The appropriate way to assess Mikel Arteta’s season is to conceive what might have happened had Arsenal finished second for a fourth straight season. How could his players ever truly believe him again? Another lead, chance, season all gone. The bridesmaid may have hung on, for a while, but the doubts would be too deafening.
That is the right starting point because it contextualises everything else and because for a while it was our mistaken assumption. It lifts Arteta higher because of the sheer risk involved. Too often we are guilty of melodramatising the fine margins between success and perceived failure. Here there was no other conclusion to draw.
There were doubts, within the fanbase and within the media because Arsenal, and their manager, had become the personification of just-not-quite. And then they went top of the Premier League in early October and never went anywhere else.
The Brent-ian elements of Arteta’s managerial persona have certainly become a bit much at times – the lightbulb, the whiteboard drawings, the actual fire. Don’t get me wrong, Eddie Nketiah is a lovely bloke but should he be working here? We’ve all winced at a few press conferences and it has lost Arteta many supporters amongst those who would previously have considered themselves broadly neutral.
But they were also constructs, tangible visualisation tools to persuade a group of young men to believe in intangible concepts: pressure, desire, hope, fight, camaraderie. When Arsenal finished second three times in a row, Arteta had to abandon or turn up the heat. He chose the latter. He probably knows that some of it sounds silly, but doesn’t care.
Mikel Arteta’s side were crowned champions after Man City drew 1-1 at Bournemouth (Photo: Getty)And, sorry to burst the bubble here, but this is how lots of people in elite sport think and talk. It deflects much of the pressure off players and focuses the spotlight on the manager, who copes better with the control and the pressure than having neither. Your hero probably owns a Steven Bartlett book: this is life now.
Arteta’s principal strategy is relentless positivity in front of the media. It can be grating to outsiders: every challenge is a beautiful opportunity, every battle a privilege, every opponent a great warrior that it will be an honour to face, every moment in training a sliver of family love.
But Sir Alex Ferguson used to describe how his press conferences were primarily a tool to speak to his players and I think that’s basically Arteta’s modus operandi. He demands a huge amount from his players. He has taken them to three second-place finishes in succession and he has to maintain absolutely positivity to eliminate all doubt.
Related: who was the last player to want to leave Arsenal that Arsenal would have been unhappy to lose? Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang in 2022, perhaps? For four years, Arteta has seemingly kept a squad that has won nothing happy and kept them convinced in their title credentials. There must have been interest in Bukayo Saka, Martin Odegaard, William Saliba, Gabriel Magalhaes and Declan Rice. It never seemed a possibility that any would leave. That is a masterclass of man-management.
Arsenal have played with control but far less often with penetration this season. Arteta backed the team to produce either individual moments of brilliance in open play or set-piece prowess to rule all and maximised their impact through rigid defence. Arsenal built their way into matches, leading only 17 times at half-time (Manchester City, by contrast, had a half-time lead in 23 games).
That was so inherently risky that it staked Arteta’s entire reputation. Had Arsenal finished second again, having narrowed the margins at their manager’s behest, it would have been understandably interpreted as tactical cowardice with lasting repercussions.
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Pete Hall: Arsenal crowned champions for first time in 22 years Kat Lucas: The four ways Arteta transformed Arsenal from bottlers to championsNot only that, it wilfully railed against Arsenal’s modern traditions. The last dynastical manager here ruled through tactical idealism and a philosophy for how football should be played. Arteta doubled down on his own pragmatism and watched on as that became the perfect paradigm of the league itself. Either that’s a stunning coincidence or else Arteta has bent the division to his own will.
So put away your memes. Silence those barbs. Make peace with the fact that you (and I) got this one wrong. Artists heard the criticism, took a breath and transformed it into his fuel. Arteta willingly walked the tightrope and ended that journey as a king. He will be lifted on the pitch on Sunday by those who never doubted him.
And update your records. Arteta is the second youngest Premier League-winning manager in history. He is the first manager to win the title in his first job since Kenny Dalglish in 1990. He is a Premier League champion, 22 years after he arrived in England and 22 years after Arsenal last managed it. The Premier League landscape is now his playground.
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