Unai Emery’s Arsenal look a lot like Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool

Unai Emery’s Arsenal have a lot in common with Liverpool during the early years of Jurgen Klopp’s project.

There was just something about Jurgen Klopp’s appointment at Liverpool that seemed right. Maybe it was the “You’ll Never Walk Alone” connection, the fact his former club Borussia Dortmund and his new home on Merseyside hold plenty in common. Indeed, Liverpool and Dortmund are, in many ways, spiritually aligned, but when Klopp arrived that wasn’t so apparent.

The Reds were in a bad way, not just as a team, but as a club. They’d somehow lost their identity, becoming just another wasteful Premier League outfit willing to spend too much on players like Lazar Markovic and Christian Benteke and Mario Balotelli. And this is perhaps where Klopp has since made the most profound impact — Liverpool have their character back.

Unai Emery is tasked with a similar brief at Arsenal. The Gunners have also lost their identity as a team and a club in recent years, with the exit of Arsene Wenger at the end of last season ripping the bandaid from a wound that had been growing for a long time. There has been some bleeding, demonstrated by the difficult start to the season, but that has now been stemmed.

Arsenal have gone 13 games unbeaten in all competitions, rising to fourth place in the Premier League table with 22 points from a possible 30. What’s more, the Gunners have seemingly taken quickly to Emery’s ways and methods, playing a brand of dynamic, free-flowing, forward-thinking soccer not seen at the Emirates Stadium for the best part of a decade. Arsenal feel like Arsenal again.

But the parallels to be drawn between what Emery is doing at Arsenal this season and what Klopp faced over his first season-and-a-half as Liverpool manager aren’t just intangible. This weekend’s clash between the two sides underlines what the German has done at Anfield over the past three years and what the Gunners boss must do to match that success.

Klopp also made an instant impact at Liverpool, starting the progress that has led them to a Champions League final and an unbeaten start to the 2018-19 Premier League season. But it took him some time to iron out a number of kinks. It didn’t all happen at once.

It wasn’t until the signing of Sadio Mane from Southampton that Liverpool started to take on the attacking identity they have today. There were glimpses of the fast and furious Gegenpressing for which Klopp had become renowned at Borussia Dortmund, but the Reds struggled to sustain it over any great length of time.

At the back, Klopp has only just found the right formula, with the club record signings of Virgil van Dijk and Alisson Becker watershed moments in instilling a much-needed sense of defensive pride. Now, Liverpool, from front to back, resemble something close to the complete team unit. They’re challengers for English and European soccer’s biggest honors.

Arsenal are plotting a comparable trajectory and have at least made some early progress. Their attack has been rejuvenated under Emery, with Mesut Ozil, Alexandre Lacazette and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang all firing. There’s a more coherent mix of drive and control in midfield too, exemplified by the form of the previously maligned Granit Xhaka.

In defense, though, is where Emery has struggled the most to make an impression. The culture of mediocrity that had festered under Wenger is still evident here — see Arsenal’s late collapse from a winning position against Crystal Palace on Sunday. Through coaching, and the transfer market, Emery must look at eradicating this as a process, just as Klopp did.

Arsenal and Liverpool are two heavyweights of the English game who look back on their glory days with sepia-tinged nostalgia. Now, though, the latter is on the brink of returning to the top. The former is some way short of that level, but if Emery takes lessons from Klopp it might not be long until the Gunners are up there with the Reds.