Don’t call me Pep Mk II
Educated at Barca and tutored by Guardiola but Arteta says...
PEP GUARDIOLA was a rookie once, like Mikel Arteta, and had to weather his own crisis of confidence in his coaching ability.
Of course, given the life Guardiola has led, his idea of what represents a calamitous run is on a somewhat different scale from that which Arteta has endured at Arsenal.
Arteta’s purgatory lasted from late September until Christmas, during which time Arsenal played 12 league games, won two and lost eight. In normal circumstances, that would have merited the sack. Only with Boxing Day’s 3-0 win against Chelsea, the so-called P45 derby with Frank Lampard, did the awful form abate.
When Guardiola was appointed manager of Barcelona in 2008, his elevation was similar to Arteta’s at Arsenal. Superficially, it looked sensible. Here was an articulate, bright young coach with considerable playing pedigree and history with the club ready to impart a fresh tactical take to a new generation of players.
Guardiola’s own period of perdition when he was young and untried lasted two games: a shock 1-0 defeat by little-regarded Numancia and a 1-1 draw with Racing Santander at the Nou Camp.
However, because those two games were interrupted by an international break, the period of recriminations in the media and doubts about his coaching ability took a good three weeks to unfold.
As it was, Barca would win the next 11 games, the season would culminate with the team winning the Treble of La Liga, Copa del Rey and Champions League and the Guardiola dynasty was born.
Without Guardiola’s success at Barcelona, it’s doubtful whether Arsenal would have given Arteta the manager’s job.
Like Guardiola, he was fashioned by Barcelona’s youth system, having grown up at La Masia.
When offered the chance to take a coaching role when his Arsenal playing career came to an end in 2016, he chose Guardiola’s Manchester City rather than stay with Arsene Wenger. There is no doubt Arsenal were hoping some of the Guardiola stardust would have been sprinkled on Arteta.
But the Arsenal boss will have to wait a little longer to experience success of the magnitude that Guardiola has enjoyed.
‘You cannot compare his situation (at Barca) to the situation at the moment with us,’ said Arteta last week. ‘They are very, very different. You can share some values, some ideas and the way we were raised and educated in football is very similar because we had the same background.
‘The fact we worked together united us, to get that chemistry and those ideas to make it work. How you make it work and what you need to make it work… you need some time, sometimes a lot of investment, sometimes there is a group of players that can already provide that.
‘You have to keep evolving and finding a way because there is not one formula. You cannot try to follow that because you will fail.’
Arteta was effectively saying that he can’t be seen as Pep Mark II. And even if the scale of Guardiola’s achievement at Barca is sometime underestimated, Arteta’s job at Arsenal is more complicated.
Winning the Community Shield and FA Cup was an impressive start. But this season has been a wake-up call for those who thought Arsenal would be back challenging the top four any time soon. Arteta speaks of ‘a lot of investment’ to reboot the club. That won’t be an option this summer. They have had to avail themselves of a £120million Bank of England loan to get through a season with no fans.
The club’s proud unbroken run of qualifying for European football, which stretches back to 1996, may come to an end this season, which would have further financial consequences. Or they may endure the indignity of ending up in UEFA’s new Europa Conference League, a third tier below the Europa League.
Arteta may have looked like Pep Mark II but his path to potential glory is going to be a lot longer and more laborious.
A GALE blew in off the Irish Sea. It made the trees in Stanley Park, which separates the grounds of Liverpool and Everton, creak and sway, and prompted Carlo Ancelotti to button up his coat on the Anfield touchline. The tempest raged throughout the evening and brought with it a wind of change that swept over Merseyside football.
There appears to be no end to the storm that is engulfing Liverpool this season and amid the wreckage of their attempt to defend their league title, this 2-0 defeat to their neighbours may hurt the most. It had been 22 years since Everton last won at Anfield but like so many of the other certainties Liverpool have lost in the last few months, Ancelotti’s team ended that record.
If the defining moment of Liverpool’s season until now had been Jordan Pickford’s scything challenge on Virgil van Dijk that ended the Holland defender’s involvement in their title defence back in October, this defeat to Everton, courtesy of a first-half strike from Richarlison and a second-half penalty from Gylfi Sigurdsson, marked a new low.
Van Dijk watched on helplessly from the stands as Liverpool sank to a fourth successive league defeat that will leave them 19 points adrift of Manchester City if the Sky Blues beat Arsenal today. Talk of a title challenge is irrelevant to Liverpool now. Their fight is to get into the top four.
This time last season, Liverpool were 40 points clear of Everton but now they are level. This defeat means the champions have won just two of their last 11 league games and before this encounter, it had been 23 meetings in all competitions since Everton beat Liverpool anywhere.
And the damned statistics keep on coming. Liverpool have now lost to Burnley, Brighton, City and Everton in their last four home league games. That is only the second time in their history that has happened. The last time that sequence assailed them was in 1923-24. So, no, the storm is not abating.
There was a delicious irony for Evertonians in the fact that Pickford, who was vilified for his challenge on Van Dijk, was the hero of his side’s triumph here. He made one brilliant diving save from Jordan Henderson in the first half and another crucial block from Mo Salah in the second.
This victory was not just about Liverpool’s injuries and deficiencies, either. Their fall from grace is one thing but this was also a story of Everton’s rise under Ancelotti. Tom Davies was superb again in the centre of their midfield, while Ben Godfrey and Michael Keane were magnificent in the heart of their defence. They deserved their win.
To add to Liverpool’s considerable woes, Henderson was substituted with a groin injury that may keep him out for a while.
Liverpool had a scare within the first minute when a corner from the left was swung into the box and eluded all their defenders. It fell to Godfrey at the back post but it cannoned off his shins and squirted away to safety as Alisson scrambled to shepherd it wide.
It was the briefest of reprieves for Liverpool, though. A couple of minutes later, they lost possession deep in their own half after a poor header from Ozan Kabak and the ball fell to James Rodriguez, the last player Liverpool wanted to cede space to. James looked up and slid a pass inside Kabak for Richarlison to run on to. Richarlison took it in his stride and lashed it past Alisson.
It is a tough task for Kabak, who arrived last month on loan from Schalke 04, to step into the Liverpool defence and adapt quickly to the demands of the Premier League and he looks a long way off the pace. He looks uncertain. He looks vulnerable. Five months ago, a last-gasp shot from Henderson had beaten Pickford only to be ruled out for offside but now, when the Liverpool skipper unleashed a volley from the edge of the area, the Everton keeper was equal to it, diving to his right to push it round the post. It was a brilliant save.
Keane made an important block from Roberto Firmino and Pickford tipped a rising drive from Trent Alexander-Arnold over the bar as Liverpool pressed for an equaliser. But just as Jurgen Klopp’s team seemed to be on the verge of dragging themselves back into the game, they were hit by another of the injury blows that have so scarred their season.
Henderson was trying to escape the attentions of Abdoulaye