Arsenal goalkeeper Bernd Leno has hailed the ‘big impact’ that Mikel Arteta has made since becoming boss in an interview captured by Football Daily.
Leno reiterated the ‘team’ spirit that the Gunners have rediscovered since Arteta was named as boss just before Christmas.
The 27-year-old also hinted that ‘it was a mess’ under Unai Emery and the Gunners ‘were not a team’ under the former PSG boss.
Arsenal have lost only one game under Arteta, whilst they’ve only managed to win three, things seem to be encouraging under the former Gunners captain.
Here’s what the Germany international had to say, quotes obtained from Football.London:
“He has, in this short time made a big impact,”
“You can see the intensity we play, also the structure in the team and the mentality [away] from the pitch.”
“Before I don’t want to say it was a mess it was a little bit confusing, everyone was doing different things.”
“We were not a team! Not in the dressing room, not on the pitch and you could see this. I think with Mikel its changed completely.”
“The first day he came he wasn’t talking too much about tactics, he was talking about how we behave in the dressing room, when we go to the games we have to be more professional and more like a team.”
“I think it’s not only what he’s learned from Pep Guardiola. When you talk to people who have worked with him they said he’s a very clever guy with tactics and how to improve players.”
“At the moment we don’t have to talk about the Premier League title because Man City and especially Liverpool at the moment are too strong.”
“Honestly we have to say they are on another level.”
Leno’s assessment of things under Emery really sheds a light on just how difficult things were for the Gunners.
The north London outfit are currently sitting in 10th place, 10 points off rivals Chelsea in 4th.
Given the large gap, it will take a strong run under Arteta during the second-half of the season for Arsenal to mount a serious challenge for a top four spot.
With Leno hailing Arteta’s impact, perhaps it’s fine for results to take a backseat for a little while given just how much the Spaniard seems to have changed the atmosphere at the club.
I think the guy who was put under pressure the most was leno when UE was on charge.
Things off the pitch has not been going good as well under UE.He is a good coach i dont know where it went wrong for him.
The impact MA has made on players on and off the pitch is clear.So i hope the reaults will come pretty fast
COYG