This season has been trying. In the good place we are now it’s easy to forget some of the more difficult moments, and while perhaps we might have expected the team to be more affected, Mikel Arteta says there’s been good spirit in the camp all along.
It is one of the things that Arsene Wenger tries to do, on many levels, and that’s to create a positive atmosphere in which the players can work.
Sometimes the reaction of players after games we’ve lost has felt a bit incongruous, the Djouroutacularness of ‘We’ll pick ourselves up and do better next time’ hasn’t always seemed appropriate, but maybe that’s better than finger-pointing.
I had a boss who used to say ‘Let’s not play the blame game’ whenever something went wrong. This was because he was utterly shit at his job and most of what went wrong was his fault, but in a team you need players to pull together and that’s whar Arsenal have done according to the Spaniard.
To be honest I was really surprised with the spirit when I came here – even when we were down it was so good,” he said “It is something you rely on because if you start blaming each other and shouting at each other it is not good.
“This group has always been positive, the manager has always been positive with the players and we have kept at it. We have the talent, we know we have the ability to win games and sometimes it is just about the balance in confidence. We have it all together now.”
Arteta scored his fifth goal of the season with a rocket of a free kick which flew past Shay Given in the Villa goal. Used to scoring free kicks for Everton this was his first for the Gunners and he dedicated it to family who were at the game.
“I was just confident. I had my family here as well and I wanted to score for them.
“Robin takes them really well too and he takes a lot of the free-kicks. When you come to a new club it is not easy. When I was at Everton I used to take all of them and score many goals from free-kicks. But it was nice to score against Villa in that way.”
And as one of the more experienced players in the squad, he has warned against complacency as we look to secure a top four place, at least.
“If anyone thinks it’s all done now, then they are making a big mistake. We can’t take our foot off the pedal now.
“We have won seven in a row now, which is very difficult in the Premier League nowadays, and we have done it well, playing some high-tempo football, but there are some tough, tough games coming up in our last eight matches.”
Arteta has been just such a fantastic buy for us. For all the blame Wenger gets for his transfer dealings, he always manages to unearth at least one gem per transfer window. Sometimes that gem turns out to be highly compressed sh*t, like in the case of Samir N., but nevertheless, we always seem to find the players that bring the most bang for the buck.
It’s scary to think the motivation behind Wenger’s last minute transfers was down to the fact that we lost 8-2 to United. Imagine if that had never happened; we probably would never have brought Mikel into Arsenal.
Like many others, I will be pondering forever now why we haven’t brought him to Arsenal earlier. Would have been great to pair him with Fabregas.
Yes and no. As far as I remember, AW was monitoring Arteta for quite some time and always admired him. The same is actually true for Mertesacker and now also for Podolski. So there is some degree of consistency in that I believe.
(But you can of course counter this argument with the Jeffers’s, Reyes’s and Baptistas’s of this world). Still, this season’s transfers were about inserting experienced players into the squad and I guess AW was just waiting for the best (and cheapest) moment to bring MA and PM in.
Love you MA8.. And many many happy returns of the day.
Happy birthday, Miki.
*swoon*
@ette,
you could probably write something to the effect of “I wish samir na$ri would join sp*rs and together they would win the league” and I still couldnt thumbs down you because your picture is just sooooo beautiful
Me likes it too. 🙂
Yumsk!
Re. Evil, actually if you look at all of Wenger’s signings last summer, I would say to varying degrees all of: Jenkinson, Chamberlain, Gervinho, Arteta, Santos, Mertesacker have been successes. Park is up there with the biggest flops ever, Benayoun hasn’t really had much game time.
Arteta is doing what Denilson was unable to do for us. And he has helped allow Song to show what he can do going forward as well
Happy Birthday Mikel. Proper good midfielder, glad to have you with us.
Top class, I love him when playing away from home, he never gets intimidated by the crowed. We missed him when he got injured when playing away.
God he is dreamy.
Probably got the best work rate of all the midfielders in the premier league right now, maybe excepting Joe Allen and Leon Britton.
The invincibles have won 14 league games in a row. This current team has 7 wins now. We’re halfway home hehehe i believe in this team whatever the result. COYG
This is not true.
To clarify: their best run of wins in the league was 9, if I’m not mistaken.
Players like Arteta and Per have given us that bit of maturity and experience we’ve been lacking in previous seasons and I think that after pretty much 5 years of misguided transition we may just have turned a corner and will be a real force next year – as long as we tie down rvp
this is good for ateta and l want u to get in touch with your national coach to be able to play for your country.gooner for live
No, no and no. Nice as that might be for him (and well deserved), it not only exposes him to injury during international football (all forms of which should be banned anyway), it also exposes him to ubercunts like Xavi, Reina, Piqué etc.
It’s only a short step then till some cunt mentions his Barca DNA and stuffs a shirt over his head.
Much better if he stays home with the missus, and watches a bit of Midsomer.
However the confidence one gets from a call-up would be great for his game! don’t be selfish but I do admit the competition is fierce, but I don’t see why he shouldn’t get the nod!
I agree, however i would want him to get at least one cap for Spain. His career would always be incomplete if he never gets to represent his national team.
When I think about the Man City and Chelsea game at home, i genuinly feel confident that we will win, and I havent had that feeling in years.
You just feel that players like Arteta, Rosicky, RvP will keep the ship steady and not get countered to pieces like in previous years. Doesn’t hurt that we have the best central defensive partnership we have had in years.
Happy birthday @mikel arteta. I believe so much in this current squad and I know for sure if we can keep all our senior players and get Podolski + Gotze then we will lift a trophy. Per, Arteta + Santos have all been great buys the have brought balance in the team and I think Yossi needs more games he’s equally good.
So goetze is officially the new benzema in arsenal blog world? Cool, you guys just get your hopes up really high for a signing we will never make. Keep mentioning his name on every thread even though it has nothing to do with the topic of discussion.
The new Cahill?
The new falcao?
Maybe we should introduce a gotze 3 day ban?
Gotze has been injured a lot this year. He’s young and small. (Doesn’t mean he’s not good though!) Dortmund aren’t selling. And if they eventually do sell, it will probably be a team like Bayern Munich or Real Madrid as buyers.
Hazard, though, is a different story. Although it really doesn’t look like he’s coming to Arsenal unless it’s for a year or two to up his value even more.
I agree. From this point on, mentioning the name goetze earns one a three day ban.
Goetze would be a good signing, but we don’t need him really, we’ve got enough quality in midfield now. We still need Theo and Alex to resign their contracts, though.
I’d also agree we shouldn’t speculate too much about players until we’re at least on the verge of signing them – for instance, Lu-Lu-Lukas is probable now, so we can salivate over him a bit more. But Goetze, Hazard, M’Vila are all unlikely, I’m afraid.
Arteta For Arsenal…It was all a dream….Thankful.
Struggling to remember a season like this one.
Some real shit days and weekends, but then you look at some of the performances put in by individuals, at times they’ve been fantastic.
Arteta is right up there with the best of them for me this year. Neat and tidy, knows when to go forward and when to cover. Keeps it simple and keeps it moving.
A top drawer signing who should finish his career a Gooner.
How about one of the other recent seasons when we stumbled to get into fourth place? 2008-2009? You even had vociferous booing directed at a substitute and, by extension, the manager and his transfer policies.
It’s funny how ‘Spaniard’ when referring to Arteta sounds so much more like the Russel Crowe Gladiator ‘Spaniard’ than when used to refer to Manuel Almunia
He is the consumate professional, cannot help but love this guy. And his game isn’t built on speed, so I think he still has 4-5 solid years left in him at least.
The most amazing thing about this team is that almost every character brings something different to the table, invariably leading to cliches like ‘Alex Song’s role’, ‘Arteta role’, just to mention a few. Infact now most Arsenal fans dont talk about attacking or defensive midfield roles again. Thanks guys for carving a niche by more than a dint of hardwork. Long may it continue.
Just been watching the match again and Arteta really created some great moments . He speaks about his family being there and wanting to score for them.. they should be made to turn up every week !!! Arsenal are always a pleasure to watch for me but this recent patch has been fantastic!! WE LOVE THE ARSENAL.. WE DO!!!
Simply put Arteta and Rosicky have been brilliant for us. With Song they make such a great trio.
And it goes on – start thinking about Gibbs coming back and immediately putting in some awesome performances to show why Wenger kept faith. The ox, Theo starting to show consistent threat. So many players deserve a mention for doing the business this latter half of the season. Who do you single out. Kocielny, vermalen, rvp, the awesome sagna, back and instantly stuck in. It’s beautiful. Would love to see Robin getting a rest this weekend. Too soon? He needs one, we’ve got City and Chelsea to play. Would live to think we’d cope without him against qpr same as… Read more »
When you look at what we have to choose from on the bench with forwards, it’s really very, very shocking. Especially compared to how Wenger usually operates. We usually have at least three guys who can legitimately provide a goal scoring threat.
Arteta came here and played in an unfamilar role. Much more defensive than what he was used to at Everton and fitted in without any fuss. Top professional. Top man. Just feel sad that we got him a few seasons too late.
Arteta has developed into a very good player for us. It’s taken time but when the team is more confident as it is now you can really start to appreciate his class. And what a goal, what a strike. We are a great club with some exceptional talent. Let’s hope we can use this platform to push on, cement 3rd and then start thinking about next season and how we can bring some proper silver ware back to the greatest club in London!
Love Mikel Arteta. Would have loved to have him and Cesc in the same team.(I am still hoping Cesc gets bored after another year and comes back)
He’s such a proper lad. My dad has been an Everton fan since he was 5 and always loved to watch him play there, and now when Arteta signed for The Arsenal he got me the blue jersey with his name on it. I was lucky to see him play at Stamford Bridge last year when Everton beat Chelski in the FA Cup, what a game that was! Everton equalizing in the 119th minute and Cashley Cole missing a pelanty, we couldn’t have asked for more. Mik will always be in high regards at my home, and finally a happy… Read more »
My birthday is the same as Arteta and sometimes my friend put Arteta when they call me. I’m really honored. He really is someone who can be look up to when the team need guidance.
[…] that we did. And he urged his teammates not to think the recent run of form means the job is done, saying: If anyone thinks it’s all done now, then they are making a big mistake. We can’t take our foot […]
[…] that we did. And he urged his teammates not to think the recent run of form means the job is done, saying: If anyone thinks it’s all done now, then they are making a big mistake. We can’t take our foot […]
Arteta is class. The way he manages himself both on the field and in interviews is an example of the professionalism and dedication Arsenal always seeks from their players.
And while he is a real quality signing, I can’t help but remember that Joey Barton is a complete and massive cunt.