RavinIf you are an Arsenal fan, it’s been a tough couple of years. There have been middles and there have been lows. No achievements quite befitting the stature of the club. But if you have stuck with The Gunners this long, you deserve all that’s going on in the club right now.
Mikel Arteta has assembled a team of young, hungry individuals ready to take on all comers. It’s been a long, slow process of finding the right players and weeding out the wrong uns. The Arsenal of today looks vastly different from the one that hobbled to 8th place at the start of Arteta’s reign, and the ownership deserves full credit for sticking with their man.
The calls were deservedly loud for Arteta to get the boot. Results were poor and his only prior experience was as an understudy to Pep Guardiola at Manchester City.
But there was a sense, even in the early days, that Arteta was gingerly building something. A club culture and footballing system that promoted and demanded excellence. Something that Arsenal has lacked in recent years. It felt like Arteta was cleaning house, getting rid of the general malaise that has surrounded the team since the end of the Wenger era.
One of the early victims of Arteta’s charge was club captain Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang. Even as The Gunners’ best player at the time, he was not spared as Arteta continued laying down the groundwork the team so desperately needed. Multiple disciplinary infringements later, his contract was mutually terminated and Aubameyang departed the club .
In his rebuild, Arteta has put his trust in youth. Aubameyang’s captaincy has been given to 24 year old Martin Ødegaard who has impressed at every team he’s played for, but has found his home at The Emirates. The Arsenal manager has shirked from pursuing high-profile signings, choosing instead to sign players who have the right attitude and fit for his system.
Ben White and Aaron Ramsdale were brought in for a combined 87 million pounds, a figure most baulked at. But Arteta plunged forward, undeterred.
In the 21/22 season, Arsenal looked like a team on the mend. Ramsdale had silenced his critics and the team was heading for a top four finish. In the end their ambitions of rejoining Europe’s elite were derailed, and North London rivals Tottenham jumped ahead to secure champions league qualification.
It was yet more ammunition for Arteta’s detractors who pointed to the fact that Arteta had once again disappointed in the league.
It didn’t matter. The club that had stood behind Arteta through consecutive 8th place finishes were never going to abandon him. Their loyalty to him cannot simply be explained by his reputation as a former player, nor his association with Pep Guardiola. Mikel Arteta is favoured for having brought calm, professionalism, and discipline to the Emirates.
From his immaculate hair to his unrestrained touchline passion and no-nonsense attitude, Arteta won hearts and minds the minute he stepped up to the Arsenal job. Unlike other recent player turned managers like Steven Gerrard or Frank Lampard, Mikel Arteta seemed to have come in with a clear plan and has been given time to execute it.
On the pitch, there were clear signs of change. A system was in place and slowly but surely, players were buying into it. Arteta is no master tactician, but it is becoming clear that he is more than adept at understanding what a club needs to be successful, and willing to do the dirty work to see it through.
His early years were beset with innumerable problems. Overpaid players, a dysfunctional squad, and a wayward recruitment strategy that was clutching at straws. Arteta took it all calmly in his stead. He took accountability for everything wrong with the club and promised to set it all straight.
At the age of 37, Arteta displayed a maturity that’s lacking even in the top managers of the game today. Barely older than the senior members of his own squad, he set about transforming one of the biggest clubs in world football. One by one, he worked tirelessly over three years to solve the many glaring problems with his former club.
At the start of this current season, the final pieces of the puzzle came together to reveal Arteta’s masterpiece. The signings of Gabriel Jesus and Oleksandr Zinchenko lit a fuse that unlocked the latent but growing potential of the Arsenal team that Arteta had built.
It’s poignant the effect that Gabriel Jesus has had in energising the squad to mount a title challenge. A player who has never quite reached the heights at Manchester City, engulfed as he was in the long shadow of club legend Sergio Agüero. Brought in as a number 9, Jesus lacked a clinicality in front of goal and often cut a frustrated figure.
His talents in build-up play were recognised, as was his workrate, and he was sometimes moved over to the wing where he could display his passing and dribbling ability. However, he was never integral to any of the city sides that won the league titles and his shift to wider areas of the pitch always felt more like a demotion.
His move to Arsenal was unsurprising. Arteta and Pep obviously had a fantastic relationship, and The Gunners weren’t yet regarded as potential title challengers. He was also a straight upgrade to the departing Alexandre Lacazette, who was talented but seemed to be lumbering around in his final season at Arsenal.
Gabriel Jesus, long-time underperformer in the Premier League and determined to prove his worth, sparked life into the Arsenal attack. His journey mirrors Arsenal’s own as they brush off years of mediocrity and sit firmly atop the standings.
In all of this, it’s important to remember that Jesus is only 25. He plays alongside Bukayo Saka, 21, and Gabriel Martinelli also 21. In fact the entire squad is made up of 20-somethings, save for veteran Granit Xhaka who is a player reborn under Arteta this season.
In football, youth represents energy and daring. A willingness to take the game to the opponents every single time. Youth doesn’t think about failure or worry about consequence. Youth doesn’t bear the burden of past misfortunes, nor is it held back by common sense. Young players are eager to show what they have and the mistakes they make are a part of that charm.
Arteta has carefully constructed a young team, and that is a very dangerous thing in football. By default, young players cannot form the spine of an elite side. They need the space and freedom to grow and mature, before they settle down into established roles. Right now at times, Arteta’s Arsenal seems to be lacking that central spine that wins league titles.
Over a single match, experience is no match for youth. But over a 38 game season, it will be difficult for young players to keep up consistent performances. To scrap away difficult victories. To hold on to unlikely leads.
There are also uncomfortable parallels between this Arsenal team and the Wenger sides of the early 2010s. They were also young teams and with players like Cesc Fabregas, Robin Van Persie, and Theo Walcott, it can be argued that those squads had a higher ceiling than the present Arsenal team.
Without any real success to satiate his players, Arsene Wenger could do little but watch as his team fell apart as the decade unfolded. Every year another one of his young prodigies left seeking titles elsewhere. The team became hollowed out and Wenger papered over the cracks, until he couldn’t.
Will that happen to Arteta’s Arsenal? It’s impossible to say for sure, but it doesn’t seem likely. The current Arsenal squad have a steel in them that Wenger’s team lacked. Players like Ødegaard, and Jesus may be young, but have already spent several years at the highest levels of the game. They are battle-worn and each have a chip on their shoulders from being underappreciated at their former clubs.
But it is Arteta who deserves the plaudits for creating an environment for these young, sometimes embittered, players to succeed. And if this current crop of players can stick together and bring Arsenal out of the shadows to reclaim former glory, then we might currently be in the process of watching something very special.
For now though, all eyes are on the title race. There is a growing feeling that this might be the clearest shot Arsenal has at a league title. With Liverpool and Chelsea in transition, Manchester United in ascendency, and an ever-present Manchester City and Pep Guardiola, next season might not be as easy for this Arsenal squad who are currently ahead by 2 points with a game in hand.
Whatever the result may be at the end of the season, Arteta can be proud of the work he’s done. His achievements should be a shining example to other clubs on how a rebuild is accomplished and what “trust the process” really means.
A young manager guiding a team full of zeal and optimism, up against the experienced heavyweight of the premier league. That’s the story of this season’s title race and it’s this kind of excitement that keeps us coming back to the sport.
Arteta is its protagonist and chief architect. Just over 3 years ago, he arrived at a broken club. A return to the top 4 would have been a godsend. Instead of steadying the ship, Arteta chose to sink it. And from that wreckage, he extracted what he needed to build the formidable Arsenal team fighting for the highest honour in English football.
His trust in youth has paid off. The summer and winter transfer strategies have been on point.
Now all that remains is for Arteta’s boys to take each game as it comes, dig their heels in, and stubbornly stay atop the table. Arteta has done all he can to bring the team this far. It’s left up to the young Gunners to leave it all on the pitch and bring the title back home.
Ravin
