The end of the 2021-22 season may have been painful for Arsenal and their loyal fans, but the fact that this team has developed a new mindset is a big plus for Mikel Arteta and his boys.
The new season has brought us new excitement, new players, and new strategies. For Arsenal Football Club, it’s the new mentality. At the moment, the Gunners are at the top of the table, one point ahead of high-flying and title favourite Manchester City. The disappointment of not getting into the Champions League spots last season after losing to bitter rivals Tottenham Hotspur and Newcastle United. Arsenal was ahead of Tottenham until matchday 36, but they lost the most important game against the enemy and fell even further after a lacklustre performance against Newcastle at St. James Park.
The players have turned their disappointments from last season into motivation to do better this year. In the first nine games, Arsenal has only lost once and won all the remaining games.
TOUGH YEARS FOR ARSENAL F.C
Something feels very different watching this Arsenal team. Arsenal in the past seasons have endured long spells of good forms but every fan knew in their heart that the side is just one defeat away from falling like a pack of cards.
It was the game against Watford in 2016–17, when the Gunners were only three points behind Chelsea for the title. A shocking loss led to a run of six losses and a draw in the next ten games, and they dropped out of the Champions League spots for the first time since 1997–98. Arsene Wenger left the club after a disappointing 2017–18 season, and Unai Emery took over right after a very successful time in Paris. It was looking like Unai was going to have a great season. His team was in fourth place and had made it to the UEFA Europa League Final. But when they lost to Everton again, the players gave up, and the club finished fifth, one point behind Tottenham. They also lost the Europa League final to London rivals Chelsea.
Mikel Arteta was appointed in December 2019 as the head coach of Arsenal and he managed to temporarily stabilize the club by winning the FA Cup beating Chelsea and Manchester City in the finals and semifinals of the competition but the problems in the league kept on persisting. Arsenal hierarchy kept their trust in Arteta even after two back-to-back eighth-place finishes. And the Spaniard repaid their faith in him. The Gunners kept improving their squad and in 2021-22, Arteta’s vision for the club was starting to show on the pitch.
THE TURNAROUND
All the qualities of the peak Arsene Wenger teams were starting to reflect even in Mikel’s teams. As Wenger himself described, “My vision is that normally you need to win and win with style.” He put a lot of emphasis on coming up with new tactics and finding young, hungry players who were willing to give it their all on the pitch.
Aside from the first three games, Arsenal has been quite good on the field. Even when they lost, there were always some positives to be found on this squad. The club was doing admirably, anchored by the youthful trio of Bukayo Saka, Smith Rowe, and Aaron Ramsdale. They were once again in pole position to qualify for the Champions League.
But there were still some signs of the old team in the new one. Football fans like to take out the time and ridicule Gary Neville (due to his unsuccessful stint as a manager in Spain) but he was bang on the prediction that Tottenham Hotspur will end up taking the last spot in UEFA Champions League. He said that the lack of experience in Arsenal’s team was a key reason why he was making this prediction. He was right, too! Arsenal lost the very important North London Derby and the game against Newcastle. This put them behind Spurs and in the second tier of European soccer.
Arsenal could have shrunk and taken a step back after such heartache but instead the backroom staff at Arsenal along with their manager set to make out important additions that would take the club forward than last year. Even the players came back to pre-season with fire inside them as Aaron Ramsdale told,
“The experiences at the end last season are adding to our team spirit and mentality. It’s not just the lads who have come in who have brought this winning mentality. We all have the fire burning inside [us] because of what happened at the end of last season. The day I returned to pre-season, I came back and the standard of training had increased. People are demanding more of each other, training is a lot more competitive and there is definitely a mood swing when you lose. There were always certain people who were upset when losing in training, but now it is a collective. The team spirit is really, really strong.”
The club made early contacts with Gabriel Jesus and secured his services very early on and then in came Oleksandr Zinchenko with him on the final days of the window. The two Manchester City stars brought plenty of winning experience with them to their new club and Ole looks like a leader on the pitch right away. Mikel’s hard work of instilling this mentality is now paying off.
THE FANS BECOME THE TWELFTH MAN
Arsenal fans have had a bad relationship with their club for many years. From mass protests to get Arsene Wenger to step down as the club’s manager to blaming the Kroenke family for the club’s problems and booing their players after bad games, fans have done it all. Now, that relationship seems to have been fixed, and they are giving their team their full support.
Last week, as soon as Harry Kane tied the game with a penalty kick in the North London derby, no one groaned or booed anymore. Instead, the fans helped their team get back in the lead, which has happened a lot this season. If this year’s games against Villa and Fulham had happened last year, they would have drawn or lost both of them. However, that is not the case this year.
Even Ramsdale admitted, “Anytime something has happened this season – like Fulham, Leicester when we concede a goal – it is like we have scored with the noise the fans are making, it gives us a boost. It is a never-say-die attitude, the way I would word it is an “Eff it mentality”, ‘who cares we have conceded? We have got 10 minutes, 70 minutes, we will play our way. We never run out of time. That is the big thing for us and the manager, we don’t stop working.”
Have a fun afternoon everyone. pic.twitter.com/ikeHaDVjX9
— Charles Watts (@charles_watts) October 1, 2022
Songs on new star boy William Saliba were on full display as they dispatched their North London rivals 3-1.
While Arsenal might lead the league with 24 points ahead of title favorites Manchester City who after the addition of Erling Haaland could look like they might wrap the league earlier than they have ever done, Arteta and Arsenal both seem to be aware that there is a long way to go this season and no-one is getting carried away by the start they have made even if they are the most likely challenger to City’s throne this year.
