Author: Adarsh Nim

After Mikel Arteta’s take over as new Arsenal boss in December 2019, Arsenal are looking like a new pack of wolves in town.

Mikel Arteta replaced Unai Emery on 20th December 2019 after a disappointing tenure under the former boss, with some high hopes of Arsenal Board and fans. With 2 wins, 3 draws and only 1 loss, the new Arsenal Boss is looking quite promising to everyone on-board.

Arteta, left the job of assistant manager at Manchester City under Pep Guardiola to manage his former-player club, Arsenal. Mikel left Man City at a good note with some good managerial advice and experiences from the Boss himself, Pep Guardiola, who wished him all the best for his Arsenal tenure.

But what makes Arteta different from other managers and certainly Unai, the former Arsenal manager?

Arteta similar to Pep Guardiola likes to use inverted full-backs while pushing his midfielders deep into the attacking half of the opposition’s team. Kolasinac goes forward while the other full-back, Niles get into the midfield with the other midfielders to bring in some more numbers into the midfield. Meanwhile, the likes of Xhakadrops back with centre-backs making the line of back three. The attack now has five players to break down the defence of the opposition and score as many goals as the team can.

Arteta is a constant user of 4-2-3-1 formation without ball and 3-2-4-1 with the ball and just like his counterpart Pep Guardiola he also likes to keep the possession and attack with some pick-pocketing passes. With Arteta also promoting the players from the Arsenal academy, he is slowly becoming the fans favourite.

Under Unai, Arsenal usually clipped to 4-2-3-1 with possession and 4-4-1 without possession which somehow and somewhere lacked the creativity in Gunners. Which has turned upside-down under Arteta as the new boss, who has brought back Mesut Ozil to viability? With Ozil being the solitary creative midfielder in this Arsenal side, Arteta plans to include him in every blueprint of his work, on and off the pitch.

Meanwhile, in the attack, the second most important player for Mikel is Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, who’s intelligence is often praised by Mikel. When Arsenal attacks Aubameyang goes narrow besideLazazette and creates a wide space for Kolasinac on the left flank and when Arsenal is under attack, Aubameyang drops back to cover the wide space left behind by Kolasinac.

The tactics used by the new Arsenal Boss is no different from the City boss, Pep Guardiola who is also very fond of the inverted full-backs in the play. This unorthodox gameplay is very much cherished and appreciated by the fans and the Arsenal board emphatically.