Nottingham Forest v Arsenal - Premier League
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For most of last season, the loudest criticism aimed at Mikel Arteta had nothing to do with results.
Arsenal were winning, but they weren鈥檛 winning in the way people felt Arsenal were supposed to. The set-pieces, the time-wasting, the games where they鈥檇 take a 1-0 lead and then sit on it 鈥� rival fans hated it. And sometimes, even their own fanbase have criticised it.
Former Premier League manager Sean Dyche, though, thinks it was the smartest thing Arteta did.
Sean Dyche says Mikel Arteta was right to rip up the Arsenal 鈥榩hilosophy鈥�/h2>
Speaking to Jeff Stelling on OLBG, the former Everton and Burnley boss argued that Arteta deserves a lot of credit for the thing he got hammered for, which was being willing to abandon an idea that wasn鈥檛 delivering silverware.
鈥淎rteta is a great point. For me they鈥檝e given him time. Now last season he probably had to win something,鈥� Dyche said. 鈥淲e all know that because they had eventually gone, look, we鈥檝e put in, I don鈥檛 know, a billion pounds and you haven鈥檛 won anything. But he did win something and I鈥檓 the first to say in my opinion, brilliant management because they got to Christmas and everyone knocks it. They鈥檙e not playing the Arsenal way, but guess what? They wanted to win and he got the job done.
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鈥淭hat for me is when you rip up your philosophy and go the philosophy isn鈥檛 going to win it because we鈥檝e tried that. So, we need to win it and they got the job done.鈥�/p>
Dyche says he鈥檇 love Arteta to just come out and admit it, because he reckons the game needs to hear somebody say it out loud. 鈥淚鈥檇 love him to come out and actually go, 鈥榊eah, I ripped up all that philosophy stuff because I knew we needed to win and we needed to find ways to win鈥�, because that would have really been cleansing, I think, for the game, because all year now is philosophy, philosophy, philosophy. You see teams losing every week, you know?鈥�/p>
He鈥檚 got a point, and Arsenal fans have the Premier League title to now back it up. Arteta spent the last couple of seasons being told his side were too cautious, too reliant on set-pieces, too far removed from the football Arsene Wenger used to put out. Then he won the league and reached a Champions League final by doing it his way.
Ironically, though, Arsenal are yet to score from a set-piece yet this season, and the Gunners are suddenly passing teams to death instead. That probably has something to do with having the likes of Bukayo Saka, Martin Odegaard and Kai Havertz fully fit again.