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‘We Knew’—Mikel Arteta Tears Arsenal Players Apart For New Flaw Amid Familiar Problems

The details of the conversation between Bayer Leverkusen’s manager and Arsenal’s set-piece coach were revealed.
Grey Whitebloom|
Mikel Arteta (left) was not as happy as Kasper Hjulmand (right).
Mikel Arteta (left) was not as happy as Kasper Hjulmand (right). | Rene Nijhuis/MB Media/Getty Images/TNT Sports

Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta lambasted the uncharacteristic sense of complacency which gripped his side during their disappointing 1–1 draw with Bayer Leverkusen, repeating how the team “knew” the dangers posed by their Champions League rivals yet still gave into them.

The Gunners were fortunate to escape the first leg of their last-16 tie in Leverkusen with a draw. After a listless first half, the hosts took a deserved lead within a minute of the restart from a well-worked corner. Kai Havertz converted an 89th-minute penalty against his boyhood side to snatch a share of the spoils but Arteta’s mood was suitably dour.

Leverkusen’s opener particularly perturbed the Gunners boss, whose side pride themselves on set-piece superiority. Martin Terrier had almost broken the deadlock moments earlier with a cohesive routine from the second half kickoff. David Raya tipped the Frenchman’s header over the bar yet couldn’t get anywhere near Robert Andrich’s close-range effort seconds later.

“We discussed that at halftime and we expected [them] to start very fast, especially because we knew certain routines that they have on kickoffs, because they had three at the weekend and still, we got caught,” Arteta seethed. “We weren’t ready enough.”

It was put to the Arsenal manager that Leverkusen constructed an impressive routine, expertly blocking off the red shirts to afford Andrich a free run at the ball. Arteta wasn’t entirely convinced. “There are always two sides to that,” he sniffed.

Mikel Arteta
Mikel Arteta’s squad may not be together for much longer. | Catherine Ivill/AMA/Getty Images

“One is the element of the opponent that they picked that weakness, and that lack of attention or urgency in both situations, and the other one is us, because we knew, we showed them three clips from last weekend in three different ways, and we weren’t ready for it, and we got caught.”

Arsenal can (and have been) accused of many things this season. Yet, amid the slander of time-wasting, set-piece reliance and blatant cheating, complacency hasn’t come up on the rap sheet. Andrich’s 46th-minute sucker punch was just the fourth time Arsenal have conceded within five minutes of the second-half restart. By contrast, they have scored eight times during this window.

What Leverkusen Manager Said to Arsenal’s Set-Piece Coach

It has been a season to savor for Arsenal’s set-piece coach Nicolas Jover. The divisive figure immortalized in a north London mural has seen his side equal the record for the most corners ever scored in a single Premier League season—each one of which reportedly earns him a bonus.

However, Jover found himself under a different shade of spotlight when Arsenal conceded from a corner in Leverkusen. The Bundesliga side’s manager Kasper Hjulmand made a point of going over to Arsenal’s befuddled coach who could say nothing more than, “You do it too, eh?”

Hjulmand had been full of praise for the Gunners ahead of kickoff and revealed after the match that he took inspiration from Jover’s routines. “I’m just questioning, is it actually in the rules that you can bodycheck and take players out without the ball?” the Danish boss reflected.

“So he [Jover] was just looking [and saying], ‘You do it too, eh?’ Yeah, we are doing it too. So it is the same for all teams, we are all doing it.”

Arsenal Take Unwanted Trip Back in Time

While conceding from a corner may be a blow to Jover’s ego, it was hardly the only point of concern on Wednesday.

The Gunners had barely laid a glove on Leverkusen during the first 45 minutes. The only chance of note came from a rare piece of quick interplay after the hosts had committed themselves forward but ended with Gabriel Martinelli clanking the crossbar. After falling behind even Arteta admitted that the visitors showed few signs of fighting back.

“We had 10–15 minutes that we didn’t really have enough threat and enough understanding of how we had to attack that block,” he lamented. That failure to pierce a stubborn defensive resolve has been a feature of the season—Arsenal rank fifth in the Premier League for expected goals from open play—but this was even worse than usual.

Faced with the black mesh of Leverkusen’s 5-4-1, the Gunners didn’t even get in a position to fail with a penetrative pass. All too often, Arsenal’s long sequences of possession boiled down to knocking the ball around the opposition penalty box in a painfully monotonous horseshoe shape. This pedestrian lack of penetration was all too reminiscent of the struggles Arsenal endured during the start of Arteta’s reign.

Martin Ødegaard’s permanent arrival in 2021 helped break this mold and his absence in Germany was painfully obvious. For all the bizarrely pointed criticism fired the skipper’s way he remains the most potent creative force in Arsenal’s squad—a status which Eberechi Eze has failed to come close to challenging.

Bukayo Saka was also off the boil against Leverkusen yet his replacement, Noni Madueke, showed the alternative route to goal. If there is no room to slip a pass through, simply dribble towards those nest of legs. That approach salvaged the spot kick which kept Arsenal all square in the tie but they will have to improve if they are to advance any further in the competition.

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Grey Whitebloom
GREY WHITEBLOOM

Grey Whitebloom is a writer, reporter and editor for Sports Illustrated FC. Born and raised in London, he is an avid follower of German, Italian and Spanish top flight football.

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