But there is another less discussed aspect of the move which has changed the team’s fortunes.
The Emirates is considerably larger than the old Highbury. The difference to Arsenal’s tactical approach is marked in the years since the club made the move. Counter attacks at Highbury could be executed with exceptional speed and in the blink of an eye. Anyone who sat on the terraces at the old stadium would have noted just how small the pitch was.
Since Arsenal have moved to the Emirates, their tactics have changed fundamentally; the Arsenal of the past would not dominate possession to the extent of the current side; they were more adept at inviting pressure only to counter with ruthless speed and accuracy.
The current team by contrast have changed their approach, preferring less to play on the counter but to take control of the ball and dominate play, waiting for gaps to appear in the opposition defence. But of course this means that Arsenal never have the opposition on the backfoot as such, and they have to wait for an error to be made. A key reason of course for Arsenal’s unbeaten run was that teams simply stopped trying to attack Arsenal so much because they knew they would be counter attacked with such pace and precision. Instead, they preferred to play for a draw, realising that the chances of scoring whilst attacking the London side were smaller than the chances of their opponents finding the net.
Whereas now, by contrast, teams have become less fearful of taking the game to Arsenal. The defence and goalkeeper are perceived as an Achilles heel, which is not untrue but a side issue. As such, Arsenal have had to adapt to playing a new type of game, based on possession and patience, which has sometimes floundered, particularly when they have a day when the final ball is missing.
And this has a second dimension. Arsenal’s short passing game is easier to conduct on a smaller pitch. The larger the pitch, the larger the triangles become, because of the positioning of the opposition, who will set up to play Arsene Wenger’s side in such a way that is designed to limit the space available. And the larger the triangles, the harder it is to execute them.
And perhaps even more crucially, the fans are further from the pitch. With Arsenal this is particularly crucial. As the club’s fans are constantly reminded, its stadium tends to be quieter than most. Arsenal fans are not particularly noisy. And there is certainly more than an element of truth to this. This exacerbates the situation when the fans are further from the pitch. Arsenal’s best performances have often been when the atmosphere is at its best, spurring the players on. It is a cliché, but it is true that the fans can have an impact on their team’s performance. Arsenal’s 2-1 comebacks against Manchester United in 2006 and Barcelona in 2011 were perhaps the two games at the stadium with the best atmosphere, and this cannot be a coincidence. The club’s move has taken fans away from the pitch, and relieved some of the energy that spurs on a player to give that little bit extra that can sometimes make the difference.
Arsenal’s move to the Emirates may have been financially beneficial, but it has not been without costs on the pitch, and that’s without discussing transfer policy. The club is still very much in a state of adjustment, and it will remain intriguing to see how they cope with the change.
