I have not always been a fan of Mikel Arteta, the manager. In earlier years of his reign at Arsenal, I thought his touchline histrionics absurd, vainglorious and thoroughly self-defeating. It felt as if his behaviour spread a lack of composure amongst his players when the pressure was on.
The same applied to his habit of blaming referees for Arsenal defeats, although he was hardly alone among his contemporaries in indulging that reflex. There were some glaring gaps in recruitment, too, particularly in attack. I wasn’t convinced he had what it takes to turn the club around.
The truth is that Arteta proved me wrong some time ago. The truth is he proved everyone who doubted him wrong some time ago. The truth, actually, is that as Arsenal edge ever closer to their first league title in 22 years, Arteta deserves way more credit for the job he has done at the Emirates than he is getting.
What Arteta has achieved at the Emirates is not an accident. He is not a passenger borne along by a current. He has directed the current. He is the architect of this team and it is down to him that they are carrying a nine-point lead into the last seven games of the Premier League season.
He is beaten with the stick that Arsenal have finished the last three seasons as runners-up but the fact that he has persisted, that he has been able to maintain the hunger and the belief of his players, that he has built and built the squad and that he has retained their faith, says an awful lot about his human qualities, too.
It is time to give him the respect he is due. He has turned Arsenal from a team that was derided for its lack of mental and physical strength into a side that will not be bullied by anyone. He has turned them from a team that was mocked, unfairly, for being ‘chokers’ and ‘bottlers’ into a side that has refused to wilt.
Mikel Arteta deserves way more credit for the job he has done at the Emirates than he is getting
In earlier years of his reign at Arsenal, his touchline histrionics were absurd, vainglorious and thoroughly self-defeating. But he has matured since then
Chaos and confusion can envelop a club when a patriarch leaves; uncertainty still grips Manchester United 13 years after Sir Alex Ferguson retired. At Arsenal, Arteta’s strength of character, tactical acumen, man-management and fierce commitment have led his club out of the shadow cast by the trauma of Arsene Wenger’s departure and back into the sunlight.
He has cast off the past and changed the psychology of his club. Damn him with faint praise if you want and stick to the flawed narrative that Arsenal will be ugly champions if you need to but achieving what Arteta is on the brink of achieving is a Herculean task and a feat worthy only of our admiration.
All the more so because so many are still consumed by a strange kind of naked desperation for Arsenal to fail. That desperation seems to centre on Arteta more than any of his players, as if he has become a lightning rod for the schadenfreude of opposing fans and they cannot bear the idea that he is going to have the last laugh.
Maybe that stemmed, initially, from his touchline antics. But Arteta has matured since then. He may still have moments of volatility. Everyone does. But he sets a different, more considered, example now. He transmits a different message to his side.
I suggested that to him six weeks ago, when Arsenal were enduring a slight wobble and were about to visit the cauldron of Elland Road to play in-form Leeds United. Arteta thought it was couched as criticism and shot me a death-stare as the next question was being asked but the fact remains that, like all the best bosses, he has evolved as a manager.
If Arsenal win the league, they will be worthy champions. They may not be a swashbuckling side in the manner of the Manchester United Treble winners of 1998-99 or the Manchester City team of 2017-18 that had Kevin De Bruyne, David Silva, Bernardo Silva and Ilkay Gundogan as its star components.
But Arteta has built a team with different virtues. This side has flair, too. How can a team that features Bukayo Saka, Martin Odegaard and Declan Rice be condemned as sterile? But it is also, just as Jose Mourinho’s first championship-winning Chelsea side was, a team anchored in brilliant defence.
It was a thrill to me to watch the indomitability of John Terry and Ricardo Carvalho at the heart of that Chelsea defence. And it is a thrill to see the destructive relentlessness of Gabriel and the elegant interventions of William Saliba at the heart of this Arsenal back four. Beauty in football takes many different forms and Arteta’s Arsenal have plenty of it.
How can a team that has the energy of Declan Rice in it be condemned as sterile?
It was brave of Arteta to bring on 16-year-old Max Dowman on Saturday – but the youngster changed the game in Arsenal’s favour
It is a thrill to see the destructive relentlessness of Arsenal defender Gabriel
You can do with statistics what you want. Arsenal may well be set-piece experts, which is nothing to be ashamed of, but they have also scored more goals from open play than any team in the Premier League, apart from City. Both the goals they scored to beat Everton at the weekend came from open play.
And how about this for a rebuttal to the idea that Arteta is a safety-first guy, hamstrung by caution: with just over a quarter of an hour left of Saturday’s game against Everton, the scores deadlocked at 0-0, Arteta brought off holding midfielder Martin Zubimendi and substituted him with a 16-year-old.
Max Dowman is a special player but not every manager would have the courage to bring on someone so young and so untested. The gamble paid off handsomely. Dowman’s introduction changed the mood of the crowd and Dowman’s brilliance changed the game.
He provided the cross that led to Arsenal’s first goal and then, deep in stoppage time, with Everton goalkeeper Jordan Pickford out of his goal, he ran from deep in his own half, evading two despairing Everton challenges, to slide the ball into the empty net.
Dowman became the youngest player to score in the English top-flight for 42 years. It was a landmark, not just for a wonderful prospect, but for a manager who is holding his nerve and providing an example of decisive leadership as he guides his team closer to making history of their own.
Chelsea should forget the pathetic huddle and focus on the football
For all the fuss about Chelsea’s habit of gathering around the centre spot before a match for their huddle, the problem is that whatever it is intended to achieve quite plainly does not work.
The Chelsea huddle, a ritual conceived by the club’s ‘cultural architect’, is clearly not working
It is, apparently, a ritual conceived by the club’s ‘cultural architect’ – excuse me while I throw up – to show respect to the ball.
If it could encourage Wesley Fofana to be bothered to break out of a jog while Anthony Gordon was sprinting past him for Newcastle’s winning goal on Saturday, then maybe it might be worth persisting with it. But all the evidence suggests Fofana only travels fast when he’s on the hard shoulder of the A3.
The last thing that Chelsea boss Liam Rosenior needs, frankly, is a puerile distraction that is not of his own making.
Chelsea’s cultural architect might want to concentrate on doing something that helps the team instead of persisting with a pathetic gimmick that is turning it into a laughing stock.
