Arsenal finally got a much-needed win against Norwich, although it was hardly the awe-inspiring victory we were all hoping for.
But the Gunners did dominate the match with 30 attempts on target, although our only goal was a very scrappy affair they did deserve to take all three points.
Mikel Arteta was immensely relieved, and he has admitted that the period after our 5-0 thrashing by Manchester City he was “at the lowest” and needed the support of his family and friends after hearing all the criticisms aimed at him in the media. The boss told the Independent: “What I did probably was against myself because you are upset with yourself, you are angry, you are tired.
“You just want to hit yourself because you are not doing things right and you are not getting the outcome you think you deserve. You have to understand why you do it. So after the loss against City, probably I was at the lowest. Then you start to try to analyse things. You hear different opinions – media, criticism – and then probably you go even further.
“Then starts the importance of having the family I have, the wife and kids I have, the parents and the friends I have. In difficult moments they show their commitment in your relationship with them. After that it is every person that works in this club, from top to bottom, and the energy they try to provide.”
“That negativity has to come away,” he said. “You have to bear in mind that first of all you are doing everything you can to your best capacity, and don’t kid yourself or look for excuses. Normally the easiest thing to do is blame the players, [to say] ‘They are not good enough, I have this, I have that’ and then you try to over-coach them. I was not willing to do that because first of all they don’t deserve that.”
Now we have all seen how Arteta and Edu have tried to be more open and transparent about how the club operates, not to mention letting the Amazon cameras in to record it all in gory detail, but I’m not sure that Arteta should be revealing his inner feelings like this, or even letting the media get to him in such a way that he got even more depressed.
Having heard some players say that he told them not to let their heads down and to stay positive, it seems weird that he is admitting that he was struggling himself while thinking of blaming the players….Balogun admits “it was tough” but tries to find positives after Arsenal start