by He was tempted to pinch when Rob Edwards, invited to spill out about the opponents who had just eased on their side Luton on Wednesday night, put them out of the other title contenders. “Maybe they are the only team out of the three currently fighting that can play any game,” he said. “If it’s a physical game, if it’s a football game, if it’s a running game, whatever it is, they’ve got the answer. They have the personalities to play anyway.”
Related: ‘Ready to fight for it’: Zinchenko feels results against rivals give Arsenal belief
Edwards was really talking about Arsenal and it is hard to think of a reputation that could be higher on their evolution. For years they were seen as a possible soft touch among rivals, even if that was not always expressed out loud. In the last decade of Arsène Wenger’s reign their football was very attractive but they were terribly held back, it often felt, by the dogma that there was an “Arsenal” way to win games and trophies. They were usually nice to watch but Mikel Arteta, four and a quarter years into the job, has changed what that praise should mean. He claims his offensive and defensive records this season surpass all others.
“To play nice, I don’t know what that means,” Arteta said on Friday. “It’s always nice with the ball, it’s nice without the ball as well, it’s nice when you have to play in certain places and spaces on the pitch: what kind of density do you play nicely? In the end it’s how you compete and how you make life difficult to beat the opponent.”
Arteta spoke earlier in the week about putting “ideology” aside in the tedious but extremely useful draw at Manchester City. Now, ahead of a trip to Brighton that presents its own challenges, he elaborated on the idea. Basically, Arsenal’s best football at this point will be of the type that won the first Premier League in 20 years. It will involve scrambling through their opposition when they are at their best but also rolling up their sleeves, chipping in and showing a more pragmatic edge when needed.
“Each game requires different things,” Arteta said. “There are certain teams that try to tell you to play a certain game and when they tell you, you have to play the best way possible. When you have the adaptability to do that and be even better than the opponent at playing that game, you have a huge advantage. We have to play all kinds of games.”
Sometimes, when you get dragged into the mud, the only way out is to win the mud fight. Arsenal can do that now, the presence of Declan Rice in front of William Saliba and Gabriel Magalhães has completed a great spine. For all that, Arsenal have tended to pull through cleanly: their 44 bookings are the lowest of any top-flight team.
“We probably haven’t talked about it much and maybe that was a factor,” said Arteta, half-joking about his disciplinary record, while suggesting the risk of yellow or red cards for his players. past self-fulfillment.
Related: Full bloom: Brighton well set for success with or without De Zerbi
Arsenal may need a dab of all the qualities identified by Edwards if they are to return from the south coast with their current satisfaction levels intact. Brighton may be a little short of a sixth-placed finish last season but nobody in Arteta’s orbit needs the 3-0 win at the Emirates last May to effectively clinch the 2022-23 title for Manchester City to remember. “A good learning day, that’s what I’d say,” said Arteta with the benefit of hindsight.
Brighton can hurt Arsenal with their football again and it feels the kind of assignment where the physique of the visitors, much less impressive a year ago, can set a platform for Martin Ødegaard and company to shine through attacking ferocity.
Arteta was asked if Arsenal were re-developing the kind of aura last seen when their foes were mortally wounded in the cold and tight confines of Highbury before entering the pitch. “I was in the tunnel playing in another shirt watching the Invincibles and I had that feeling: ‘Tonight will be very difficult,'” he said. “Hopefully we can prove that. I think that would be very positive for the team.”
Arteta played in Everton’s 7-0 defeat at Arsenal’s old home. Perhaps, when his current team went on an extraordinary goal-scoring run between late January and early March this year, the inevitability felt similar to some of those on the other side. They remain elusive, evidenced by the fact that Bukayo Saka’s absence will be a significant blow if he is not fit to play at the Amex Stadium, but their manager feels they can handle whatever comes their way over the next six weeks . “The team has matured,” said Arteta. “They have found their own rhythms, their own leadership, their own way of managing certain things.”
Arsenal’s all-season mix is set for their most convincing campaign in two decades.
