Kolkata: From bottom of the Premier League in 2021 to champions on Tuesday, few clubs would know the twin imposters of disaster and triumph better than Arsenal. From calls to sack him after a 0-5 defeat against Manchester City less than five years ago to the banner at Emirates on Monday that simply said, “Mikel knows,” it has been some journey for the manager who has matured with his team and delivered a first Premier League title for the club in 22 years.
For those who cared to look, the signs were there. Mikel Arteta’s team ended 2021-22 in fifth place. Trusted by Arsenal’s American owners, Arteta had by then left no one in doubt about who was boss by letting go of Pierre Emerick-Aubameyang and Mesut Oezil. Three successive second-place finishes thereafter did not mar his men, it moulded them. Knocked off the top spot after 270 days, Arteta said the next five matches were a mini-league. Lacking the relentlessness that made them serial winners, Manchester City stuttered; Arsenal found a way to win four.
As a former captain, Arteta gets the club. As Pep Guardiola’s deputy at City, Arteta, the only former player to have won the Premier League as manager, he had seen the disconnect between the fans and the team towards the end of Arsene Wenger’s years. A rebuild was needed on and off the pitch.
Head first, Arteta dived into the project. Arsenal revamped the scouting department – 55 redundancies during Covid-19 made for terrible optics but the club were unfazed – began recruiting only players under 23 and who cost less than €40m and looked for talent from their academy.
Ahead of Monday’s match, Arteta had spoken of empty seats during City’s 3-0 win weeks before he joined. On his urging, Emirates has transformed into an intimidating cauldron, one where fans are asked to bring lunches to be at the ground hours before an early kick-off. Atletico Madrid found out how difficult Emirates has become as a venue, ditto Burnley.
The word circulating most at the club when Arteta joined in December 2019 was toxic. So, he got an olive tree dating back to 1886 (the year of Arsenal’s birth, no coincidences there) at the club. Nurture it through storm and snow, he said, the broader message being: look after Arsenal in difficult times. A chocolate Labrador was got to Arsenal’s training ground. Her name? Win. He got pick-pockets to a team dinner who took away players’ belonging. The message: be alert, always.
Declan Rice’s clarion call that it was not done yet after the league loss to City knocked Arsenal off the top spot for the first time this season was as much a top player exhorting his mates to not give up as it was being part of an environment where winning is the minimum requirement. On Tuesday, as Arsenal players watched City’s 1-1 draw at Bournemouth, Rice posted on Instagram that “it’s done.”
Rice clocked the most minutes for an Arsenal outfield player. He took corner-kicks (more on that later), played in front of the defence and as No.8. He had four goals and six assists in a team whose goal contributions came from all over the pitch. Defenders Jurrien Timber and Gabriel Magalhaes have five and four assists respectively with Martin Odegaard and Leandro Trossard topping the list on six. Twelve players had more than one assist.
The season that was supposed to be about Alexander Isak helping Liverpool defend their title became one in which Viktor Gyokeres got noticed. He scored 14 goals but equally important was Bukayo Saka and Eberechi Eze getting seven each, Trossard six, Martin Zubimendi five and four from Mikel Merino before a foot injury ruled him out in January.
Knowing that Arsenal could not match City’s ability to score from open play, Arteta and his set-piece coach Nicolas Jover have been focusing on free-kicks and corner-kicks after the latter moved from City in 2021. There were conversations with former referee Howard Webb as to what can and cannot be done in the penalty area. This term, Arsenal have scored a league record 19 goals from corner-kicks.
And there were the clean sheets from David Raya, 19 of them, a first for Arsenal this century, as per Opta. The pull back from the line against Tottenham Hotspur, the save off Diego Gomez against Brighton and Manchester United’s Matheus Cunha stand out in what has been a hattrick of golden-glove seasons. Eight 1-0 wins, three of them after the defeat to City in April, is proof how difficult it has been to break down Arsenal. After the early season loss to Liverpool, Arsenal conceded only two goals in the next 17 matches in all competitions.
Over and above everything, becoming the new mentality monsters of the Premier League took Arsenal over the line. The late equaliser against City, the comeback at Newcastle were among the eight goals Arsenal scored after the 85th minute, their second highest in four seasons as per Statmuse. Time was when Arsenal were wobbly without Odegaard. This time, with greater depth in the squad after eight signings across the pitch in summer and teenagers Max Dowman and Myles Lewis-Skelly stepping up, he missed 14 matches and Arsenal were unbeaten in 11 of them.
Arsenal bounced back with five successive wins after losing to Aston Villa, including a 4-1 win in the reverse fixture. After successive defeats in the League Cup final and the FA Cup quarter-final, Arsenal scraped past Sporting Lisbon and Atletico Madrid to make the Champions League final and turned the league campaign around with a 3-0 win against Fulham. Fittingly, it was inspired by Saka, one of their own academy products.
