The top four race in the Premier League continues to rage with Arsenal coming out as the beneficiary this past weekend after their rivals dropped points in the latest bout of fixtures.
Arsenal sit in sixth but with considerable games in hand over those above them and further reports detailing more controversy in the Manchester United squad will only give the Gunners more reason to continue along the path laid out by Mikel Arteta.
It has been revealed by ESPN that Ralf Rangnick’s assistant Chris Armas, who takes many of the training sessions, has been likened to fictional comedy soccer coach Ted Lasso by members of the United squad. This has sparked outrage amongst pundits, notably ex-Man Utd captain Gary Neville.
“The fact they were describing the number two of Ralf Rangnick as Ted Lasso, I didn’t find it funny at all,” he said on the Gary Neville Podcast.
“I thought it was disrespectful. I thought it was disgusting in fact. In fact, it actually summed up what I think of them, that they are disrespectful.
“I think if I was Ralf Rangnick and his number two, I would gain strength from that because I wouldn’t want to be on the same page as some of those players that are leaking that story.
“It never happened in my time, but we had the greatest level of stability.”
The incident sparks memories of previous reports claiming that the Arsenal dressing room was making fun of former head coach Unai Emery.
The Spaniard was regularly ridiculed online for his pronunciation of “Good evening” in press conferences despite it common knowledge that the now Villarreal man was learning the language on the job.
The Independent’s Miguel Delaney claimed that the club’s younger players were openly doing impressions of the former boss. However, it became clear that this was going far beyond the young ones.
Mesut Ozil, a player who struggled for regular game time under the former coach, took to Twitter on the night of Arsenal’s second leg Europa League semi-final against Unai Emery’s Villarreal team.
Ozil had, by this point, left the club the previous winter after Mikel Arteta chose not to use him during the season. The now Fenerbahce midfielder wrote satirically the ‘Good ebening’ phrase.
Ozil has also tweeted out the well-known Arteta slogan of ‘Trust the process’ after the 5-0 loss to Manchester City. Since then the Gunners have gone on to become the favourites for the fourth spot in the table this season and Ozil has refrained from tweeting about the club.
Arteta, like with Ozil, has moved on plenty of big personalities from the group. Most recently was Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang. Few can argue that these players do not have world-class ability, yet the Spaniard has been willing to sacrifice this for the betterment of the team’s mentality and professionalism.
Rangnick too may need to adopt this method, as will the coach who replaces him in the role ahead of the following season.
However, Arsenal will be hoping that the issues at Old Trafford continue for the foreseeable future and disrupt the Red Devils’ ambitions of qualifying again for the Champions League.
Along with Tottenham and West Ham, Man Utd present the biggest challenge to the Gunners hopes of returning to the elite competition and news of player controversy will only encourage Mikel Arteta’s approach to player management.
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