Wenger is left in the shade by Spurs’ talent for development
ne of the surest ways to judge a manager is to count the players who have improved under his care. At Tottenham Hotspur this would take too long. The easier path is to enumerate those who have not got better under Mauricio Pochettino.
Watching any team, week to week, month to month, you look to see weaknesses being cured and strengths enhanced. By that measure, Christian Eriksen’s late winner at Crystal Palace on Wednesday night was a classic case. Eriksen has added consistency and a destructive edge to his game, which was too often merely decorative. An in-and-out kind of talent, Eriksen (right) can now be relied upon to hurt the other team often enough for him to be considered a fully mature Premier League star.
As Arsène Wenger’s 50th north London derby looms, it would not take long to recite the Arsenal players who are better now than they were 12 months ago, or two or three years back. This Arsenal squad is a litany of stagnation, regression and brilliance too intermittent for the team to be title contenders. Which is why they are 14 points and four places behind Spurs: doomed, seemingly, to finish below their local enemy for the first time in Wenger’s 21 years in charge.
The ‘improvement’ test works remarkably well. Paradoxically, the only two big names Pochettino has failed to shift much further forward are last summer’s major signings, Vincent Janssen (£17million) and Moussa Sissoko, whose sale for £30million remains a source of mirth in Newcastle.
Any club who made two such underwhelming signings after finishing third in the table, as Spurs did last year, would be accused of blowing a wonderful opportunity. Instead, Tottenham are stronger pretty much across the board because so many individual players have progressed. This can only be the product of good coaching and culture, for which Pochettino must take the credit.
As former Spurs defender Erik Edman said ahead of tomorrow’s derby at White Hart Lane: “They are doing a lot of things right with their own young English players, and a coach that feels red-hot. Tottenham are the most exciting team in the league in many ways.”
Stick a pin anywhere you like. The two full-backs, Kyle Walker and Danny Rose, have improved. Kieran Trippier, Walker’s deputy, is primed and ready to graduate. In central midfield, Victor Wanyama has moved up a notch and Mousa Dembélé is in his prime. Dele Alli, meanwhile, has scored 16 times in the league and is coveted all over Europe. Harry Kane has reached 20 league goals again, while Son Heung-min, a somewhat erratic talent, has added 12. Further back, nobody would accuse Eric Dier, Toby Alderweireld or Jan Vertonghen of regressing.
The story of this Premier League campaign is that two expertly coached sides are fighting out the title race ahead of rivals who spent far more money last summer. Chelsea and Spurs are lording it over Manchester United and Manchester City (though Chelsea did post a net spend of £90 million). For Tottenham to be in this company after spending only £67 million and shipping out players worth £39 million points to remarkable husbandry of developing talent. Arsenal cannot make that claim. It becomes a struggle to name more than a couple of Wenger’s players on an upward trajectory. Shkodran Mustafi was a reasonable signing and Theo Walcott and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain have had their moments. In the ‘stagnant’ or ‘regressed’ category are Aaron Ramsey, Lucas Pérez (who cost £17 million), Granit Xhaka (£35million), Francis Coquelin and Mohamed Elneny. Héctor Bellerín and Nacho Monreal have also begun to struggle. Millions of words have been expended on Mesut Özil’s mercurial talent, and there is no desire to add to them here. Part of the joy of watching football is to see players developing and improving. Which is why watching Kane, Alli, Dier and Eriksen is so pleasurable. Arsenal used to be synonymous with personal development. But not now.