Relationships are built on trust, the agony aunts will tell you, and that is evidently a vital pillar for Mikel Arteta at Arsenal.
The Arsenal manager signed a new contract on Friday, but revealed he was first offered the extension after three straight defeats to Crystal Palace, Brighton and Southampton in April.
“I got emotional,” he said. “That tells me, ‘these guys are serious’. We have the same plans and ambitions, we share the same belief, the same passion, the same level of trust about each other.”
Trust. It was a word he uttered another five times when speaking to the club’s media about his new deal, which runs until the end of the 2024-25 season, and applies to both the players who work under him and the board that watch over him.
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“When you have empathy, when you have trust, when you have a real connection with people, then it’s worth it,” he said. “If I can sense that you trust me and I trust you, our relationship will be much better.”
Relationships in football are never easy, and the trust has waned at Arsenal during their decline from Premier League title contenders to top-four hopefuls.
Their long-term association with Arsene Wenger made it especially difficult for the next man coming in. It’s not you, it’s me, the club may well have told Unai Emery, as they wrestled with their identity and domestic standing when dismissing him in November 2019 after less than 18 months in charge.
As demonstrated recently, Emery has since found his perfect match at Villarreal, while Arsenal opted for the romantic appointment of a former player as his replacement, an everlasting trend that was particularly prominent at the time with Frank Lampard at Chelsea and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer at Manchester United.
The priority, though, was to emulate the trust instilled in Jurgen Klopp at Liverpool, a club which has reaped the benefits of a more patient, project-focused approach. It differs from Chelsea’s hire-and-fire method, which may have served them well but is arguably too volatile to replicate elsewhere.
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By their very nature, projects take time – as is evident at Anfield – and while Arteta stressed last year he does not like to “compare different projects”, there is no shame in wanting to mimic Liverpool’s journey back to silverware. After all, why not?
Summer 2021 was a major phase in this project, with Arteta and technical director Edu drawing up a plan that would eventually see Arsenal boast the youngest starting XIs the Premier League has seen this season.
Arsenal’s youthful starting XIs
Twenty-five of the top 30 most youthful starting XIs have been deployed by Arsenal in the Premier League this season, per transfermarkt.
Most frequently fielding a side averaging 24.7 years old on eight occasions, their youngest line-up averaged 23.8 against Burnley in January:
- Aaron Ramsdale (23 years old)
- Gabriel (24)
- Rob Holding (26)
- Kieran Tierney (24)
- Ben White (24)
- Albert Sambi Lokonga (22)
- Martin Odegaard (23)
- Emile Smith Rowe (21)
- Bukayo Saka (20)
- Gabriel Martinelli (20)
- Alexandre Lacazette (30)
In came Ben White (24), Martin Odegaard (23) and Aaron Ramsdale (23) to immediately push down that average, and after a rocky start to the season that trio – along with Hale End duo Emile Smith Rowe (21) and Bukayo Saka (20) – have become central to Arsenal’s push for the top four.
To call it a rollercoaster would be an understatement, but as it stands Arsenal are in pole position to finish fourth, with three straight wins handing them a two-point advantage over Tottenham with four games remaining.
That gap could soon stretch to five points because Spurs travel to Liverpool on Saturday before Arsenal host Leeds on Sunday. What follows is a crucial north London derby on 12 May, and if the expected results come through this weekend, Arsenal could confirm fourth at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Thursday.
That remains a distant prospect given Leeds are the next hurdle to overcome, but the timing of Arteta’s new deal is no coincidence. Fourth is in their hands, a first Champions League campaign since 2016-17 is within their reach, and the hope is that this contract announcement will act as the ideal motivational tool for the final two weeks of the campaign.
“I think the timing will be perfect, I really believe the message will be a big lift to everyone,” Edu said, with Arteta adding: “They thought the best moment was to do it right now, to give a final push to the team.”
Premier League top-four race
With four games remaining
- 3. Chelsea – Points: 66
- 4. Arsenal – Points: 63
- 5. Tottenham – Points: 61
- Chelsea fixtures: Wolves (h), Leeds (a), Leicester (h), Watford (h)
- Arsenal fixtures: Leeds (h), Spurs (a), Newcastle (a), Everton (h)
- Spurs fixtures: Liverpool (a), Arsenal (h), Burnley (h), Norwich (a)
Both Edu and Arteta addressed the importance of the upcoming summer as well, but for the rebuild to remain on track, it is paramount the club are playing Champions League football next season.
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“We have to be playing in the Champions League,” Arteta stressed. “We have to be able to evolve the team, improve our players, improve all departments, generate even more connection with our fans, improve the atmosphere at the Emirates, be able to recruit top, top talent and the best people for this club to drive this project to that level.”
That is a substantial to-do list, and while the next fortnight will define the pace of this project, Arteta now knows he has the time, and trust, to try and achieve these targets regardless of this season’s outcome.
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