Arteta is the anti-Pep! Arsenal boss' disciple plays 'NEGATIVE' football

Tom Weber

22 Oct 2025 15:17 BST
4 min read

Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta has unwittingly come under fire in Italy because his disciple, Carlos Cuesta, stands accused of playing 'negative football' at Parma.

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The Spaniard left Arsenal for Serie A in the summer to become the youngest head coach in Europe's top-five leagues. Cuesta replaced Cristian Chivu, who returned to his former club Inter, at Parma, aged just 30.

So far, Cuesta's stint at Parma has been uneventful and somewhat disappointing. His side are currently 15th in the Serie A table, with a record of one win, three draws and three losses.

Parma have the joint-second-worst attack, having only managed to score three times. The only team with fewer goals after seven games are Hellas Verona with a measly two.

According to journalist Giuseppe Pastore, the fingerprints of Mikel Arteta are all over 'Cuesta-ball,' with the young coach having spent five years as an assistant to the Arsenal manager.

Is Arteta a negative influence?

With Pep Guardiola famously influencing coaches to play a possession-based, positive style of football over the past 15 years, Pastore seems to accuse Arteta of having the opposite effect. He describes Parma's lack of open-play threat under Cuesta as 'negative football.'

“Arteta and Arsenal’s style of play, a team that almost always scores from set-pieces, has not exactly been Las Vegas, and so being Spanish isn’t enough to play well,” Pastore thundered.

“Cuesta was chosen by CEO [Federico] Cherubini, who had him at Juventus in the youth academy, and then he went to Arsenal. Honestly, beyond the normal experience he needs, Parma would be safe right now, so evidently it’s not even like the results are against him.

"He’s playing negative football, with a record 0.03, 0.05 expected goals, which is the lowest figure ever recorded at least in the last two seasons. Above all, it’s a team that almost doesn’t seem interested. They don’t try and fail, they don’t even seem interested in posing any danger.”

However, FootballTransfers' Serie A expert Carlo Carganese believes that Cuesta should get some benefit of the doubt because Parma don't really have much in the way of genuine attacking threats. Forward Mateo Pellegrino and oft-injured midfielder Adrian Bernabe are described as the only real standout outfield players Cuesta has at his disposal.

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