“We are asking them to do something different, to play at a different pace, much more aggressive and at the moment they suffered.” So said Mikel Arteta following his first home match in charge of Arsenal, a 2-1 defeat to Chelsea where the team had led for much of the game before succumbing to fatigue and allowing the visitors to score twice in the closing stages. On that afternoon, I recall the exhausted players on their haunches in the centre circle, defeated by a mixture of Chelsea’s counter attacking precision and their own lactic acid. However, Emirates Stadium rose as one to applaud the effort of the players. After a few months in the mire of Emery’s directionless side,...
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