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Gunners no longer a joke How Arteta banished the banter era to bring glory back to Arsenal

AFTER a few minutes of hugging and cele brating at the training base in London Colney on Tuesday, when Arsenal had finally been confirmed as champions again, the players just let go. There had already been a few guttural roars from the pure relief of winning. They then all jumped into the swimming pool. Bukayo Saka of course had an inflat able, if not this time a unicorn. Some older staff members were chuckling that this was rather different to how the Premier League-winning squad of 1998 to 2004 celebrated. The point, however, was that they were actually celebrating again. The players did end up going to a club in central London. They’ve very much come of age in other ways, but so has the man ager. Some of the popular jibes about Mikel Arteta won’t work any more. And the story of Arsenal’s 14th title is really the story of how their former cap tain, through a deliberate long-term plan, turned the club from a joke to a serious team again. He ended Arsenal’s “banter era”. If Arteta himself can often seem overly serious, too, those who know the 44-year old stress that one point should always be acknowledged: he is a phenomenally hard worker. Many were happy for him for that alone. Some liken Arteta to the founder of a start-up, and how he can easily work 90 hours in a week without even realising. “He’s an obsessive,” in the words of one source. Another even recalled a comment that Sir Alex Ferguson made at a similar age at Manchester United. “This isn’t just a job to me. It’s a mission.” This has been a mission for Arteta. Arsenal could have benefitted from this zeal even earlier, but for the dysfunction that was so characteristic of the club before Arteta returned. He was lined up to be their manager in 2018, only for the hierarchy to U-turn on Unai Emery very late in the process. Despite Emery’s qualities – which he proved once again when leading Aston Villa to Europa League glory against Freiburg on Thursday, his fifth time win ning that competition, the older Basque was ultimately seen as not right for a club of that size. Arteta sees the wait as having been bet ter for his own career. It is funny how things work out. Arsenal’s transfer window in the sum mer of 2011 is commonly seen as emblem atic of the club’s recent lows, but it may have secured their future. It gave them this manager. That was when Arteta was finally signed from Everton, after initial reservations from Arsene Wenger. From a growing connec tion with the club, Arteta gradually began to see it as his destiny to be Arsenal man ager. Arteta knew his own limitations as a player, but his ability to adapt would pref ace his thinking as a manager. Despite all of this, some of the Arsenal hierarchy were reluctant since it was going to be his first job. On eventually becoming convinced to take a one-hour meeting that ended up becoming four, one executive gave a tell ing comment. “I can see what the fuss is about.” Arteta had given his full idea, blowing them away with his detail and how they could become competitive. Arsenal badly needed someone of such vision, because everything at the club was – in the words of one senior figure – “a chaotic mess”. The dressing room was described as

Bukayo Saka (left) and Gabriel Magalhaes celebrate after Arsenal secured their first Premier League title in 22 years following Man City’s draw with Bournemouth. – @ARSENAL/INSTAGRAM

about them, despite perceptions. Arsenal suffered setbacks – like getting thrashed by Antonio Conte’s Tottenham Hotspur to lose a Champions League place in 2021-22 – only to come back stronger. It would even tually be the same with second-place fin ishes. By August 2022, and a 2-1 home win over Fulham, Arteta felt he finally had the spirit he wanted. There was “an incredible noise” at the stadium. Arsenal still didn’t have the right weap ons, though. Arteta is described as taking the two second places of 2022-23 and 2023 24 very badly. “He was in the basement and it was hard to pull him out of it,” one insider says. A corollary to the hard work was an ele ment of “torturing” himself. Such anguish gradually evolved into deep consideration about what was required, though. Strategy meetings about how you evolve a team soon became strategy meet ings about how you win the Premier League. Process now required end prod uct. Arteta could see how the positional game he had been a devotee of was frac turing, in a Premier League that was becoming more physical. Arsenal found that their attacks were increasingly coming up against massed defences, which resulted in more set pieces, so they had better start practising them. Arteta of course didn’t just want to make his squad physically bigger, but big ger in number. He’d learned the lessons of the expanded 2024-25 campaign. “The bench is what does it for you,” he’d say. The result has been football that not everyone enjoys watching, but that no one likes facing. Arsenal were no longer a joke, or a punchline. They are champions again. – The Independent

Lewis who is viewed as integral to prevent ing that. Lewis, an Arsenal fan who had worked with the Kroenkes for years, felt it was vital to get Arteta in front of the owner. The two flew to Denver, where Arteta explained his football vision and Lewis pointed out how important a competitive team was to the Kroenkes’ own business. It was crucial to getting Arteta that backing but the manager also knew he had to start thinking about things anew him self. A key moment came in July 2021, when he wrote up a five-year plan with. Arteta was well versed in how the average age of a title-winning team was 27 years and three months but that Arsenal couldn’t afford that kind of profile. Their wage bill was a mere £125 million (RM650m), compared to the £300 million (RM1.56b) that Manchester City were win ning the title with. So, Arteta realised he had to do “a Borussia Dortmund”, as it used to be known, and get young players in to build to a proper collective. “That’s the future of Arsenal,” he pronounced. Youth graduates like Saka and Emile Smith-Rowe were immediately elevated. Arteta did wonder whether a long frus trated fanbase would accept this, and the inevitable pain within progress, but real ised the need to sell it as a journey. “Project players” would be targeted and Arteta ensured a good number had a high football intelligence. He wasn’t initially sold on William Saliba but quickly realised what he had. Arteta gradually developed a system that would be known as “the spin drier” – getting the opposition in such a whirl they couldn’t get out – but soon realised the pressing necessary couldn’t have any pas sengers. There was also something resolute

“toxic”, with too many characters who “just didn’t care”. It was described as “a boys’ club” and some of the directors didn’t show much ambition because, ulti mately, they didn’t think owner Stan Kroenke was that interested. The feeling was there was “no drive to be successful”. This was infamously known as the club’s “banter era” online. They had endured so much calamity, with putative rivals considering them “a laughing stock”. Arteta himself had been all too aware of some causes of this, before he retired as a player in 2016. It used to deeply frustrate him that Arsenal were always out of contention by February, as some players seemed more concerned with getting their bodies ready for holidays. Despite Arteta’s great respect for Wenger, he believed there wasn’t enough detail on preparation. Instructions would be written on post-it notes. Far from put ting Arteta off, though, it drove an urge to set it right. He felt it was still a club with almost everything – especially a huge fanbase and great stadium in London – that had just been allowed to drift. “You just need to grab everyone by the collar,” the Spaniard said. It soon became apparent much more than that was needed. The squad was still so average that Arsenal struggled to shift players. On the other side, the initial sign ings weren’t up to it. Arsenal would stumble from bad run to bad run, with rare bright performances giving a glimpse of what Arteta was trying to do. Numerous sources now say that at that point, going into the end of 2020, Arteta was in “a very low place” and thought he’d “made a terrible mistake”. He was even considering quitting. It was recent executive-vice chair Tim