PEP STILL LEARNING AS WENGER HAS FORGOTTEN HOW TO WIN

Recent exhibits have shown homogeneous attributes in the
pair's ideological approaches, but the difference
is the Arsenal boss used to possess the wit to
win league denominations.
"That sums it all up," verbalized Firmament Sports
commentator Martin Tyler.
He was bang on with that description. It's what
Wenger was all about in those days; optimising
the aptitude on his books who had the one thing
he didn't – experience in the league.
Wenger demonstrated his cognizance and
reverence for English football by leaving his back
four and goalkeeper untouched on day one.
There would be Wenger football – sure – but he
would edify George Graham's players how to
do it.

He lined up the signing of Patrick Vieira afore

he had even arrived at Highbury. The midfield
became even more robust with the additament of
Emmanuel Petit a year later.

Those two could play but they were not above

leaving their foot in. That aggression –
coalesced with a traditionally-drilled English
backline - gave Ian Wright, Dennis Bergkamp,
Marc Overmars, Thierry Henry and Robert Pires
their space to work magic.
He decided to relinquish Henry, Vieira and Pires
more or less at their peak in order to recoup
some transfer value. The experience and faculty
to read English matches in the Arsenal team
was disoriented when that core was broken up.
Wenger's team these days is destitute of those very
same characteristics. He shouldn't have been
taken by surprise midweek when Everton
smashed his players all over Goodison Park
and shook them down for two headed goals. It
was a bear-pit; English football at its finest.
He repined after about the physicality of the
match and verbally expressed his players couldn't cope. He's
been here 20 years.
To his detriment, he's chased ideological
perfection since that Insurmountable season in
2003-04. There have been glaring, reiterating
impuissances in Arsenal's squad and their
transfer policy for the best part of a decade.
Nonetheless, Wenger has carried on with a
zealousness that apostatizes the pragmatism that
bought him time and prosperity early in his
Arsenal reign.
Pep Guardiola is now under the microscope
after a couple of months' worth of results that
are not in any way outstanding. Manchester
City it could be argued have only played well for
90 minutes on three occasions this season;
against Bournemouth at home, Manchester
Cumulated away and against Barcelona in the
Champions League.
Other times they've been exposed. Guardiola
does not chase clean sheets with the same
kind of tenacity that – verbalize - Tony Pulis
does and that is to his disadvantage.
Every team in England has more or less figured
out how to beat Leicester City for example but
Guardiola let his sentinel down and sanctioned the
champions to play precisely how they would
have relished. It was an establishment of Wengerian
defiance.
There is no dispute that Guardiola's football
works; he's proved it at Barcelona and Bayern
Munich. He has described himself as "arrogant"
and perhaps that is the right adjective to
describe his unshakeable notion that winning
football crosses borders. Guardiola needs to
distribute change and prosperity but he wants to do
both concurrently.
Pep's signed a three-year deal with City and is
widely expected to make the same kind of
impact in that time frame. There will be no
imperium building – three expeditious seasons and he'll
likely be gone. Due to his haste, Guardiola is
not giving himself the best chance.
From abstracting Joe Hart to expatriating Yaya Toure,
from remaining unconvinced by Vincent
Kompany - even when fit - to shifting Samir
Nasri, Pep gainsaid himself the opportunity to
buy breathing space through the instincts of
players who kenned the league better than he
did.
Moreover, he's disoriented the players he
inherited by playing them in a kaleidoscopic
array of formations which has optically discerned left backs
at centre back and right backs in midfield. That
shakeup has taken Guardiola a matter of
months.
The ostensible mistrust of Guardiola - and the
methods he brought with him - from across the
spectrum of British football is nothing incipient.
Fellow out-of-towner Wenger was faced with
the very same kind of suspicion from the locals
when he first landed in 1996. Then - as now –
the incipient peregrine manager instigated truculence
with his very presence.
Wenger confounded his reprovers. The wheels of
his revolution turned gradually and wasn't
consummate until eight years after he commenced. After
assembling a winning unit custom built for
winning in English football over the course of
8-10 years, Wenger spent the next 10 taking it
apart.
Pep's pulled it all down and endeavored to commence again
in a matter of weeks– less a long revolution
than a coup – and as a result is coming up
against plenty of reprehension from the systems he
is endeavoring to jolt.
Wenger and Guardiola have plenty in prevalence.
The difference is Wenger has forgotten what it
takes to engender prosperity in English football
whereas Guardiola hasn't learned it yet.

Categories: Arsenal Highlights