awful. Everything City did was greeted with oohh and aahhs and Arsenal was criticised for well… everything they did. Now I must say that I too had a few things to remark about how we played to be honest but they clearly wanted City to win it. I remember why I love to see matches with Russian, Polish, Arabic… reporters from whom I don’t understand anything but at least I don’t have to get angered about the clear bias the English commentators usually show… So even at youth level the trend is there….
IMHO, the best thing that Arsenal can do it what thy have been doing all year.
They are the most regularly spectacular team in the PL.
They are youngs, restless, visibly happy to play and they have become poster boys for the PL.
The deadwood scribblers or commentators just can’t stand it because all they are after is bling bling bling.
They kind of bling bling that gets PSG not even sure of winning the french league with Messi, Neymar and Mbappé along with the most expensive squad in football history. And now, their manager is most probably gone at the end of the year and Messi’s contract will probably not go longer then the 2 years.
I’m having fun watching the Gunners, watching the strategy the Arsenal organsiation is implementing, seeing the young gunners make progress and taking all the rest with a pinch of salt : the caravan passes by, the dogs bark like they say in french.
We’ve got 9 more cup finals, and I am relishing each game. This team has not yet reached it’s acme and we are at the front row watching them doing so.
And IMHO the young Gunners have taken it to hearth to prove all these idiots and incompetents wrong. They use it as motivation.
This is a really good, one of the best, time to be an Arsenal fan.
Pi*s Morgan is an abject failure and it is utterly ridiculous that he calls himself a fan of a club with so much more class than he will ever display in his lifetime. It would be best for us all if he were to stop pretending to be a supporter and take his comments elsewhere as far as I am concerned. His attention seeking vitriol fuels his media cohorts and does nothing to help the club. Can the club sack supporters?
Dramatic last minute win in the FA youth cup and I am sorry to hear of Walter’s problem with commentary. I found a non English media stream with a neutral and knowledgable flow of information to accompany accurate details of play on the field. Keep trying Walter. Looking forwards to the final whoever we meet there. COYU18G
That’s always what you get when you watch youth games on other clubs’ sites, W.
Actually, when other clubs’ fans stream a youth game on arsenal.com, they’re very likely to be as incensed as we are when we do on theirs, tbh … Personally, I find it rather funny, and – probably because I’m like that, too – I can easily empathize with commentators outrageously biased in favour of their club’s youth teams …
As for watching it on arsenal.com, when – as it was yesterday – the stream is available only in the UK, the best (only?) way to do it is get a VPN, and tune in onto a UK server. It was worth it yesterday, again, because there is so much to love about our U18s, and the way Jack takes care of their development. No doubt they were helped by the ref’s decision to send off a City player after 8 minutes only (what do you think of that decision, btw, Walter?) but this squad has tremendous technical, physical, mental quality, and when you watch them play and overcome all obstacles, you can’t help but think of Henley’s line “I am the master of my fate” – this could definitely be their motto. I can’t wait to see these boys in the final they’ve absolutely deserved making their way to.
What a doom and gloom site this is.
All it seems to be on here is everything and everyone is against Arsenal.
Saka I think you completely misunderstand what is going on here. And I am not sure why you misunderstand, when so many people seem to get it perfectly well.
I wonder, for example, if you read or even glanced at such articles of the past few days as
“Why Arsenal’s revolution worked, while Tottenham and Chelsea flopped”
Or “Did Arsenal really go for Mudryk or was it all a clever trap for Chelsea?”
Or “Arsenal: building a squad to win this year, and again next season.”
Or “How does the Arsenal squad compare with the way other clubs are set up?”
They all seem to me to be very positive articles, and yet you say “All it seems to be on here is everything and everyone is against Arsenal.”
The only ways I can imagine you have reached that conclusion are either because you are determined to write negative comments about this site for reasons of your own, or that you are only reading articles that are critical (again for reasons I can’t really imagine).
It does seem to me, as editor, that the site is best served by publishing articles of all types – those critical and those in praise. And yet somehow either you only get to read the critical pieces, or else you are simply not understanding what is being written. Of course I do know that our style of writing is more difficult to comprehend than the one sentence paragraphs in the Sun, but even so, they aren’t that difficult are they?
Oi Saka.If you don’t like it,scroll on.Perhaps you’re a media luvie?Two of the worst offenders are Football.London & Metro.If there’s a derogatory comment from a pundit they are glowingly all over it.Shameless from so called London sites.
It’s been this way for as long as I can remember.Still on the bright side.You know it’s killing them😉
I agree with both Tony’s and Positive Pete’s replies to Saka. Love the “scroll on” advice from Pete
The media is predominately anti-Arsenal all the time. I’ve been an Arsenal supporter since April ’72 when a colleague convinced a family member to give up a seat so he could take me to Highbury for derby with WHU. The Gunners won and the love affair began.
Excited to read about the victory the next day, what I got was how they’d be lucky to finish top ten (they were 5th), rubbish team, etc.
It’s never changed. When AFC won the title in ’04 through an undefeated season I read that they weren’t the only team to do it. I think it was possibly Preston North End in the 1800’s, FFS. Before that was boring, boring Arsenal. George Graham manged the team to the title having only one loss! Not like the MU sides of the early 90’s we heard. Arsene who? What does he know about proper (i.e. English) football? 4th is not a trophy. Arteta will be sacked. All the young stars are actually leaving. And on and on.
I’m ranting a bit but more than 50 years of this nonsense winds me up. If Arsenal win the League this season what we’ll probably see is they didn’t even finish in the top four last season and lost to Leicester City, of all teams, in ’16. As if the other 18 teams hadn’t lost to them, only the Arsenal.
I’m glad we have Untold Arsenal, wish Tony had started it earlier. COYG!!
The media needs to feed its revenue line. So they’ll say anything that makes people click.
Tony could start preparing the transfer list…probably he’d be up to 30 or 40….
Now, if you think about Arsenal, how it’s been functionning and how the academy produces promising players, ma take is that all in all this is all crap. For one, all the contract extensions come at a cost – in terms or salaries. Next comes the fact that Arsenal need to keep opportunities for the young guns so they want to stay at the club.
So my guess is we’ll not see much in terms of incoming transfers, and I don’t see Arsenal splashing tens of millions on anyone. We’ll most probably have CL games next year, so the workload will be more important. But seriously, who is being let go of the actual team ? And replaced by whom who has to be better ?
What is the purpose of the Academy if you don’t integrate the youngsters ? I would not be surprised to see Arsenal not splash it all and bet on it’s youngsters for the most and keep the money available for the future, maybe when a world superstar becomes available.
Which is not the way the media will take. They’ll pretend Arsenal missed more then a hundred players by incompetence by summer’s end and add-on to their anti-Arsenal stance/hate. And there will be sufficient idiots to actually believe it.
It seems we are not the only ones who find the endless criticism of our team and club rather tiresome.
A great piece in football.london by Arsenal fan Tom Canton seeks to address these unfounded criticisms.
He addresses claims that Arsenals title challenge is somehow ‘fortunate’, as Arsenal have faced persistent underestimation and criticism, but as Mr Canton points out, the facts reveal a very different story.
He goes on to challenge other accusations that we’ve had an easy ride? Been fortunate with injuries? Benefitted from rivals’ form dipping? Refereeing decisions going our way? Even suggestions some teams haven’t taken Arsenal seriously!! Despite the current eight-point lead at the top, strong form and brilliantly aesthetically pleasing football, the Gunners continue to receive criticism and are labelled as somehow ‘lucky’ or ‘fortunate’ to be in the position they are.
To read Toms full analysis go to:
https://www.football.london/arsenal-fc/news/claims-arsenal-title-challenge-fortunate-26638375
Just a proof how all this works ? Remember reading for months that Tierney was pissed and wanted to leave and Arsenal would let him go (yeah…so they have no more cover on the left…Arsenal are THAT stupid)…
Well as it seems like it got no traction, now comes the opposite : Arsenal have changed their mind and want to keep him. Wow…. Arsenal have a mind and think…. impressive.
They just throw shit on the walls, hope something sticks, then they do it again on the opposite wall. And some years ago enough people were believing that crap and turned on the manager.