Mikel Arteta the new Mourinho? Arsenal manager turning to pragmatism as the going gets tough

From a league-high three red cards to a host of injuries, it’s fair to say Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta has had a lot to deal with this season. 

The Gunners have seen a man sent off in games against Brighton, Manchester City and Bournemouth this season. They managed to take two points from the former two but lost 2-0 in the latter, ending their unbeaten start to the season.

In each match, Arteta has employed remarkably defensive tactics in order to keep the back door shut and try to hang on for a result. Against City, their performance was commendable and they were only denied the win by a 97th-minute John Stones strike.

However, against Brighton and Bournemouth, you could argue that Arsenal, as big favourites, should still have gone for the kill. That’s probably what Man City or Liverpool would have done, after all.

But perhaps the most frustrating part of their season so far came in the 2-2 draw with Liverpool on Sunday.

As the home team, Arsenal rightfully took the game to their title rivals in the first half and went in at the break 2-1 ahead thanks to goals from Bukayo Saka and Mikel Merino, either side of a Virgil van Dijk header. The Gunners outshot Arne Slot’s men 6-3 in the opening 45 minutes, controlling 52% possession and enjoying 15 touches in the opposition box to Liverpool’s 11.

But after the break, the game flipped. Arsenal sat back, seemingly happy to try and hold on to their 2-1 lead which, when you’re playing Liverpool, is never an advisable course of action.

The Reds piled on the pressure and in the second half, outshot Arsenal 6-3, while they enjoyed a massive 63% possession and generated 0.45 xG to Arsenal’s 0.15.

Eventually, the pressure proved too much and in the 81st minute, Mohamed Salah delivered Liverpool’s second equaliser of the match after Trent Alexander-Arnold exploited a gap behind substitutes Jakub Kiwior and Myles Lewis-Skelly to unlock Darwin Nunez.

Arsenal are still third, but they remain four points behind Liverpool, while the gap between themselves and Premier League champions Manchester City has now extended to five points.

That’s not a fatal blow by any means at this early stage of the season. But supporters have been left rightfully questioning whether or not Arteta needs to show some more bravery and take more risks to win games, rather than trying to protect a narrow lead or go into damage limitation mode.

So pronounced has Arteta’s cautious streak been in recent weeks that Jamie Carragher even suggested the Spaniard is ‘slowly morphing into Jose Mourinho’ after the match, moving away from his ‘Pep Guardiola disciple roots’.

“Because Mikel Arteta worked with Pep Guardiola, we’re almost thinking this a Pep Guardiola disciple,” Carragher told Sky Sports.

“If you look at the two most successful managers of the last 10 or 15 years, you’ve got Pep Guardiola here with a certain style of football, and you’ve got Jose Mourinho, almost equally as successful at the other end.

“Mikel Arteta is slowly morphing into a Jose Mourinho type of manager and nobody really thought that would happen. I just think it’s really interesting how he’s got there.”

Explaining his theory further, Carragher continued: “You see today, 2-1 up, pressing Liverpool, on top of Liverpool, playing really well. Then they retreat in the second half.

“Now, I know they had a couple of injuries at the back, but they’ve still got the midfielders playing, still got their attacking players playing, who you think ‘can you get on the ball, can you try and take the sting out of the pressure you’re under?’

“That’s come from the manager, but it happens too often now.

“You see it when they have 10 men. I get what happened at City, I thought what they did at City was brilliant. But what they did against Brighton, what they were doing against Bournemouth last week. Top teams I’ve seen before with 10 men — I go back to my own experience as well — yeah, you’re under pressure, but you relieve it. You keep the ball a bit more, you’re still a threat going forward.”

Arsenal’s schedule doesn’t get any easier from here with six of their next seven games away from home, in a run that includes trips to Newcastle, Chelsea and Inter Milan. That sequence is immediately followed by a home tie against Manchester United.

It’s going to take a level of bravery for Arsenal to pick up the results required to keep them in the title race and the hunt for extra silverware.