After taking charge of Arsenal at the end of December,
Mikel Arteta swiftly established a sense of routine. Having spent the first couple of
months in rented accommodation, he then moved his family into a home en route between the
training ground at London Colney and the Emirates stadium.
At the start of each day, Arteta receives training data and fitness information on his
phone. On a typical morning pre-coronavirus, his staff would arrive at the training ground
at around 7.30am for breakfast. They’d then meet in Arteta’s office to go over the morning’s
training session, having made a plan the previous day.
The doctor would update the staff on any medical issues or concerns, before the players arrive
at 9.45am to prepare. There are pre-training meetings with individuals or positional units
before the team congregate at 11am, to be led through clips and key messages by Arteta.
They train, and then there are more meetings with individuals or smaller groups. The players
leave and the coaches set about planning the next day’s session.
During lockdown, that routine needed to be redrawn. Arteta and his assistants remained
in touch with every senior squad member, setting tactical tasks such as analysing entire matches
or specific clips, while Head of Performance Shad Forsythe co-ordinated the delivery of
fitness equipment and bespoke training programmes to the players at their homes. Online yoga
sessions were also set up, which the likes of Hector Bellerin, Rob Holding and Bukayo
Saka took part in.
His two assistants have quickly established roles: Steve Round is more focused on trying
to establish an elite culture and helping Arteta navigate the personal relationships
that come with the job. While Albert Stuivenberg’s emphasis is more on the tactical and technical
side.
Arteta is someone interested in diverse thinking: during lockdown, he was part of online webinars
with Los Angeles Rams coach Sean McVay, England rugby union boss Eddie Jones and even a US
military general who served in Afghanistan. He’s keen to broaden his perspective.
He is also trying to change the way Arsenal play, particularly out from the back. Previously,
they merely passed the ball around, often before they came under any pressure. Now,
they are under instruction to commit an opposition player before making a pass, thus taking a
man out of the game. During the lockdown, the goalkeepers were also asked to pay specific
attention to their starting position, as Arteta also intends to involve them more in that
evolution.
Changes are occurring around him, too. In the final few years of Wenger’s reign, there
was a squad planning committee comprised of Wenger, chief executive Ivan Gazidis, negotiator
Dick Law, and scouts Steve Rowley and Francis Cagigao.
Arteta has less autonomy than Wenger had. He joins Edu Gaspar, Huss Fahmy, Raul Sanllehi,
and Vinai Venkatesham in the current committee, sometimes with the scouting department involved,
too. The key difference is that It’s the club who determine which positions Arsenal
will target, with Arteta’s input mainly to do with suitability: if Arsenal require
a new full-back, what sort of full-back suits his purposes?
Sometimes, a deal will present itself through the executive team’s contact-led approach.
In the case of Cedric Soares, who was signed in January, elements of the deal were already
in place and all that was required was Arteta’s approval. Fortunately, he and the wider recruitment
team have a shared view of what constitutes an Arsenal player: someone comfortable in
possession, who can help Arteta dictate the game.
But the most significant changes being pursued are internal. Arteta was an appointment made
with the club’s culture in mind.
There is also a conviction to Arteta that inspires belief. It was present in the rousing
speech he gave ahead of the victory over Manchester United on New Year’s Day, in the peptalk
he have Reiss Nelson on the touchline at the Vitality Stadium, and in the public disciplining
and subsequent dropping of Matteo Guendouzi after a misdemeanour in Dubai.
In a squad meeting on June 12, Arteta looked his players in the eyes and told them the
club needed a change in attitude. That was followed up with a progressive team selection
for the trip to Manchester City on June 17th, which clearly rewarded attitude and application
shown during the preparatory sessions for the restart. Or lack of it.
It’s suggestive of a human focus. Any coach in the modern game has to confront the challenge
of balancing the different personalities in the dressing room. Not everybody is as committed,
as confident, or as quick to learn. But tolerant as he is of those differences, there are lines
that Arteta won’t tolerate being crossed.
In the week prior to the restart, in the second and final warm-up game at the Emirates, Arsenal
eased off and were beaten by Brentford, with footage of the sloppy goals conceded being
shared widely on social media. The nature of certain performances left Arteta angry
and, while the result didn’t matter, he was quick to verbalise his disappointment.
Those who don’t share his commitment to the highest standards won’t be at Arsenal
for long.
So, he demands utter professionalism, but he is not without a sense of humour. The players
tend not to use the term “boss”, which was the traditional greeting for Arteta’s
predecessors. Now it’s “Mister” or even “Mikel” and, in recent months, the club’s
code of conduct has seen a playful new addition, imported from Manchester City: The Wheel of
Fortune.
If a player commits a minor indiscretion, such as being late for a team meeting, they
must spin the wheel and risk a range of forfeits, ranging from modest fines to cleaning the
dressing room, or even having to polish the captain’s car.
The way he presents his ideas with immediate clarity has been appreciated. Arteta’s personality
shone through from day one. He did the rounds, introducing himself with strong fundamental
messages, those non-negotiables he expresses with no room for misunderstanding. Nobody
could miss the main points about how he likes things done — with a mix of positivity,
drive and determination. He made the kind of impression that makes people around a club
want to work for him.
And the leadership at Arsenal certainly feel they have made the right decision. The club’s
director Josh Kroenke had several conversations with Arteta before interviewing him in person
and, now, stays in regular touch with his head coach via WhatsApp and FaceTime.
“When Mikel and I sat down one-on-one to talk about him coming to Arsenal, he walked
me through things that he’d seen on the pitch and took me through several things he
would like to implement from a coaching standpoint,” Kroenke told The Athletic. “But really
what we spoke about was club culture and setting a new tone.
“It’s going to take some time — we’ve got a long road ahead of us”, he acknowledges, “but the culture is changing.”