Mikel Arteta is unsure whether he’s brought the ‘fun’ back to Arsenal but he is adamant that his players must recognise what a privilege it is to wear the club’s colours.
After the New Year’s Day 2-0 win over Manchester United, defensive duo Sokratis and David Luiz both hinted that the mood in the camp had improved since the Spaniard became head coach.
Some interpreted their comments as a pop at former coach Unai Emery – a stickler for long video analysis sessions – while others have said it could be down to having instructions relayed more clearly.
On rejoining the Gunners, Arteta revealed that he was determined to enjoy his life in football as a coach having not fully appreciated his time as a player. He’s urged his players to take stock of their situation and to enjoy themselves while they represent Arsenal.
“I don’t know [if I’ve brought the fun back], I try to bring good energy, good spirit and trying to be positive with them that there’s still a long way to play in this league,” he said.
“I’m trying to give them clarity and direction and to play football and enjoy this profession. That’s the reason why they are here.
“They are such privileged boys to be playing for this football club and they have to realise it every day.
“We have to help them to realise that they are here to have fun as well, not just to have pressure and to live with fear about playing in that stadium. When you get the crowd going, they are so privileged to be on that pitch.”
Speaking ahead of Monday’s game with Leeds United, Arteta also said that he wants his players challenging for honours in the second half of the season.
The Gunners may be languishing in mid-table in the Premier League but the Europa League and FA Cup both represent opportunities to build momentum and win over fans.
The latter competition could be seen as something of a red herring given our desire to get back in the Champions League, but it means a lot to Arteta who twice collected medals at Wembley in 2014 and 2015.
“Absolutely [it means a lot],” he said. “That final day of the season at Wembley and the memories that I’ve got with this football club… We have to be challenging for the cups and we’ll try to do that again this season.
He added: “I would like to have more fit players so I can rotate more, but we will see what we have after tomorrow.
“But obviously it is a competition that is very attached to this football club in recent years and we have to take to very seriously and we have to try to go to the next round.”
When he was appointed, Arteta said that he has to convince people (fans, players, media) that he’s the right man for the job even though he has no managerial experience. I think he is convincing very nicely 🙂
I heard that Arteta’s Native American name is Silver Tongue.
It seems Arteta has been taking private lessons from Mr. Wenger. What a great speaker he was, always entertained and his view that football should be played as art not as heavy metal junk.
This man knows how to push every button! Go on Mikel, tell them!
He’s really going all out with those buttons
Yeah that is the key, we need players to rotate or else the likelihood of injury increases – perhaps get a couple of squad players in January, dependable guys who can do a job well but might not be considered regular first team players? When he played for us, Edu was a good example of that IMO
It is a privilege to have you as a coach.
Such an intelligent man.
Such an articulate and intelligent football man. How we ended choosing Emery over Arteta in 2018, I’ll never understand.
I blame PowerPoint 2016 and that auto design feature…Emery must’ve polished his slides!
While i dont think you are wrong, i think history will help see that even if Emery didn’t work everything needed to happen in its right succession. The short distance between arteta and the wenger eras has somehow been vital for us to understand what we love about the club, how the churn of late wenger mistakes needed the right energy to rectify and to settle our minds to look at the future. Yes this was all accidental and the board dont deserve much credit but i think now is the Arteta time and before may not have been.
I think Emery stole Arteta’s presentation slides. There’s a reason Artrta is doing all that Emery claimed he will. Emery might be a nice human but he was a football fraud.
A man who wins 3 Europa Leagues is not a fraud. Unai didn’t understand the PL and he didn’t understand how big Arsenal are…simple.
Unai’s team were never entertaining rather just effective. Arsenal fans have been spoilt by the Wenger teams
He won those at the expense of League Position. Not exactly the most sustainable way of running football clubs.
I fucking love this man. I’ve been in a week-long swoon where I listen to every press conference and every pronouncement that comes out of his mouth.
Wenger’s rightful heir.
Anybody else feel me?
He’s definitely wenger’s rightful hair. I’ll grab my coat..
Lego get your coat
The more i hear him the more i like him
And its Arsenal,
Arsenal FC
Arteta is gonna make us the greatest team,
The world has ever seen…
Arseblog app is a crash machine but I can’t delete yet because Arteta. I’ll have to if it isn’t fixed soon enough though. Why hasn’t it been fixed? It’s been going on for too long! Is it because no one reads crash feedbacks? ?
Bit of respect, jaysus every site experiences technical difficulties from time to time. Complaining about fantastic, hilarious, up to date news about the club we adore just because of a few server issues is childish.
Keep on being the best Andrew, much love.
Hi, sorry you’re having problems with the app. It’s the developers who handle that kind of feedback, not me, but I’ll see if they’re on top of this stuff.
Thank you! I’ll take one for the team and have you know. Better that than letting those developers sit on their hands while gunners and arseblog faithfuls like myself, living in remote parts of the world with just a phone and a shred of network every now and then, struggle to be a part of this very special moment.
Yes, the fun is back. We know that we will not win every game but we totally enjoy this kind of game. We are behind you. Win, lose or draw.
Yep, so long they keep making seriously genuine efforts to win matches (like we have seen so far). Legit Support!
Gud ebening
An FA cup would be amazing this year given how horribly things have gone up to now. Step one, don’t get relegated. Step two, try to win some trophies. Step three, do as well as possible in the league while recognizing top 4 is probably gone for another year.
Dude, I swear, every time Arteta speaks I get goosebumps/pimples. So impressed with him thus far!
As I listen to Artetas message about players should consider it a privelege to play for Arsenal, I as a fan realize that I should be proud to be an Arsenal supporter. And that we actually should show pride in supporting the Arsenal.
Well done so far, keep the enthusiasm and energy up with the players and the fans are up there with you Arteta, be bold and if a player starts been difficult remind them of the greatness of this club
Arsene has Arsenal DNA in 5 out of 6 letters in his own name.
Arteta has Arsenal in 4 out 6 letters of his FAMILY name.
Good times ahead 🙂
You mean 6 out of 6:
The Arsenal.?
I’m sure someone’s already mentioned this, but the FA Cup winner qualifies for Champions’ League.