To understand the rise of Mikel Arteta's Arsenal, you must first remember the fall of Unai Emery.
Emery was hired as Arsène Wenger's replacement in May 2018 and has already shown the first glimpses of hope. He reached the final of the Europa League, narrowly missing out on the top four.
But he was sacked on November 29, 2019 after a seven-game winless streak – at the time the club's worst since 1992 – leaving behind a mess that would take years to repair.
The culture was toxic. The locker room was divided. Big money flops lacked motivation. The recruitment strategy was non-existent.
Rumors that some players openly mocked Emery's thick Basque accent and poor command of English never went away.
On December 20, 2019, Arteta entered – a 39-year-old former Arsenal player, nurtured by Barcelona's famed La Masia academy and molded by Pep Guardiola as an assistant at Manchester City.
Arteta had witnessed the trouble first-hand five days earlier, in the away dugout as City romped to a 3-0 Prem win at a half-empty and woefully flat Emirates against a woeful Arsenal under interim boss Freddie Ljungberg.
He would later say about that game: “I saw what was happening and I felt sad. It wasn't just the performance, but also the atmosphere and energy that I was a bit concerned about. So let me help.”
Five years later, Arteta has done more than that. Arsenal are a reborn, reinvigorated and reinvented club – once again considered a Prem titan and once again competing with Europe's very best – even as they continue to chase their first top-flight title in two decades.
But perhaps more impressively, Arteta built a crumbling culture from the ground up, brick by brick, with its non-negotiables and its emphatic, obsessive desire for perfection, both on and off the pitch.
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In the process, experienced professionals were brutally axed in favor of young, hungry stars, both from the academy and in the transfer market, who continue to follow Arteta to the ends of the earth.
Captain Martin Odegaard joined permanently from Real Madrid in the summer of 2021 after a six-month loan period. He said: “We were a bit bothered by a lot of noise around the club.
“We didn't perform as well as a club like Arsenal should, but I really believed in the project after talking to him and the club and seeing everything that happened here.
“He just gets everyone working together and working in the same direction, it's incredible.”
Mikel Merino – who signed this summer – revealed: “Mikel is a coach who speaks to players every day, there is not a single detail in training that he does not look at.”
And Hale graduate Myles Lewis-Skelly added: “It's incredible the culture he's built within the team. You can feel the always high and positive vibe of energy everywhere on the pitch.”
The journey has not been smooth, but for such a young manager, Arteta had a knack for making the right calls at the right time – most of them caught on camera in their All Or Nothing Amazon documentary in the 2021/22 campaign.
Bad players like Matteo Guendouzi, Sokratis, Mesut Ozil and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang were dropped and shamed – the latter a smart move considering the Gabon star was his captain.
It didn't solve everything. Bust-ups were included in the documentary, including Alexandre Lacazette and Cedric Soares arguing during training.
Yet Arteta himself is believed to enjoy confrontation. He recently admitted he wants to be 'uncomfortable' under the gaze of owners Stan and Josh Kroenke, and has not always agreed with former sporting director Edu on transfer targets.
He has also surrounded himself with assistants who are NOT “yes men,” such as coach Nicolas Jover and 29-year-old youngster Carlos Cuesta.
But Arteta also likes control at a football club, something he gained when his title was changed from head coach to manager in September 2020, and he has made himself a powerful voice in the recruitment team tasked with replacing Edu in the coming months.
Unlike more experienced managers, Arteta is heavily involved in training sessions, often laughing and joking with players as he takes part in heated rondos, on one occasion even nutting Odegaard before running off to celebrate.
Make no mistake, though: the intensity of these sessions has become infamous. Just weeks after joining the club, Merino commented: “I've never seen anything like it”.
This partly has to do with his obsessive nature. Arteta has his fingerprints all over the training ground, from the length and color of the grass to the slogans on the available wall space.
In their in-house training dome in London Colney – one that has just been demolished and replaced to meet Arteta's demands – one of the walls reads: 'Set-pieces win matches'.
There's also a sleek new paint job in Colney's press conference room – now with all-black walls and new air conditioning after it was suggested it would get too hot at times.
Arteta loves the color black. It was his kit of choice in the 2022/23 season as he wanted his players to look and feel more intimidating during away games.
It is precisely for that reason that the Emirates have felt the Arteta effect. The Spaniard was desperate for a club song to boost the atmosphere and eventually chose Louis Dunford's hit 'North London Forever'.
Arteta has also been instrumental in creating inspirational pre-match videos, which are shown on the big screens ahead of the big matches.
But there are different sides to a man who is often so focused and serious in front of the camera – a man who Bayer Leverkusen boss Xabi Alonso called a “competitive monster” this summer after a pre-season clash.
Arteta is diabolical. He admitted to reporters that he often plays with the truth when it comes to revealing team news before games during press conferences.
He explained: “I'm not going to lie to you, but if I don't want to tell you, I'll keep you guessing.”
There have also been incidents of Arteta deliberately letting injured or unavailable players walk off the team bus in full kit with the squad, adding to the mystery until the very end.
The devil is in the details, suggesting he wants Arsenal to become the “kings of everything” this month.
Arteta will try anything to gain an extra edge, using props like light bulbs and giant dominoes, making his players squeeze lemons and hiring undercover waiters as football cheats and pickpockets during team meetings.
In November 2021, before traveling to Anfield to face Liverpool, he played 'You'll Never Walk Alone' on loudspeakers at the training pitches to help his men acclimatise.
They went on to lose the match 4-0, a match that taught Arteta a big lesson. A dugout clash with Jürgen Klopp sparked a reaction from the home fans, coinciding with Liverpool taking the lead and Arsenal crumbling in the second half.
Despite his often frenetic performances on the touchline, Arteta always has that game on his mind, especially during the Battle of the Etihad this season. She refused to respond when Erling Haaland told him to “stay humble” at the end of the tough 2-2 draw. to draw.
What can the next five years bring us?
He has expressed an imaginative wish to one day field a starting XI with eleven players from the youth academy. So far he has three in Bukayo Saka, Ethan Nwaneri and Myles Lewis-Skelly.
But he remains an open book as a coach and a person, currently in a WhatsApp group chat with figures from other sports such as former England rugby boss Eddie Jones and New Zealand head coach Scott Robertson.
Knowing Arteta, he will already have the future meticulously mapped out, starting with winning major trophies sooner or later, and leaving behind the shadow of mentor Guardiola in his quest for dominance at the highest level.
The Spaniard emphasized this week that he has won three major trophies with Arsenal, as opposed to just the FA Cup – if you count the two Community Shields.
But now it's time to go for more.
The Gunners have inched closer to the Prem title over the past two years, with only Man City standing in their way.
Arteta was always expected to be the cream that would rise to the top when Guardiola leaves England.
But despite having at least another year on his contract, Guardiola finds himself in uncharted territory, with City in poor form.
Arsenal should in theory be top and leading the title race.
But they are now behind both Liverpool and Chelsea.
If the Gunners don't win the Premier League this season – and if City fall short – it will be seen as a huge missed opportunity for Arteta.
Moreover, a Champions League run is also crucial.
Arsenal are on the verge of automatic qualification for the knockouts.
But historically, they have rarely lasted too long when it comes to European football.
Now is the time for Arteta and Arsenal to push on and prove they can win trophies.
Otherwise he might not get five more years.
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