Is Arteta Broken? by Dan Smith
Mikel Arteta looked shell-shocked after our defeat to Brighton. After another loss at Nottingham Forest the Spaniard seemed to be fighting back tears.
After the standards we had set for the majority of the season he seemed stunned that the same players could be so poor.
Show me a good loser and I’ll show you a loser. Of course, I want to see our manager care and hurt. After nearly two decades of expectations lowering in North London, it’s comforting that the man in charge has ambitions.
It was rare to see the press offer positivity, just for our boss to bat them back each time. Normally it’s the other way around.
Arteta made it clear, he’s here to win and it hurts not to. Arsenal should not accept otherwise and have a duty to try and reach the levels Man City have set.
Stage one he says is to heal.
Clearly the 41-year-old wears his heart on his sleeve and in his post-match press conference he was either unwilling to put a positive spin on the campaign or unable?
My stance in terms of our response to finishing runners up goes two ways.
Psychologically it’s such a blow that there is a hangover, and that carries over into next season. That’s how Liverpool went from nearly the Quadruple to most likely not even finishing in the top 4.
We have the youngest squad in the division though, so in theory so much of our talent should only get better and be stronger for the experience.
That’s where having leaders in the dressing room would help. As our performance at the City Ground showed, we didn’t have enough leadership to get over the Brighton debacle.
Forest let us have the ball and invited us to break them down.
The more we just passed the ball side to side, the more confident they became of a clean sheet.
Parking the bus and grinding out 1-0 wins isn’t even Steve Cooper’s style; they hadn’t kept a clean sheet in their previous 15 fixtures.
They literally grew self-belief by us playing the ball in front of them, no one overlapping, making clever movements, etc.
Who do we have who will find the words to motivate?
Who has the mentality to use adversity as a recipe for success?
Who has the personality to demand we don’t spend preseason feeling sorry for ourselves?
Who leads by example?
I still maintain Odegaard is not the captain we require, Xhaka could be leaving (which is a mistake), Zinchenko is too emotional, Jesus is a hot head, which leaves Jorginho.
The Italian spent Saturday instructing, but his peers were not listening.
It leaves Arteta without a lot of support, and while youngsters look to him for guidance, who guides him?
Remember this is Arteta’s first job.
He’s not an Arsene Wenger, who knew the tricks of the trade in how to deal with failure.
In 2002/03 the Gunners, in similar fashion to the current version, threw away a lead at the top of the table to finish runners up.
Mr Wenger used that feeling of regret to motivate his players who responded by going unbeaten.
Mr Wenger though had a Keown, Campbell, Vieira, Parlour, Bergkamp and Lehmann to offer leadership. Plus Henry, Lauren and Cole who were characters.
Arteta doesn’t have such help.
Before he can help clean the wounds of others, he must overcome the trauma himself.
His mentor is Pep Guardiola, who taught his apprentice the dedication it takes to succeed.
Pep’s attention to detail is almost obsessive. Part of the reason Pep left Barcelona was because he was drained.
Imagine putting in that much effort and focus with nothing to show for it?
All the sacrifices with zero rewards?
The lost sleep suddenly not worth it?
As the man to take us back to the Champions League after a 6-year exile, our ex-captain has earnt the right to show he can use our disappointment to make us stronger.
Looking at his body language and demeanour though, I’m not sure he has the energy to go again.
He looks broken.
Dan