Eight straight wins. Six clean sheets in October. A four-point lead at the top of the Premier League. Unbeaten in Europe. Into the quarter-finals of the Carabao Cup. All achieved with minimal fuss despite several key players out injured.
Arsenal have momentum on their side. But as Arsène Wenger once said, “Confidence goes up in stairs… but down in a lift.” The message from Mikel Arteta to his players is clear – keep the pedal down, stay focused, don’t take your eye off the ball, remain switched on, and maintain standards. Or words to that effect.
Ahead of three away games in seven days, starting at promoted Burnley tomorrow, the manager outlined what he wants to see:
“Maintain the level of urgency, the concentration, the focus, the ambition that we are showing every game.
“Every game brings different challenges, sometimes we have to be very patient, some other times we have to have a different approach.
“The game against Burnley is going to be really tough. They are extremely well-coached, I know Scott [Parker] really well and what he’s done with the club and with this team, it’s formidable, and when you look at all the games that I’ve seen, five of the last games that they played, a very, very tough team to beat.”
In a change from the norm, all three promoted clubs – Burnley, Sunderland (next weekend’s opponents) and Leeds (perennial scumbags) – have made strong starts to life back in the top flight. Arteta says it underlines how competitive the Premier League has become.
“More than ever, I think the level is increasing year after year. Better structure, better organisation, better decision-making from clubs, managers, better players, so it tells you the difficulty of that.
“When I look against big teams, the way [the promoted clubs] have behaved and how they have earned points or lost points, it’s from very small margins and that’s the reality in this league.”
With the team in fine form and a settled starting XI emerging, Arteta’s biggest challenge may now be keeping morale high among those not playing regularly.
Many of the fringe players featured in Wednesday’s Carabao Cup win over Brighton, but the manager admits managing expectations is always a delicate balance. Still, he wouldn’t call it the hardest part of his job.
“No, I cannot say that. It is the worst part in terms of the decision with certain players when you don’t allow them to play, which is the hardest part in our job. But they acknowledge that as well and at the end, when they make decisions, some good, some bad, I’m not judging every decision that they make, we cannot do that. So the other way around, this cannot happen.
“At the moment, we are dealing with it in a really positive way, and you can see the consequences of that in the impact that every player that is not playing is having, and when they have to play, the way they are performing, and you only do that with good preparation and good mental state.”
Asked whether the entire squad is giving him something to think about with their performances in training, Arteta said:
“That’s what we want to create. If you want to get the best out of all of them, those standards have to be set in training, and if you don’t have that in training, it’s very difficult to replicate it during matches.
“So it’s the balance between the competition and cooperation between the players as well to understand their role on the day and what they have to do, but I love that spirit.”
And on managing player expectations, he continued:
“Well it’s an education that you probably get since you are young and you decide to play football. You know that there are 11 players playing and then another 10 or 12 that are not going to start the game, that doesn’t mean they are not going to be important for the team.
“So hopefully that’s an education that all of us got with the right coaches very early in our careers. If I have to do that right now, obviously it will be difficult, and just try to do it with an open heart, understanding that you care about them and you want the best and they will have their moments and then try to be as fair as possible when you see certain behaviours and that willingness to play, give them the opportunity to play.”
For some of the younger players, it’s Arteta himself providing that early-stage education. On Wednesday, he fielded four teenagers – debutants Max Dowman and Andre Harriman-Annous, alongside last year’s breakout stars Ethan Nwaneri and Myles Lewis-Skelly.
When it comes to managing Academy stars and graduates, he says, in time, they will come to understand that lessons can be taken from good news and bad.
“When you’re delivering good news, it’s so easy and it’s so wonderful, and you get an incredible reaction but we have to be prepared in our job to give other kinds of news and messages sometimes.
“It is for the best for the team and maybe not for the best for the individual, but you never know because some decisions that, at the time, you think are not good for you, they become the best decisions for your career, and I’ve experienced that myself. So, take them, make the most out of them and we’ll see what happens the next day.”
If leaving players on the bench occasionally leads to awkward conversations, Arteta wouldn’t have it any other way. After last summer’s transfer window closed, he knew squad depth would be tested – and it was. By the time Arsenal reached the Champions League semi-finals, the bench had an inanimate carbon rod challenging Raheem Sterling for game time.
He, therefore, has no complaints about managing a big, talented group.
“I’ve been part of that. When I was here at Arsenal [as a player], we had an incredible squad. When I was at Manchester City [as a coach] and you could pick two or three players per position, Chelsea or Liverpool, when they were winning, they all had it. We don’t do anything special, and thank God we have it [depth] because we have five or six players out, big players out, and we are having to use other kinds of solutions as well and the team remains competitive.
“So, it’s very necessary. I don’t think you get away at that level with anything else other than that.”
The post “We are dealing with it in a really positive way” – Arteta on managing his big squad appeared first on Arseblog News – the Arsenal news site.
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