It is a fact that very few ‘big clubs’ make the FA Cup a priority until they somehow get into the latter stages of the competition, but Arsenal’s new coach Mikel Arteta fully realises the impact of a cup win can have on the morale of a team going through a bad run in the League.
From his experience of his playing time at Arsenal and helping the Gunners to bring home the Cup after 8 barren years, he is under no illusions of the benefits of finally winning the FA Cup.
“I think winning brings togetherness and when you have beautiful experiences together and you win trophies, those experiences stay within that group,” Arteta said on RTE. “You like more the people you work with and you believe more in them and share some fantastic moments and that stays.
“That habit of winning, winning and winning. After you win, you don’t want to stop winning and you become addicted to that and that is what we have to try and implement at this club.”
“When I arrived here, obviously we were trying to fight for the Premier League, but at the time we didn’t quite have the level to sustain it every year so the cups become very important.
“This club has a massive history with that and it was eight years without winning absolutely anything, so for us to lift that first FA Cup was a massive relief.
“It generated a really good belief and unity around our team and that helped that group of players to achieve what they achieved later when they won other cups.”
So right now Arsenal are in a worse position than when Arteta arrived as a player, and it is a fact that an appearance at a Wembley Final would be a massive boost to the players and the fans. It makes perfect sense that we should aim for achievable targets like the FA Cup and the Europa League, and he also believes that if the fans are not behind the team then it makes it even harder for the players to win anything at all.
He continued: “It is too powerful, with the fanbase we have, our history and the great players they have seen and the great teams they have seen, if we get that connected it is so powerful. Without that, I think it is impossible to do it.”
“Now when we know we have the fans behind us, we have to pinch our players to react in a certain way to get them behind us and use them to have a better performance and to create more fear in our opponents.”
It is getting a bit ahead of ourselves right now to be thinking about trophies after the season we have had so far, so the priority now is just to get another win under our belts against Leeds today and start growing in confidence.
So far so good Mikel, keep it up!
COYG!
It is better to prioritise cup game in case at the end of the season have a silver ware and subsequently qualified for European competition
Whatever prioritization, i think priotizing the defence is the main thing for now to be able to achieve whatever priority been set. Get an experience defender, even Jerome boateng. Defence must be fixed to achieve anything.
Ken1945, I responded to your enquiry regarding the horrendous fires in Australia. Thank you for your concern.
Keep safe sir, keep safe and thanks for replying.
Yes, we have had a worst season but there is still A LOT to play for,we must not write it off just yet.
The FA cup, the Europa League is still there and whether you believe it or not, only Liverpool and Man City are guaranteed Top 4.
Don’t be surprised if we make the Top 4 after going on a five match winning run, no top 6 team is really consistent right now
We have the team to achieve great things, it has always been the defence and our away form, we can do this….Coyg!!!
You’re correct, thanks a lot for supporting and believing in the arsenal players
Yes, we have had a worst season but there is still A LOT to play for,we must not write it off just yet.
The FA cup, the Europa League is still there and whether you believe it or not, only Liverpool and Man City are guaranteed Top 4.
Don’t be surprised if we make the Top 4 after going on a five match winning run, no top 6 team is really consistent right now
We have the team to achieve great things, it has always been the defence and our away form, we can do this….Coyg!!!
Goonerboy, this is exactly what I was trying to get over to Jon Fox – we don’t need wholesale changes, in my opinion, but we do need strengthening in certain areas.
If MA gets the players he has asked for in January (no one knows who that is, but Boateng gives us an idea), we need fear nobody.
Those recent three fa cup wins in four seasons were brilliant and why shouldn’t we do it all again?
It’s important to build a winning mentality…..I hope he goes for a win…a loss to a lower tier club is not what we need for our confidence….Leeds is a unique side currently but we should be able to defeat them….
Thats great to hear, the fa cup is huge to us this year.
That is called winning mentality, something either he learnt from Pep or the motivation of lifting the cup as a captain, I do not know, but happy to have a coach preparing the team for a win. Great coaches want to win everything, so there is positivism before the game and players are motivated too. Negative tactics lead to fear, and we are the Arsenal, we fear no one now. We did loose to CFC, but we played well so win or loose, play with grit and determination. Best wishes for tonight’s game Mikel and team.
This is a way to EL but won’t be easy at all.