Emery’s new era thrives on changes

Arsenal employed three systems to fox Spurs but the injured Ozil was not missed, writes Sam Dean

At the end of this most gripping and frenetic of north London derbies, when the red smoke from the home fans’ flares was still drifting into the evening sky, it was hard to take the eyes off Unai Emery, the head coach who had produced a masterclass of shapeshifting to inspire the most seismic victory of his short Arsenal reign.

Arsenal were once predictable. For years, we have all known what is meant by the “Arsenal style”. The club’s own players have known it, and so have their opponents. A trip to the Emirates was never easy during Arsene Wenger’s reign, even in those dark days at the end, but it was also never a surprise. You knew what you were going to get: nice football, good players, pretty passing.

Under Emery, those days are fading into memory. There is no single “Emery style”, no allimportant philosophy or strategy.

Instead, Arsenal are adaptable, chameleonic and fluid. In this breathless victory, they switched between no fewer than three formations. They played fast and direct, but then became slower in their build-up. They had joy down the wings, but then went narrow. They had one striker, then two. Three centre-backs, then two. Two central midfielders, then four.

It was testament to Emery’s willingness to reshuffle his team, to change the angles of attack and keep Tottenham guessing. And it also felt telling that all of this worked so well in the absence of Mesut Ozil, the star man who appears increasingly out of place at the Emirates. The German was ruled out of this game with a back injury, Arsenal said, and Emery did Q. Could Ozil have played? Emery: “He has back ache.” Q. When did he get that? Emery: “I don’t know.” Q. Was he here today? Emery: “I don’t know.”

not know whether he was at the stadium to watch the game.

The likelihood is that Emery has grown frustrated with the constant debate over Ozil, who was also all over the back pages last week, when he was dropped to the bench for the win over Bournemouth. Here was Emery’s greatest victory of his fledgling Arsenal career, and yet minds were already drifting towards a player who may not have even been in the stadium.

This, though, is what you get with the endlessly divisive Ozil. These questions are the result of two consecutive triumphs achieved without the club’s highest earner, and it is becoming less controversial to suggest that Arsenal might be better, or at least more in tune with Emery’s ideals, without him in the side.

For all their flexibility, which has been so absent in these parts for so many years, and for all the different systems Emery deployed, there are constants that the

Arsenal head coach demands: intensity, speed, dynamism.

These are qualities that are embodied most obviously by Lucas Torreira, a phenomenon in central midfield. They are not attributes usually associated with the more mercurial Ozil. Positionally, it is hard to see where Ozil fits into the system that Emery started with here and against Bournemouth. Three centre-backs, two wing-backs, two wingers and two combative central midfielders.

Without him, in Bournemouth, at Fulham and here, Arsenal have looked more cohesive.

This is not to say that it all went to plan against Mauricio Pochettino’s scheming Spurs, though. Emery would surely have hoped to have not changed anything at all and for his side to have maintained their early dominance. But Spurs eventually worked the puzzle out.

Like water pouring into cracks on the pavement, they began to fill the gaps and slow Arsenal down. The visitors started to strangle Emery’s side, scoring twice in just a few minutes after imposing themselves with energy and organisation, just the way Pochettino likes it.

Emery had to act and when called upon he was bold enough to switch it up again, and then again. He reshuffled for the first time at the break, and Arsenal soon seized the initiative once more. Alex Iwobi and Henrikh Mkhitaryan went off, with Alexandre Lacazette and Aaron Ramsey introduced to provide attacking thrust.

In the first half, Arsenal had just one runner: Pierre-emerick Aubameyang, who was willing to sprint in behind. Now they had three, and Ramsey’s surge through the midfield was the decisive factor in Aubameyang’s equaliser.

There was still time for another switcharound. Shkodran Mustafi came off with an injury, and Arsenal went to a back four. Within minutes, Lacazette had scored Arsenal’s third and Torreira had added the fourth, crumpling to his knees in joy at his first goal in England.

Emery would hardly have been blamed for sinking to his knees, too.

Three different set-ups, three different goalscorers, three more points. It was a modern win for a modern team, and that in itself is proof of how much has changed at the Emirates.