Ancelotti v Arteta: Analysing their impacts as both managers mark one-year anniversaries

REACHING OUT: Everton defender Mason Holgate, left, and Arsenal substitute Alexandre Lacazette battle for possession in Saturday’s Premier League match at Goodison Park. Picture: Clive Brunskill/PA

BOTH managers mark their anniversaries in charge of their respective clubs this Saturday but, after the dust had settled on yet another afternoon of industrial-scale under-achievement by Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal, their supporters might have been forgiven for glancing longingly towards the opposition dug-out.

Sunday was a year to the day since former Everton and Arsenal midfielder Arteta was given the not insignificant challenge of resurrecting a club in dramatic decline from the later years of Arsene Wenger’s time and Unai Emery’s inept reign.

A day later, Ancelotti followed into the Everton hot seat and the pair watched, hands-off, from the Goodison grandstand as their two new clubs ground out an uninspired goalless draw.

Twelve months on, Everton’s improvement and progress have been spectacular, undeniable. 

Arsenal? Emery had been sacked after collecting 18 points from the first 13 games of the season; Arteta has 14 from 14.

“It's not the time to feel sorry for ourselves. We have to stick together, we have to stay positive and this is the only way because on Tuesday we have another big game,” pleaded his goalkeeper Bernd Leno. “We have to win games to come out of this situation and have a positive mood again.” 

All of which is correct, of course, but there has been little evidence of late of Arsenal players “sticking together” or showing the sort of “spirit” that Arteta spoke about at length at yet another post-match, post-mortem on Saturday.

There are still too many mediocre players in Arteta’s squad, too many serial under-achievers and their flaws and fundamental weaknesses, all too often, are exacerbated by a chronic lack of effort.

But the same criticisms could have been, and were, levelled at the Everton squad Ancelotti inherited 12 months ago but, thanks to injury to summer signings Allan and James Rodriguez, nine of his starting XI on Saturday were inherited from his predecessor Marco Silva.

The crucial difference in the intervening year has been the improvement average-looking Everton players have made under Ancelotti, while Arsenal’s, new and old, are performing at well below the desired levels.

That has led, inevitably, to speculation about Arterta’s future although there are, as yet, no real indications that there is any notion among the club’s board to make a drastic change to their managerial position.

A strong start to their Europa League campaign and a run to the Carabao Cup quarter-finals, in which they host Arteta’s former club Manchester City tomorrow, mean that the prospect of Arsenal winning silverware this season is not completely outlandish.

Still, novice manager as he may be, Arteta is no fool and fully aware that time is not on his side if he is to repair the early season damage.

“We've done really well in Europe, really good in the cups and we are struggling to get results in the Premier League,” said Areteta.

“Again, when we analyse every game, the reasons why we are losing football matches, compared to other teams winning them, the margins are small. But we need those margins very quickly before the situation gets impossible to handle.” 

The only pressure Ancelotti is currently feeling is the one generated by the extremely high standards his side has set over the opening third of the Premier League campaign although, like Arteta, he faces a crucial week, if for vastly different reasons.

Everton, like Arsenal, have a Carabao Cup quarter-final - at home to Manchester United on Wednesday, with 2,000 Evertonians still permitted inside the stadium to cheer on their heroes.

But St Stephen's Day presents the two managers with very different prospects. While Ancelotti takes Everton to a Sheffield United side that has made the worst start to a top flight season in the entire history of English football, Arteta faces a derby clash with in-form Chelsea.

As has been the case for most of the year, it is a good bet that 2020 will end with the two managers’ respective fortunes heading in polar opposite directions - and more speculation about Arteta’s future.

“I understand that,” said Arteta. “My energy and my focus is only on getting the team out of that situation, maintaining the spirit on the team and the fight the boys showed every time they go on the pitch.

“You can see that, you cannot deny that. Obviously, again, the results - there is no question about that, it's not good enough and it's not acceptable for the standards of this football club and this is the challenge and the fight that we are against.” 

For Everton - in the Champions League for the first and, so far, only time 15 years ago - prospects are far more optimistic as this bizarre season enters its middle third with the Toffees, seemingly, in the thick of the fight for a top four finish.

Everton second on the last Saturday before Christmas? Few would have predicted that, before the campaign began, not even Ancelotti.

“No, I didn’t think, honestly,” he said. “That means the job the players are doing is a fantastic job.

“We had problems, we had injuries, as all the other teams have. We had difficult moments but we were able to adapt to these things and honestly we deserve to be there because the job my players are doing is really good.

“I think to arrive at the end of the season in the top four teams will be really complicated. As I said, we are together to compete for the European position and we’re now in the top four. The season is long but we need to have the ambition, the ambition helps us to have the motivation.”

EVERTON (4-2-3-1): Pickford 5; Holgate 7, Minaz 7, Keane 7, Godfrey 6; Doucoure 8, Davies 5, Iwobi 7 (Coleman 82), Sigurdsson 6, Richarlison 6 (Kenny 90); Calvert-Lewin 9 (Tosun 90). 

Subs not used: Olsen, Lossl, Nkounkou, Bernard, Gordon, Branthwaite.

ARSENAL (4-3-3): Leno 6; Maitland-Niles 8, Holding 5, Luiz 6, Tierney 7; Ceballos 6, Elneny 5 (Willock 64, 5), Saka 5; Pepe 7 (Martinelli 71, 5), Nketiah 6 (Lacazette 76, 5), Willian 5. 

Subs not used: Runarsson, Bellerin, Soares, Mustafi, Kolasinac, Smith Rowe.