On his list of irritations that must be tolerated as part of the job, it seems to be a high flyer. It says a lot that he was probably more comfortable dealing with the issue of crowd control than how he wishes to set up his team strategically. But the evidence of this season suggests the manager is far from convinced that it is the best long-term plan. In each of Arsenal’s games so far this season they have started with a back three plus wing-backs, but seldom finished that way. Despite that unwelcome statistic the Arsenal manager resists the idea that games on enemy territory should bring too much of an extra psychological test.

Source: The Guardian September 15, 2017 21:22 UTC