Our first article this morning was from Dan, who gave the opinion that Arsenal winning 4 big games in a row was down to Mikel Arteta and the new-found belief he has instilled in his team.
No sooner had I read that when I started looking at other ideas for articles and immediately found this interview with Kieran Tierney, who agreed with every single word that Dan had written, saying that Arteta had given the team ‘belief and spirit’ which gives them great confidence no matter who they are playing against.
Tierney told Arsenal.com: “The spirit is one of the main things in the changing room, belief and spirit and we’ve got that, we’re building on it,”
“We’re just looking to continue and keep building this way.
“I think that comes from the manager and the staff. It’s continued from what we’ve done last season and building on it. When we came back in last week we’ve just continued. We’ve never had too long off so last season doesn’t feel too long ago.
“Coming into games like this we’re starting to believe more and more and I think that’s what it’s all about, belief and spirit. Mikel’s drilled that into us since day one, defensive organisation and the transition. That’s what we do every day in training, we watch videos on it. It’s not by luck and it’s not by chance. It’s by hard work.
“The fans and the club deserve to be in the Champions League. They deserve to be top four and we want to do as well as we can, as best as we can and put up a fight in every single came we come up against this year.”
Well whatever Arteta is doing, it is definitely working, as we have seen with recent wins over Man City, Chelsea and Liverpool (twice), not to mention that we have got a couple of trophies thrown in as well.
If that isn’t the form of a Top Four team then I don’t know what is…. And when you consider the difference in our play compared to the dark days of Emery’s last few months in charge, it is nothing short of miraculous.
We may not win the League with this squad of players, but it seems whoever Arteta picks plays their heart out, and I have a feeling we have got many more happy days ahead of us.
And can you imagine what Arteta can do once he has got all his main targets at the club as well…
Onwards and Upwards!
I said it yesterday that I believed we would have been in the UCL this season if the board would have gotten him in at the start of last season .
We wasted 6 months keeping Emery in charge and it’s probably set us back another 2-3 years ,Emery signed or was given 12 players in his 18 moths in charge now Arteta as to either move them on or work with them which to be fair he’s done miracles with some of them .
Anyway the future looks good now and I just hope we back him ,not bad for an assistant coach 🤔
what arteta needs is to build up a core team..
we have the talent
now we need the team to play and gel together as a team combined this with a strong mentality, experience and leadership
Mikel has the players playing with confidence and belief in his system. What a transformation in such a short period of time by a Rookie Manager to be honest.
His thinking is on another level and he knows what the club means to the fans and the where we should be on the football grid, close to the top.
I’m thinking this season we will be alot closer to Top4 and hopefully get a spot in the UCL but I think the Europa League trophy will be the target. This squad with two or three additions can win that competiton no doubt in my mind.
Positive start for the season and all the fans are actually looking forward to the season for the 1st time in a long time with views that it’s going to be alot different that the last 3 seasons.
COYG
he knows the club and some of the players
he learned from pep and has seek guidance from arsene….
he will do good
Whatever trophies Ancelotti has won in the past, he came up short against our rookie manager 👍
Lol..
So true Sue
GREAT ARTICLE PAT and TBH, I was going to write a similar themed one for this site but now there is no need as you have said it all. I do think that football has fast evolved in the last very few years , since Pep and Klopp arrived on our shores, in that dynamic and intensely detailed coaching has proven to be a bigger influential factor than merely having big names in the squad. What MA has done and is achieving with lesser players, in a number of cases, is quite extraordinary.
You can only put it down to the new and growing realisation that coaching of this QUALITY can achieve far more than was previously widely thought. MA is proving that truth with every game we play. Our last manager who improved previously modest names(at thetime they were brought in) to this same degree was George Graham. I refer mainly to Bould Dixon Winterburn as we already had Adams and Keown at the club. Grahams intense coaching only extended to that famous back four/ five though, whereas MA seems to be doing it across the whole team. Now if only someone could “rid us of this troublesome owner” (to paraphase one of Englands most famous Kings!)
Other top managers who coach so well are also proving it at Wolves , Sheff Utd, Burnley and Leicester. The thrilling signs for OUR club is that we may, just MAY, have in MA the very best of all.
Ask yourself would even Pep and Klopp have done as well with our squad as MA has. I think not personally, even though I have enormous respect and admiration for both those fine men.