Arsenal: Cautious optimism surrounds resurgence with fans uniting behind Mikel Arteta




CNN

Everything looks very positive at Arsenal football club this season.

The men’s team sits atop the English Premier League, with a manager full of ideas and a fearless new generation making their way into the first team.

The atmosphere at Emirates Stadium is the best it has ever been and the frustrations that have surrounded the club in recent years seem to be a thing of the past.

Arsenal fans expect their club to challenge for titles and mix with the best teams in the world, but that hasn’t been the case following Arsene Wenger’s decision to quit his job as manager in 2018.

The club have not featured in the Champions League since 2017 and are light years away from challenging Liverpool and Manchester City in the Premier League.

His brief membership in the failing European Super League has only created further division between the club’s American owners and the fans, but, whisper it softly, Arsenal could be on their way back.

“At the moment it feels like there’s a big change, a big difference, back to the football we once loved,” said Cecil Jee Thomas, presenter at Arsenal Fan Channel AFTV. , to CNN Sports.

“The way we play and the connection between the club and the fans is the best I’ve seen at the Emirates.

“It’s been Arsenal’s best start for many years. It’s amazing to be a fan right now. I’ll be honest, it’s really nice.

Thomas’ work with AFTV means he’s immersed in Arsenal’s fan base and enjoys talking to supporters this season.

He says the majority of fans are now united behind Spain manager Mikel Arteta who previously shared opinion, especially after the club finished eighth in his first two years in charge.

But a fifth-place finish last season showed progress, and the team’s development apparently accelerated in the offseason. They have won 10 of their 12 league games so far, losing just once to Manchester United.

Arteta’s Arsenal now lead Manchester City in the Premier League – a side touted for their greatness – and show very few signs of slowing down.

Arsenal also managed to qualify for the Europa League, cementing top spot in the group after a 1-0 win over Zurich on Thursday.

“Winning helps to win. The mood in the dressing room is much better after a win than a loss,” Arteta said after the game.

Arteta, who was schooled by Pep Guardiola when he was an assistant at Manchester City, appears to have laid the foundations for the team’s return to the top.

Etihad summer signings Gabriel Jesus and Oleksandr Zinchenko provided quality and experience that blended seamlessly with the multitude of young players coming through Arsenal’s ranks.

Academy graduate Bukayo Saka and young Brazilian Gabriel Martinelli are busy establishing themselves as top-class Premier League forwards and even Arsenal’s defence, something that has long been deemed too soft, seems to be getting better. be triggered.

Although he hasn’t scored in eight games now, Jesus continues to offer so much as a striker.

His tenacious pressing and expert hold-up game have helped Arsenal dominate games and his manager is fully aware of his importance.

“That will change,” Arteta told reporters when asked about the Brazilian’s bad luck in front of goal on Thursday.

“He gets the situations, he gets the chances, he contributes a lot to the team, he helps win games, the way he fights for every ball in every action is amazing.

“It will come, he has to be patient, he’s been through this in the past and he has to learn those lessons and not stop doing those other things that he does so well because that’s going to keep him and the team level. .”

Fans enjoyed watching Arsenal’s rebuilding process and were able to experience it closer than ever.

The club’s ‘All or Nothing’ Amazon series was released at the start of the season and documented Arsenal’s previous campaign.

It included behind-the-scenes footage from training, the dressing room and meetings between the club’s hierarchy.

The series allowed fans to see the human side of players who have come under a lot of criticism lately – neither has Granit Xhaka.

The midfielder’s time at the club appears to be over in 2019 after he reacted angrily to boos from the crowd after being substituted. He took off his shirt, swore at Arsenal fans and stormed down the tunnel in what appeared to be his last act as a player for the club.

But two seasons later, the midfield general is one of Arteta’s most important and consistent performers. The decision to give Xhaka another chance was yet another big call that Arteta got it right.

The Amazon series, however, highlighted new ways in which Arteta has sought to motivate his team – from using drawings to playing Liverpool’s ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’ anthem in training before the game.

“I think before it came out, a lot of fans were worried about what it was going to be, if it was going to be something to make fun of,” Thomas said.

“But I think it paints Arsenal in such a beautiful way, the way Arteta is with his players and how much he emphasizes building the relationship between the fans and the team.”

The atmosphere at the Emirates Stadium was the best it had been, say the fans.

AFTV continued to grow as a channel, although it sometimes drew criticism for being too negative towards the team.

But now it seems the club’s management team are determined to rebuild the relationship with their fans, especially after the protests over the European Super League plan.

Technical director Edu, a former player at the club who is now responsible for player recruitment, appears to be leading this charge and has also been praised for helping to create an identity around this current squad that fans have been able to connect with.

“I don’t think they realized how powerful the fans were,” Thomas said.

The club’s subsequent hard work paid off and Arteta was able to create warmth around the club, demonstrating the potential reward for owners who stick with their manager in difficult times.

Unity is perhaps best demonstrated by the new anthem “North London Forever” which is sung at the Emirates Stadium before every home game.

“Arteta also addresses the fans in his press conferences and he says how important we are,” Thomas added, saying some fans have even started to bond tentatively with the club’s owners, the Kroenke family.

“The unit we have is so different and it’s so nice to be a part of it. It’s something I really appreciate.

“Fans were saying the owners weren’t connected to us and it was all about business and money, but now they [owners] seem to play a bit more of a role in the success of this club.

In truth, there have been several false dawns at Arsenal since winning a league title in 2004 and Thomas says the fans aren’t getting carried away yet.

The depth of the squad in some positions is still not what many are hoping for. Jesus, for example, was a revelation from the start, but if he gets hurt, there is no replacement on the same level.

So the realistic expectation is not necessarily to win the Premier League title, but to cement themselves in the Champions League.

“At the moment we are top of the Premier League and we are in conversation for the title, but I think the wait is the top four,” Thomas concedes.

“If you get a second you still get Champions League football. If you’re fourth, you still get Champions League football – you don’t get a trophy for either position.

“So for me and a lot of others, the top four is definitely the expectation and if we get an extra trophy, for me that’s a bonus.”

Given the club’s momentum of late, the World Cup in Qatar couldn’t have come at a worse time.

The Premier League will be on hiatus for over a month as many Arsenal players will travel to the Gulf country to join their respective squads.

His impact on the season is somewhat unknown, but fans will hope the team can continue their good form ahead of the break.

He faces a tough game against Chelsea on Sunday before a midweek draw against Brighton in the EFL Cup on Wednesday.

If he emerges unscathed from those matches, the reasons not to believe in Arteta’s Arsenal will quickly run out.

malek

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

GreenLeaf Tw2sl