New coach Mikel Arteta has only been in charge at Arsenal since December, and has been using the recent break from football to get a better understanding of his squad.
The Spaniard left the club in 2016 when deciding to hang-up his playing booths, and initially joined Pep Guardiola at Manchester City as his assistant.
His impact at the Etihad was an immediate one, whilst those at Arsenal knew of the potential that he had to move into coaching, but failed to convince him to take over at the Gunners academy in 2016.
He took our call this season however, and the team immediately began to play with a new lease of life, and the results finally started to come together recently.
We will now be targeting one of the European places once the campaign returns, but Arteta is refusing to allow the break from football to interfere with what he has been building since his return.
“My biggest worry is the communication now, how we can do that,” he told fans on Football Focus.
“To make sure everyone understands the steps we’re taking and why we are doing it.
“I’m interested to see the outcome after all this.
“What type of club we are, what type of staff we are and the message we give to everyone about what sort of club we are.”
“At the moment I’ve been talking a lot with them individually, sometimes in units and sometimes the whole squad,” he added.
“It’s been a good opportunity to really get to know them. I’ve only been here three months, so it’s good to learn a bit more about them.
“I’m using this time now to connect with the club better, to communicate and get to know everyone more.
“Hopefully when we get back playing and working together with each other we’ll be in a better position.”
It’s a crazy situation, but it is exciting to see such a hands-on approach from Arteta at such difficult times.
The manager himself has already contracted the Coronavirus, which likely played a part in the Premier League’s decision to suspend the division, and the man himself has claimed that he may have been lucky to have caught a mild-version of the virus, or that his immune system was more able to deal with it.
“Either mine wasn’t a very strong virus or my immune system was pretty good,” Arteta said.
“The same day that we were told that we were at risk because we were in contact with the Olympiakos owner [Evangelos Marinakis] was the exact day when I started to show some symptoms.
“I felt a huge responsibility as I knew the next day we were playing Manchester City.
“I had a feeling inside of myself that something was wrong. We had to make the point and make it clear.”
Will other teams be doing as much behind closed doors as Arteta has?
Patrick
