By Tony Attwood
This article wasa prepared for Untold Arsenal, but we have major technical problems there so in the meantime it is pubished here on Arsenal History.
So the situation at this moment is that I can’t post on the Untold Arsenal website and can’t send and receive emails. But I do seem to be able to write here, so the article I was going to put on Untold is here at the moment, and will transfer there in due course when normality is restored. If it is.
This weekend we play Hull, a club that is sitting 11th in the league, holding their own – which I guess is exactly what they want to be doing. To be aiming for the top would be silly, since there would eventually be a fall, but mid-table is a sustainable position for this season, and something to build on for the future.
However, in the “last six games league” they are currently 16th with four draws and two defeats. The only teams that have performed less well in their last six games are Nottingham Forest, Crystal Palace, Manchester United and Sunderland. And this is in descending order which means that Manchester United are in fact 19th in the last six games league.
Meanwhile, the Telegraph is really going to town against Arsenal, saying that “Arsenal’s dark arts are everything they were not before Arteta The suggestion is thus that Arsenal are only at the top because of the Dark Arts that were brought in by Arteta. And they are….
Ah well at that point I can’t tell you because the media don’t seem to be spelling out what these incredible changes are that Arteta has brought in and which have managed to take Arsenal through seven seasons in which thye have ended up 8th, 8th, 5th, 2nd, 2nd 2nd, 1st.
And I point that out because you might think that after seven seasons three things would have happened.
First, other teams would have worked out what these “dark arts” are, and so found a way to counter them. In fact, given that Arsenal are like everyone else, playing 38 games a season, surely some of the other 19 clubs would have sorted this out for they have not only had the games they have been playing against Arsenal, but all the other games everyone else had played. Surely someone wouold have worked out a counter measure by now.
Now the point is that these games are all filmed and the recordings are available for clubs to consider and study. So surely with all these films, those dark arts would become less and less dark, and more and more visible, and the managers, trainers and coaches of the other 19 clubs in the league would have been studying them, and discovering what Arsenal are doing. And then they would have found a number of countermeasures.
What’s more, although I would not suggest that clubs go round helping each other specifically against Arsenal, the coaches and managers would have watched Arsenal’s defeats and seen exactly what the other clubs have been doing in order to beat Arsenal – or at least to nullify them for a draw.
For the “dark arts” suggestion makes it clear that the view is that Arsenal are not current champions and currently top of the league because they have better players, but because they do something else. Something which the term “Dark Arts” suggests is on the edge of legality, or maybe even breaks the rules, but which fools the referees. And really if one watches enough videos it can’t be that hard to find.
But still Arsenal go on winning. Maybe not by lots of goals, but on the most simple level, because Mikel Arteta has created the most adaptable and versatile side in England. That is the only explanation there can be. These incredible “dark arts” are actually the construction of a team that can deconstruct opposition defences via flowing football. Yes, that is the secret. The Dark Art is Flowing Football.
So why don’t the media admit it? After all they have seen it against Manchester City, Chelsea, Bayern Munich, etc etc. But the media don’t go further than “dark arts” because the rule of football journalism is that Arsenal somehow cheat.
And in a sense Arsenal do cheat, because instead of buying in brilliant centre forwards who score goals that win Match of the Month etc etc, they have produced a team that plays in a certain way. Further, they have back up players who will come in and immediately adopt this team style when another member of the squad gets chopped to the ground, by frustrated opponents.
And if you want some evidence just look at the films of Arsenal’s goals. You won’t find any dark arts apart from the way the opposition tries to cut them to pieces, but you will see team goals, togetherness, a mutual understanding of what each is doing combined with ruggedness and self-belief. That is what won the game at Anfield, and the other games too. It builds from within, and the players believe in it.
The media don’t like it because the media is committed to what it defines as attractive football – but that is something of its own invention. What fans want is winning football, and that is what Arsenal generate.
