Pragmatic Unai Emery is keeping Arsenal guessing

Unai Emery’s pragmatism is making Arsenal harder to label and tougher to beat, as his tactics showed against Tottenham on Saturday.

Unai Emery. What’s he all about? It’s a question Arsenal are still trying to answer even though the Spaniard has been in charge for almost a full season since succeeding Arsene Wenger last summer.

Unlike Wenger, Emery is tough to fit a label to. He’s not an idealist honoring a pure vision of how the game should be played. Nor is he a Don of dour defensiveness who believes negating an opponent is the one true way to win.

If the Gunners can’t work out the nature of their head coach, imagine how their opponents feel.

The truth is Emery is a pragmatist in the true sense of the word. Too often in modern soccer, pragmatism is taken to describe defensive coaches and tactics.

Yet playing defensive all the time isn’t pragmatic, it’s dogmatic. Pragmatism is more about tailoring players and tactics to particular challenges.

It’s the proverbial “Horses for courses” mantra, and Emery is proving a flexible master of the approach. He’s seamlessly shifted between a free-flowing, attractive style and more cautious setups based on discipline and shape.

Tottenham got a good dose of the latter qualities as Emery constructed Arsenal perfectly to earn a 1-1 draw away from home. Only poor finishing from Alexandre Lacazette and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang fluffing his lines from the penalty spot late on prevented the Gunners from taking all three points from the Premier League’s latest north London derby.

Their profligacy wasted a brilliant gameplan defined by ceding possession and striking on the break. It was all so un-Arsenal, at least the Arsenal of the modern, Wenger-led era.

Emery’s plan was borne from a team selection based on favoring workers over flair players. It meant raiding left-back Sead Kolasinac made way for the more experienced and disciplined Nacho Monreal.

There was also a change at right-back, where central defender Shkodran Mustafi was trusted ahead of converted midfielder Ainsley Maitland-Niles.

The trend of of industry above ingenuity continued in midfield, where Emery once again left Mesut Ozil on the bench for an intense away fixture. A more energetic Aaron Ramsey, who scored on the day, took the German’s place.

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Ramsey’s endeavour combined brilliantly with Lacazette’s willingness to press and harass defenders. They denied Spurs the option of playing out from the back and through midfield.

With Alex Iwobi and Henrikh Mkhitaryan running tirelessly out wide, Emery knew his team wouldn’t be outworked by the Lilywhites.

Nor would Emery’s side be outnumbered in the middle, not when his 4-2-3-1 formation became a rigid 4-5-1 out of possession.

Speaking of possession, Arsenal shunned it in a way that would likely have made Wenger curl his lip in disgust.

Former Stoke City defender Danny Higginbotham detailed how little the Gunners used the ball, in an article for The Sun:

"Unai Emery’s men had their third lowest percentage of possession of the season at Wembley — only their home and away games against  Chelsea beat that.The Gunners also  completed their lowest amount of passes in a game, 22 less than any other fixture."

The benefit of staying off the ball and sitting deep was two-fold. First, it forced Spurs’ passes into congested areas where the hosts struggled to keep the supply lines to strikers Harry Kane and Heung-Min Son open.

Arsenal’s cagey approach was also subtle enough to draw Tottenham up the pitch and leave a high defensive line vulnerable to counters. The vulnerability was exposed when Lacazette dropped off the front to win the ball and released a galloping Ramsey to sign off his final north London derby in style.

There were more threatening breaks, like the one that ended with Lacazette inexplicably steering a shot wide after being teed up by Monreal. The full-back had been released on the overlap by Iwobi, who was relentless at both ends of the pitch.

Sky Sports’ Nick Wright noted how effectively the Gunners broke on their north London neighbours: “In fact, according to Opta, they registered more ‘fast breaks’ (three) than in any other Premier League game all season.”

Everything Arsenal did was made possible by the sound structure of Emery’s tactical shape and the discipline of its execution. Iwobi and Mkhitaryan routinely doubled up with Monreal and Mustafi to help contain Tottenham’s buccaneering full-backs Kieran Trippier and Danny Rose.

Monreal and Mustafi also regularly tucked in to ensure center-backs Laurent Koscielny and Sokratis Papastathopoulos weren’t isolated against Kane and Son.

Kane netted Spurs’ equaliser when Mustafi needlessly gave away a penalty, but this was otherwise one of the prolific No. 10’s quietest and toughest games.

Emery’s subtle and well-crafted blueprint made a point feel close to a win, even though Aubameyang spurned the chance to ensure an actual victory.

The most positive implication of the result was its further proof of Emery’s comfort as a tactical Chameleon who can equip Arsenal for various challenges.

Even so, it’s easy to wonder if the Gunners wouldn’t have gotten maximum rewards if they’d been bolder. After all, Tottenham entered the game in indifferent form. Sometimes pragmatism can become more about not losing than helping a team win.

Yet it’s also fair to say Wenger wasn’t above treading the path of pragmatism. His 4-1-4-1 defensive shape helped a makeshift Arsenal side reach the Champions League final in 2006.

The Frenchman also willingly ceded possession to help earn notable results against Bayern Munich, Manchester City and Chelsea during the latter years of his tenure.

Wenger never flipped the script as often as Emery, though. The 47-year-old has given Arsenal a bit of everything this season, a 4-2-3-1, a 4-4-2 and even a back three.

Emery has encouraged his team to produce artful performances in eye-catching wins over Leicester, Fulham and Bournemouth. He’s also tried to frustrate City with two banks of four and stifled Chelsea with a high-pressing diamond.

Emery’s ability to specifically calibrate his resources will be invaluable for a squad chasing a top-four finish domestically, as well as success in the Europa League.