Mikel Arteta believes rebuilding a connection between the team and the fans would be a ‘powerful’ thing, as he prepares the side for the visit of Chelsea to the Emirates tomorrow.
Things have been contentious at times, it’s fair to say, as performances and results have declined. From being hot favourites to finish in the top four back in April, the Gunners now find themselves adrift in mid-table, and that’s obviously going to cause frustration.
The rookie head coach knows he’s got a big job on his hands with the players, but also sees Arsenal fans as part of his thinking too.
“First I need to convince the players and then, if I can convince the players, afterwards we can convince the fans,” he said.
“I think it’s very, very important in my job. At the end of the day they’re expecting a lot from us.
“We have to give them enjoyment, we have to make their lives better and, when we win, it will be better because they will be happier. It’s our responsibility and we have to do everything we can to achieve that.”
As with the performance on the pitch at the Vitality Stadium on Thursday, the new boss was encouraged by the interaction between supporters and players.
“I was really pleased with how the fans treated the players, and I was happy that the players went to see the fans after the game as well because we need that connection,” he continued.
“Slowly, we need to build that back to where it was. It’s going to be very powerful for us to use that.”
More sensible assessment of the situation than UE who wanted us fans to support our players and create an atmosphere conducive for our players to perform. All the vibes are positive I feel, hopefully we beat the chavs this Sunday and hopefully end the year on a bright note.
Yeah how perposterous to expect the supporters to support. To support the team when the team is struggling?! Makes much more sense to support the team when we’re 3-0 up and the game is already won. But when we’re struggling, let’s just get on the players’ backs and make difficult situations even harder. Brilliant idea!
Wenger had said that it’s his and the player’s jobs to fill the empty seats. Arteta is closer to that perspective than Emery who wanted the support of the fans to push the players…
I agree we should be filling those seats. But it says a lot about our fanbase that people buy season tickets for a grand and a half and don’t bother showing if we play bad. Relinquish the ticket. Let someone else go who might actually sing and turn up when the team most needs the support of the fans. I’m only able to share a season ticket with a mate as neither of us are flush but I wouldn’t miss a game for anything. My missus’ sister got married on the day of the NLD. I went to the fucking… Read more »
A thumbs up just for going to the fucking Derby instead of the wedding
Great post. You’ve just identified one of the main problems with the club: the prohibitively high ticket prices. When I first started going in the late 70s it was affordable to anybody. Now most working-class fans follow the club on TV while the wealthy buy season tickets and then decide which games to miss. I was watching the Wolves v City game last night and was massively impressed by the noise produced by the home fans. Our passionate followers have been locked out. If you don’t believe me then just go to a “cheap” League Cup game. As we are… Read more »
I got a compliment from Fatgooner. That’s my Christmas made!
From TV the Emirates is a quiet stadium; pretty sure this doesn’t help players on loud away games and definitely is a factor in our poor away record.
I’ve seen tourists get the blame, but surely they’re just a small minority. I agree entirely with fatgooner on this, passionate fans are not the norm apparently.
Give me the tourists over our regular supporters any day of the week. At least they don’t turn on the team when the team is losing; they still support the team. Our supremacist supporters do much more to hinder the team than help it.
You were doing so well until you bought into the media’s propaganda against Russia.
But yeah, our fans are shite. They only get behind the team when the team is winning – when they least need support.
Wenger also said :
“If people are used to eating caviar and you serve them hot dogs, they get unhappy”.
I’d much prefer eating a hot dog to caviar, bring on the hot dogs….
I can’t wait to see what Arsenal will be in two seasons with Arteta. My gut feeling is that we’ll be back where we belong.
The signs are there.
I feel like Arteta should have been appointed ahead of Emery when Wenger left. We all had doubts about his inexperience but we are moving in a new era now. This exactly what Arsenal needed, a young coach with fresh ideas and hungry to succeed. Older elite European managers would actually fail at this job, Arsenal are way too big for most of them and getting these players to perform for them was not going to work. Arteta will succeed, even if he fails to win trophies, he will get this club competing again…
I would say the way to rebuild the connection with the fans is to rebuild this awful Arsenal team and start winning games.
All the talk in the world will not achieve anything – its actions that change things.
And we have all heard this same talk before.
Have’nt we?
How would he come in and just rebuild in this short period of time? Where he got the money to rebuild? How he suppose to sell the players when other clubs know that they are shit? I would rather a coach speaking clearly the plan of his work and we have a target to believe in rather we keep complaining as if we can start to win games after we complained. Stop moaning dude.
Bring back Coquelin to rouse the crowd with feisty tackles and his passionate cheers. Or…Giroud to do those embarrassing attempts at replicating the Icelandic ‘whoo, whoo’ chant.
Or just win some games… Yes.
If he thinks playing Granit Xhaka is going to help rebuild a connection with the fans then he’s seriously mistaken
In a Machiavellian way, first, build a defence to have your folk by your side.
Scoring some bloody goals world be nice too! sure our defense has been subpar (as usual), but our goal scoring record is piss poor this season. Laca has been poor since his injury, Özil doesn’t seem like he can score a goal to save his life, and auba needs consistent service to be most effective, after a hot start he’s cooled off too. And all year there has been a gaping problem between attack and defense and connecting the two. Hopefully mikel can get some balance and fluidity back into our team. It was positives signs in the first game.… Read more »
Yeah true, but the Pep way, which makes him he most successful coach in the world right now, and which we are all hoping will form the foundation of the Arteta way is not based on defence, but rather possession….meaningful, potent, possession, not the sterile side to side nonsense we were doing under Emery, complemented by his team’s well organised and coordinated defending from the front, when possession is ocassionaly turned over, not the disjointed team effort, of running around like headless chicken that we were doing under Emery. With such an approach, our defence will seem more stronger than… Read more »
Some of them just aren’t worth connecting with I’m afraid. I’m talking about the ones trying to make coin out of poor form. The ones who wanted Ancelotti (I preferred him too, but let’s get behind Mikel eh?) and are already ranting about Arteta’s first game (and deleting videos when they get loads of downvotes… despite abusing anyone with a different opinion and claiming people can’t take ‘the truth’). The ones who, upon getting some criticism and negative publicity, then go to a soup kitchen on Xmas day…and just happen to have their cameras with them. Were they going it… Read more »
Just wanted to say a big thanks for your recognition of Dave Faber & all he did for Arsenal & the fans.He was a true gent & will be sorely missed by all that came into contact with him.
Hear hear.
In essence….you need to start picking up 3 points ASAP!
Good to see a few names could be available tomorrow; Chambers, Bellerin, Ceballos are not on the latest injury list. It’s worrying that we’ve scored only 1 goal in the last 5 hours of football. At Everton and Bournemouth when we were looking for a winner, Willock came off the bench which just doesn’t fill me with confidence at all. Ceballos could be that secret weapon we need to come off the bench tomorrow.
Willock is a great player. After his first game for the club, Ceballos hasn’t done anything better than Willock, really.
To be fair with Ceballos, just a couple names have done anything good lately, and Ceballos didn’t have the “luxury” to play under another manager not called Unai for us, so I’ll still reserve my judgement on the guy.
Loaning Ceballos without an option was insane.
We’ve seen with Fabinho, Keita, Kovacic and many other players, that it can take 6-12 months to settle into the intensity of the Premier League.
I like Ceballos, but there’s a very good chance that he’ll be leaving, just as we’re beginning to see the benefits of his painful adaption period.
I’ve got a feeling that we’ll sneak this one. 2-1 to the Arsenal.
For once Please start laca auba ozil and pepe together.
better yet, just start 11 attacking players and no goalkeeper while we’re at it
Imagine a time where Arsenal Football Club is producing good performances consistently, the fanbase are on board with the players and manager and certain social media channels which make fortunes over screening emotional over reactions fade back into obscurity. Just like the good old days. I have real hope that the appointment of Arteta is a big big step in the right direction.
I think the club is mostly responsible for breaking the connection with the fans. Do you remember the words of Ivan Gazidis in 2012? “As we look to the next two, three years we will have an outstanding platform on which to compete with any club in the world,” etc. That bullshit and the expectations then the rude reality made it toxic. Where are we now and where are they? Ivan was happy to leave the sinking ship.
No I think the fans are mostly responsible for breaking the connection with the club. Do you remember the home games in the 2015/16 season? If we weren’t two or three goals up at half-time, the fans would turn on the team and often cost us the game. Remember Swansea at home? We would have won that game easily and closed the gap to Leicester, but the fans went out of their way to create an atmosphere so toxic that the players couldn’t function.
True, but maybe it was somehow a consequence of the aforementioned false promises. I remember when Ivan came up with that bullshit I was naive enough to believe in that bright future. (Of course it’s so boring to support a not just invincible team, but a team that relentlessly wins the pl, cl… I said, ok, it will last maybe for a decade, then back to normal business: some FA cup glory and a league cup final) Then in the cold light of reality, me like others got frustrated. The famous 4th place trophy was not enough anymore. Just compete,… Read more »
Were they promises, or were they attempts at remaining postive? Had the supporters stuck behind the team during difficult times (not when we were 3-0 up at half-time against Manchester United and Chelsea, but when we were 1-0 down with twenty minutes to go at home to a bottom-half team), those “promises” would have come true. It was the supporters who didn’t fulfill their end of the bargain.
Talking of connecting with the fans, what’s the latest on these AFTV protests? I didn’t hear of any continuation at the Bournemouth game. Please don’t tell me that was it after the Everton game. We got to keep this pressure on them, and drive those idiots out of our club. As long as no one gets killed or hurt, these protests (non-violent please) need to happen at every game.
No, no, no! Remember it’s fine for them to chant bile against our greatest manager ever, but if they get a bit back…they must be jealous thugs lol. Personally, I wouldn’t get in someone’s face like that and chant stuff. Bit OTT in my opinion. I just don’t watch it. However, it does become an issue when a star player befriends one of the regulars (just after he went on a rather vicious anti-Xhaka rant). I’m someone who wants Xhaka to leave, but that can’t be good for team morale, surely? When it affects the team, it becomes an issue… Read more »
I don’t watch it either, but sadly there are people who do, and that’s having an effect on us. So boycotting the channel alone is just not enough; we really need to stop it.
I’m with you on this one. AFTV need to be stopped. They have no respect for the players and the club and also other fans. While I like the idea of fan channels I feel like Robbie (owner of AFTV) does not do enough to keep abusive language off his channel. He allows every thug to say what they want and how they want.
That Robbie is a mercenary – he doesn’t care about the club anymore as long as he’s making heavy profits out of our failures. He’s even playing the race card now, which is a disgrace and undermines real racism going on elsewhere.
Any ideas on how to stop them? Let’s brainstorm.