As the overused slander goes, ‘Arsenal are like an elephant on top of a tree. Nobody knows how it got there, but be certain in the fact that it will eventually fall.’
For the most part of the last couple of decades that would have held some semblance of truth in it.
But, then in came the Gunners’ former skipper with the Arsenal DNA in his veins, Mikel Arteta, whose love for the London club in no secret. The Spanish midfielder who took a shine to the tactical side of the game, not a surprise when you hail from the nation with one of the most poetic approach to the beautiful game, as he learnt from arguably the greatest tactical mind of the generation, Pep Guardiola.
While Gunners icon Thierry Henry might be of the opinion that the master will always
be ahead of the student following City’s EFL Cup title win over Arteta’s Arsenal, the Premier League table reads different.
While City play catch-up to the table-toppers, Arsenal have redefined what it mean to the best club in the unforgiving English top-flight. And it can be pinned down to the unyielding resolve as the former Everton man, Arteta, made it his goal to end Arsenal’s PL drought.
Arteta arrived at Arsenal after his stint under Guardiola under City, while the Gunners found the ideal replacement for then manager Unai Emery, who was sacked midway through his tenure at the club as club legend Freddie Ljungberg stepped in as interim. But the permanent role was trusted to Arteta, who revolutionised the languishing Gunners with his ideals and pragmatic approach to the English top-flight.
As Arsenal fans would attest, the task in front of Arteta was daunting to say the least as he sought to deliver glory back to the Londoners who had to endure their neighbours go on a trophy-spree.
Arteta instilled a culture at the club, which resonated belief, placing them at the top of the chain, in his own players’ mind first, and eventually went on to actualise it. The Spaniard made the tough call to show some of the senior players past their prime the exit door as he set out on a journey to reinvigorate the Gunners, who could guarantee a UCL spot and fight with the top dogs in the league.
Arteta, who clinched the FA Cup with the Gunners in his debut season, might have gone without a piece of silverware since, but the work he has done to replenish the Arsenal, who were once considered a team in their banter era, to vie for the crown, missing out on a couple of occasion to his former mentor Guardiola and the new Dutchman in the English landscape, Arne Slot, who inherited Kop icon Jurgen Klopp’s battle-hardened Merseyside unit.
While it seemed as though slot had managed to pull off the smoothest transition in PL history at the fabled club, between switching managers, the frailty of the Liverpudlian club have come to the fore this season as Slot comes to grips with the realities of English football.
Guardiola, too, who had to cope with his struggles in life off the field, has managed to bolt things down on the personal scene before going on to challenge for the PL gold, which he has achieved more times than not since his arrival on English shores.
All that being said, Arteta’s biggest win since taking the helm of his beloved Arsenal is belief that the Gunners can indeed cut it at the top of the Premier League despite the Catalan genius’ best efforts to hunt his protege down.
And with the current crop of players the Gunners boast, it wouldn’t be a surprise if a PL crown at the end of the ongoing campaign paves way for a sequence of title for the Arsenal.
