Mikel Arteta says Arsenal need to have a killer instinct and believes a winning mentality needs to permeate every level of the club if they are to challenge their Premier League rivals.
Changing the culture at Emirates Stadium is something the Spaniard has been banging on about since he arrived in November 2019 and while it’s taken him a while to make progress he sounds like a man who is confident the right foundations are in place.
Off the back of three consecutive wins in the league, the Gunners are in good shape as the race for the top four hots up but Arteta won’t let his players rest on their laurels given their proclivity for untimely hiccups.
“That’s what the Premier League winners don’t have [inconsistency] – they have good, good, very good, very good, very good,” said Arteta on Friday.
“That’s what we have to achieve. That’s why we’re still not there and consistency is a big word – not that much related to performances but as well how you’re able to get results.
“The best teams have a killer instinct, and a mentality that is: here is only winning. Win today, tomorrow, the next day’s training and the following one.
“That culture and that education has to be set. It takes a little bit of time and that’s what we need.
“The moment that is instilled, not only in the players but the staff around you – the coaches, the club, the director, the board and the crowd – then it is extremely powerful.”
He added: “Hopefully we are on the road but we’re not there. And obviously we are on a road that is much quicker and wider than before because the teams here used to win the league with 85, 86 points.
“Now to win the league you might need 100 points, so that’s a different dimension of a league.”
Earlier in his pre-game press conference, the boss had also touched on the newfound resilience his players are showing, as evidenced by the late comeback against Wolves.
He said: “I think it’s very related to belief and trust – and when you have the willingness those players have to be successful and to play the game we want to play, how much they like to interact and play with each other: that is where everything starts to flourish. At the end, the consequence of that is probably the resilience you are mentioning as well.
“That has to be built and to do that you need good experiences as well, and good experiences help the belief to do it again, you are more confident, you know how to resolve certain issues when they appear on the pitch and it’s good because it was very much needed in those games to win the matches.”
As George Graham used to say “winning becomes a habit.”
Just keep grinding the results out, lads. 👍
It’s so interesting to me that a clubs mentality and personality can outlive coaches, players, managers and owners.
Look at Sp*rs. They are just so fucking Sp*rs, and have been for… well, as long as I can remember. And for too long we have been way too Arsenal.
Let’s hope the last decade and a half isn’t too ingrained on our souls and we can escape being a nice enough side who tend to disappear when leaned on.
It is this perspective that makes most sense of the way Arteta has purged the playing staff
To even hear our manager talk about how many points we need to win the league without making me want to take a walk, by myself into the woods with a shotgun is a sign of the progress he’s made.
Please, please, please keep this going.
Yup. And although it is obviously not the most likely result, if we win our game-in-hand and then beat Chelsea, we would be in third place. This season. Again, not the most likely result, but not a far-fetched “mathematically possible” scenario either. An actual possibility.
It’s funny, after the first 3 games I was measuring progress in performances, trying to look for positives in the upward trajectory of stats and patterns on the field. Results were less important to me. Now I’d bite your arm off for a scrappy goal off Lacazettes arse and a 1-0 home win vs lowly Watford if it means we get 3 points and close in on the top 4. This is a testament to how far we have come.
That happens when you have something to fight for.
The cultural overhaul was as important as any aspect of the rebuild. It’s a sad commentary on Wenger’s last 7 or 8 years, but Arteta’s building belief in the character of this very young team.
Please, Arteta hasn’t achieved anything yet. We got five top 4 in those last 8 years of Wenger, you’re talking about.
Our downward spiral (Wenger’s decline) started or accelerated at the end of 2015/16 season. We reached rock bottom last season. Arteta has had to clear out a lot of crap, mediocre players who had downed tools or were utterly incompetent or inconsistent. and bar a few, almost got no money for them. That tells you a lot about what he’s achieved. Let’s push for 4th
Are you trying to prove that Arteta has been a better manager than Wenger? What are you smoking?
Where does it say that? Arteta had cleared out a lot of deadwood, Should we have retained Mustafi, Bellerin , Ozil, Kolasinac sokratis torreira ?
You forgot Willian and often disastrous Luiz on purpose, I guess. Buy the way, Willian broke Covid rules and went to Dubai and it wasn’t used to get rid of his contract and he was the first name on the team sheet every week.
Wenger had his peaks and troughs and rebuilds and had he stayed I have no doubt we’d be watching another classic team right now*. Around 2015 was the last peak with fantastic team but lots of injuries. 17/18 was a trough and widely maligned but we knew how to play good football, home record 2nd after city, cleared out Sanchez in Jan and the team spirit started to return. We mainly just needed that strong central midfielder he never signed, and were ready for the next upcycle. Now we have a team based on home grown players from his era.… Read more »
He’s won the FA Cup, more than many other celebrated managers achieved in their first ever season managing.
Auba won the FA Cup for him and he failed in his duty of getting the best out of him on a continuing basis.
Mumu
🇳🇬
Come on mate, fairs fair.
I one of his biggest critics but even I recognise an FA Cup Final victory.
That’s hardly a non-achievement. That’s a major trophy.
I agree with you. Arsene’s latter teams were filled with nimble ball players who played very well until something went wrong… or they ran into a physical team. I don’t think the current iteration of Arsenal would crumble as bad as the ’07/’08 team did after Eduardo’s leg break! Five straight draws, I think, followed, and a waning United team overhauled 8 points and went on to win the title! Can a Drogba bully these lads at every turn like Didier did? I am looking forward to our game at Stamford Bridge just to see how Lukaku fares against Gabriel…… Read more »
We still won 3 FA Cups during that period apart from playing in Europe throughout.
He’s seen the winning culture at Man City and is bringing it to the Emirates…..loving how our young side and our new chapter are developing 💥
I prefer to think that Arteta is looking at Arsenal’s former winning mentality: evidenced by Wenger’s Invincibles and Graham’s title winners of 1990/91, who, had they drawn just one more game against Chelsea, would have been claiming invincibility long before Arsene arrived. Of course, you can go back further to the first double side of 1970/71 where we just kept on winning week in week out, or even the 1930’s, where, for the best part of an entire decade, we habitually smashed teams up by fours, fives. sixes and a lovely seven from Ted Drake against Aston Villa. As for… Read more »
I’m very much enjoying how much each game matters to me at the moment
Likewise but Someone is not happy that we now enjoy that each game matters to us,
Off topic (sorry) but wolves haven’t scored a goal or won a point since there time wasting BS substitution vs us. Stay classy Bruno.
Great isn’t it.