On the one hand, the forces of order, regimented, playing in precise patterns and, on the other, something darker, more visceral, a method that acknowledges the imperfection of the human soul, the unknowability of football in all its randomness; better, that second way says, to attempt to ride the fury than to believe it might be harnessed. When it began, a decade ago, that’s how the Pep Guardiola v Jürgen Klopp rivalry appeared. Two fundamentally opposed ways of seeing the world.
But in time, the two crept towards each other. Klopp moved away from the heavy metal of his Borussia Dortmund years to something more conservative. Guardiola experimented in multiple directions, slowly abandoning the possession-oriented idealism of his past to something less radical but also less predictable.
The temptation, after the first two weeks of the season, is to cast Mikel Arteta and Xabi Alonso in a similar light. Arsenal are yet to concede a goal. They dominated the Community Shield from the first minute, beat a shambolic Manchester City 3-0 and gave the sense that they could easily have won more comprehensively had they been minded to do so.
They were no more troubled in beating Coventry by the same scoreline in their opening league game and, while they were rather less dominant, they were still extremely comfortable against Aston Villa on Monday and had been slowly increasing the pressure when Bukayo Saka gave them the lead just before the hour. Arteta has become more controlling over his seven years at Arsenal, not just in his micromanagement but in his demands from his team. Tactical plans are sophisticated and negotiable only in the final details.
In their third successive season of finishing second he spoke repeatedly of the need to reduce, to zero if possible, the xG of the opposition. If they have no chances, they cannot score, and if they do not score, they cannot win. Last season it was a refrain heard less often; Arsenal did reduce their opponents’ opportunities, conceding seven goals fewer than they had the previous season.
There were those who criticised them on aesthetic grounds, bemoaning their reliance on set plays and occasional bouts of excessive pragmatism, but it worked. They were the best team and they won the league, in the end, fairly comfortably. All else is taste, subjective.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
