Last year Arsenal had 4 wins, 4 draws, and 2 losses against the rest of the top six, the second lowest goals allowed in the league, and finished in second. Last year! Same system, same players, same Wenger. Ahead of Klopp, ahead of Pochettino, ahead of Mourinho.

Every year one flawed team will win the Premier League and 19 flawed teams won’t. Every year we can tell a story about why one of the 19 didn’t win, how they didn’t get enough points from the good teams, or from the bad teams, or away from home, or at home, or after falling behind, or after being ahead. These are just stories, small sample size theatre, as evidenced above.

Could Arsenal benefit from more rigid structure? Of course. Could it also be to their detriment? Of course. Mourinho’s system brought Chelsea up to #1, then it brought them down to #10, then it brought United down to #6. Which of these were because of the rigidity? How can we tell which years would have gone better with more or less freedom? I think the only reasonable answer is we can’t, and the degree to which we focus on the detriments or benefits of any system tells us more about ourselves than it does the system.