This season we saw Arsenal adopt an unconventional style of play after many years of playing beautiful football, I trust you must have heard the phrase, “Confuse your enemies.”
This implies that you should never let people fully understand what you are doing so they cannot create solutions or strategies capable of stopping your success.
When former Arsenal legendary boss Arsène Wenger, arguably one of the greatest football minds in the history of coaching took over the club in the 90’s and early 2000 Arsenal enjoyed great success playing an attractive tiki-taka style of football before moving to the Emirates Stadium.
It was during this era that the famous “Invincibles” emerged, as the team went an entire English Premier League season unbeaten, an achievement only a few clubs around the world, both at amateur and elite level, have managed to replicate till date.
This success gave the club a strong sense of belief. However, Wenger eventually began overestimating his football philosophy by assuming he could continue winning trophies regardless of the age or experience of the squad.
What followed afterwards was a long period of trophyless agony for the fans, as the club failed to win the Premier League for 21 years despite coming close on a few occasions. Ironically, this same period brought great joy to the board because they made huge profits from grooming and selling players.
Wenger eventually left the club by mutual consent, and current Aston Villa manager and most decorated Eufa Europa League coach Unai Emery took charge for a few years. Unfortunately, he failed to win any major honours because he tried sustaining Wenger’s legacy and philosophy of wanting to win the conventional way. Eventually, he was axed, paving the way for former Barcelona, PSG, Arsenal, and Everton player Mikel Arteta, who previously worked as assistant coach to Pep Guardiola at Manchester City.
While Wenger was still at the helm of affairs at Arsenal, he once made a statement suggesting that he did not believe in spending heavily on already established players. He said, “If I have to pay £50 million for a player, then such a player should be able to score from every touch.” This statement came around the period when Chelsea spent heavily to sign Fernando Torres from Liverpool. It further highlighted Wenger’s mindset of building and winning with relatively unknown players instead of spending big money, thereby creating huge profit margins for the club.
In the years that followed, former Chelsea manager José Mourinho famously described Wenger as a “specialist in failure,” and many Arsenal fans agreed with him because Wenger’s philosophy appeared to benefit the board financially while the club continued to struggle for silverware.
However, all those years of frustration gradually came to an end under Arteta. Truth be told, Arteta is fortunate to have remained Arsenal coach after spending five seasons without winning any major trophy, an opportunity only a few managers would get at a top club.
He broke the club’s spending tradition by paying extravagant transfer fees and wages, received far more support than previous managers, yet initially delivered no major honours.
One could argue that he benefited from club politics or perhaps the emotional attachment the club had towards a former player, the type of sentiment a family shows towards a black sheep by continuing to place faith in their own even when there are signs that things may never improve.
Nonetheless, the board’s continued faith in Arteta eventually paid off as Arsenal finally went on to win the English Premier League with a game to spare after 22 years of waiting. Now, they also have the opportunity to lift the much-coveted UEFA Champions League trophy, twenty years after losing to a star-studded Barcelona side in the 2006 final, where comeback goals from Juliano Belletti and Samuel Eto’o secured victory for the Spanish giants after Sol Campbell had given Arsenal the lead in the first half.
It is no longer news that the current Arsenal team has spent far more money than the Invincibles ever did. They also play less entertaining football, relying heavily on set-pieces for goals throughout much of the season. Yet, this tactical adjustment has produced the desired results.
This season, Arsenal have trashed Bayern Munich and Atletico Madrid while also defeating PSG in the UEFA Champions League, teams they previously struggled to score against in past meetings.
To cement their status as a truly elite side, having already won the EPL, they must now prove to the world that they are a force to reckon with by defeating PSG and lifting the UEFA Champions League trophy on May 30, 2026.
Across the world, football fans rarely care about style so long as results are guaranteed. Whether a team parks the bus, waits for set-pieces, or dominates possession throughout the game, as long as victories remain consistent and trophies are won regularly, most fans will accept it.
