Rewind to Aug. 28, when Manchester City inflicted a humiliating 5-0 defeat on Arsenal, their third Premier League loss in a row following miserable outings against Brentford and Chelsea. It was the first time in 67 years the Gunners had lost their opening three games in a campaign and the continued presence of manager Mikel Arteta on the sidelines was dividing the fanbase.
Yet Arteta was backed by his bosses and urged the fans, with a phrase borrowed from NBA team Philadelphia 76ers, to “trust the process.” It was a rallying cry asking them to believe in the work he is doing alongside the Gunners’ hierarchy. After spending around £150m in the summer on reinforcements — more than any other Premier League team, with defenders Ben White (£50m), Takehiro Tomiyasu (£16m) and Nuno Tavares (£8m), goalkeeper Aaron Ramsdale (£25m), midfielders Martin Odegaard (£35m) and Albert Sambi Lokonga (£15m) arriving at the Emirates — the north London club still wasn’t exactly where it wanted to be, but the former club captain knew better things were coming.
Fast forward three months and Arsenal sit fifth in the table, enjoying the league’s longest unbeaten run — eight games, including six wins — with a clear sense of direction. The fans are back on board and Arteta is happy.
In their last Premier League outing against Watford on Nov. 7, Arteta celebrated his 100th game as Arsenal manager and his numbers are surprisingly impressive: 54 wins, 20 draws, 26 losses. If you consider games won after a penalty shootout (which is officially a draw for stats), Arteta is actually on 56 victories.
That is only two fewer than George Graham (1986-1995), but three more than the legendary Arsene Wenger at the same stage of their coaching careers at Arsenal. Arteta’s win rate is 54%, compared to Wenger’s 51%, while he also holds a lower loss ratio (18% vs. 26%) after a century of appearances in the Gunners’ dugout.
The other key areas of comparison with Wenger’s early days appear very similar, too. Arteta has 163 goals for, 97 against and 38 clean sheets in an arguably more competitive Premier League for his first 100 games. When Wenger arrived in 1996, his team boasted 157 goals for, 84 against and 42 clean sheets over the same span.
In stark contrast, however, Arteta’s first 100 games have been a rollercoaster, with highs and lows almost every week. Winning an FA Cup and a Community Shield in his first six months as a manager was great, but it perhaps raised expectations of further short-term success while he was still learning. He’s still learning, of course, and still grappling with an imbalanced and aging Arsenal squad, lacking in certain positions and unable to find consistency. But now there is more hope for the future.
What Arteta has tried to do
It seemed logical at the start of his tenure that Arteta wanted to emulate Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola, having joined his backroom staff as assistant from 2016-19. Arteta wanted his side to mirror City, though while the principles of play he wanted to implement were similar, the delivery was far from City’s standard.
At times, what he was asking of his players was too complex for an inherited squad not of his own making, so he worked on a simplified structure that better suited the players at his disposal. Having tried a variety of formations, there were still similarities with Guardiola, especially in how he used “asymmetrical” wide players (right-footed players on the left, and vice versa), but this season has seen Arsenal develop their own identity.
Looking at their 3-1 win against Aston Villa on Oct. 22, Arsenal set up in a 4-4-2 formation for the first time under Arteta, with Alexandre Lacazette just behind Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Emile Smith Rowe and Bukayo Saka filling the wide positions. Lacazette’s purpose was to play between the lines and link up the play, but more importantly, he was asked to block Villa’s holding midfielder, Douglas Luiz, who was responsible for starting all their attacks. The plan worked perfectly and the Gunners outplayed and outsmarted Villa.
It naturally took Arteta some time to settle, but it seems his team are now comfortable in possession, efficient in quick attacking transitions, can set their defence in a low block or a high press, and look more confident in beating the opposition press. Thanks to the work of coach Nicolas Jover, they are also one of the best teams in the league when it comes to set pieces.
Which players have shone?
To find an identity, the 39-year-old had to rebuild the squad. From the 40 players who have featured under him in the Premier League so far at Arsenal, 14 have left. Last summer, all six summer signings were aged 23 or under, which led Arsenal to have the youngest starting XI in the league this season with an average of 24 years and 242 days. His back five (Ramsdale, Tomiyasu, White, Gabriel, Kieran Tierney) only started to play together on Matchday Four, which was the start of this superb run.
The impact and leadership of goalkeeper Ramsdale, the centre-back partnership of White and Gabriel, the attacking talent of Tierney down the left and solidity of Tomiyasu at right-back has made the Arsenal defence really strong. If anything, it’s the strongest and most disciplined it has even been in Arteta’s 100 games in charge.
On top of that, the manager has been a key part in the emergence of Smith Rowe and Saka, the two prodigies from the Arsenal Academy in Hale End.
Saka has been Arsenal’s best player since Arteta’s arrival and the player the most used by the Spaniard, featuring in 82 games. While, given Smith Rowe went on a six-month loan to Huddersfield in January 2020, the impact of the 21-year-old has been exceptional and rarely seen in the Premier League at his age. Arsenal have a 58% win percentage with him as a starter, compared to 33% without. Every time Smith Rowe scores — he’s found the net in 12 different games since making his Premier League debut — Arsenal have won.
The turning point?
The turning point in Arteta’s 100 games in charge is without a doubt the game against Chelsea on Dec. 26, 2020. Arsenal were 15th in the table at the time, and winless in their last seven. With little reason to be cautious, Arteta started Smith Rowe, Saka and Gabriel Martinelli (all 20 years old or younger) at the time, in attack and the Gunners played with intensity, an aggressive high press and plenty of movement.
Their 3-1 win that day proved to be a seminal moment. Since then, Arsenal have won 67 points in the Premier League. Only Manchester City (86) and Chelsea (68), with new manager Thomas Tuchel for most of it, have more over the same period of time.
There are more challenges ahead for Arteta, starting with a tough trip to Liverpool on Saturday — they’ve played three times in the league under the Spaniard, winning once and losing twice — but the aim now is to keep building on the last three months.
Beyond that, Arteta’s goal is for his next 100 games in charge to be more successful than the first.
George Springer had a career-high seven RBIs, including his ninth grand slam, and the Toronto Blue Jays celebrated Canada Day by beating the Yankees 12-5 on Tuesday and closing within one game of American League East-leading New York.
The seven RBIs are tied for the second most by any Blue Jays player in a home game, behind Edwin Encarnación (nine RBIs in 2015), according to ESPN Research.
Andrés Giménez had a go-ahead, three-run homer for the Blue Jays, who overcame a 2-0 deficit against Max Fried. After the Yankees tied the score 4-4 in the seventh, Toronto broke open the game in the bottom half against a reeling Yankees bullpen.
Springer went 3-for-4, starting the comeback with a solo homer in the fourth against Fried and boosting the lead to 9-5 with the slam off Luke Weaver after Ernie Clement‘s go-ahead single off shortstop Anthony Volpe‘s glove. Springer has 13 homers this season.
Toronto won the first two games of the four-game series and closed within one game of the Yankees for the first time since before play on April 20.
New York went 2-for-17 with runners in scoring position, dropping to 3-for-24 in the series, while the Blue Jays were 5-for-7. After going 13-14 in June, the Yankees fell to 10-14 against AL East rivals.
DENVER — Houston Astros slugger Yordan Alvarez has experienced a setback in his recovery from a broken right hand and will see a specialist.
Astros general manager Dana Brown said Alvarez felt pain when he arrived Tuesday at the team’s spring training complex in West Palm Beach, Florida, where he had a workout a day earlier. Alvarez also took batting practice Saturday at Daikin Park.
He will be shut down until he’s evaluated by the specialist.
“It’s a tough time going through this with Yordan, but I know that he’s still feeling pain and the soreness in his hand,” Brown said before Tuesday night’s series opener at Colorado, which the Astros won 6-5. “We’re not going to try to push it or force him through anything. We’re just going to allow him to heal and get a little bit more answers as to what steps we take next.”
Alvarez has been sidelined for nearly two months. The injury was initially diagnosed as a muscle strain, but when Alvarez felt pain again while hitting in late May, imaging revealed a small fracture.
The 28-year-old outfielder, who has hit 31 homers or more in each of the past four seasons, had been eyeing a return as soon as this weekend at the Los Angeles Dodgers. Now it’s uncertain when he’ll play.
“We felt like he was close because he had felt so good of late,” Brown said, “but this is certainly news that we didn’t want.”
Also Tuesday, the Astros officially placed shortstop Jeremy Peña on the 10-day injured list with a fractured rib and recalled infielder Shay Whitcomb from Triple-A Sugar Land.
Shohei Ohtani reached 30 homers for the fifth straight season, hitting a fourth-inning drive after fouling a pitch off the plate umpire, and the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Chicago White Sox 6-1 on Tuesday night.
Ohtani fouled the ball off Alan Porter’s right knee in the fourth. Ohtani checked on the umpire and stood by watching until Parker got up under his own power. The three-time MVP then hit a 408-foot shot to center, snapping an 0-for-6 skid and extending the lead to 6-1. He tied Cody Bellinger in 2019 for most home runs before the All-Star break in Dodgers history; Bellinger won National League MVP that year.
Ohtani joined Seattle‘s Cal Raleigh (33) and Aaron Judge of the Yankees (30) as players with at least 30 homers by the All-Star break; it marks the fifth season that three players have reached the 30-homer threshold before the break (2019, 1998, 1994, 1969).
As for Ohtani, this is his third season hitting at least 30 home runs before the break, tying Ken Griffey Jr. for third most in MLB history (Judge and Mark McGwire each did so for four seasons).
During the seventh-inning stretch, Ohtani walked over and checked on Porter again before leading off.
Los Angeles scored its most runs this season in support of Yoshinobu Yamamoto (8-6), staking the Japanese right-hander to a 4-0 lead in the first inning.
The Dodgers won for the 13th time in 16 games and opened a season-high, eight-game NL West lead. They are 16-5 (.762 win percentage) since June 8, the best record in MLB during that span.
Every run Tuesday night was scored with two outs.
Yamamoto allowed one run and three hits in seven innings, struck out eight and walked one.
