How the Final Day Hardened Arteta's Arsenal

By Harvey Gration

Conviction: the quality of showing that one is firmly convinced of what one believes or says.

Sunday morning rolled in. The ribbons of the sun’s rays laced themselves across the Emirates’ turf. Yet, the hope of seeing the 2023/24 Premier League trophy tied with our distinct shade of royal red always felt knotted with the awareness that the day’s logical proceedings were not on our side. 

A defiance, however, prevails. This term—at least for me—bled its way into each one of the interviews I have listened to from Sunday and informs my choice of epigraph. Such ‘conviction’ characterised Mikel Arteta’s post-match comments, rolling me back to his manner, turns of phrase, and clinically cool demeanour debuted back in December 2019—the beginning of his Arsenal tenure. Something clicked for Mikel on Sunday. 

“…and please, keep pushing, keep inspiring this team. 

Don’t be satisfied. Because we want much more than that. And we’re gonna get it”.

A flip was switched. The words above ended his speech to the fans with an emphatic flourish. For me at least, it appeared Mikel had been transformed from a man leading a team of believers and heart-racers into someone who was now unequivocally conscious of what the future requires. To explain what I mean by this I will now turn to the particular terms and phrases which reoccurred throughout his assessment of the day and title race. 

We all know Mikel is meticulous with his word choice. Key mottos and expressions not only find their home in the training facilities and the Emirates stadium but partner the match-day squad on their travels too—reminders, principles, and non-negotiables. Across his interviews, three words echoed at the heart of Mikel’s rallying cries: determination, ambition, and courage. 

Unfaltering in the belief that got us to where we are now (determination), whilst maintaining an appetite to improve further (ambition), this team must possess the drive to go again, and again, and again—until they take the crucial leap we all dream of (courage). At the heart of these words from Mikel is an insistence, a tone bordering on nastiness which relates to the theme of the article: it is time for Arteta’s project to add its “teeth and bite”. 

This remark was similarly repeated by Arteta. Arsenal have now reached the ‘biting-point’ of Arteta’s five-phase plan, where the team that have given us so much—and probably more than could ever be articulated in word-form or encased in a trophy—jump from challengers to champions (phase three to phase four). Or, more poetically, we move from downstairs neighbours to penthouse occupants, where our previous complaints of oil-drippings seeping through the ceiling are no longer relevant.  

I believe the addition of this “bite” is the next, required step for Arteta. You can ‘max-out’ every on-pitch performance index and margin; however, casting an eye back on the season, it appears to me the margins we must push even further are the off-pitch ones. Whether that was ensuring we had secured another no. 6/8 in the transfer market to prepare for the (likely) eventuality of Thomas Partey’s absences; or become slightly more flexible with how the squad is utilized; or take even less time in finding the 100-point standard of Arsenal in 2024.

I am by no means saying this decisiveness has waned for Mikel. In fact, it has been consistent throughout his whole remodelling of a club formerly in leeward drift (to put it kindly) into one that has just broken its record for wins, goal tally, and goal difference in the Premier League. Instead, Sunday seemed to clarify something for Mikel, and awaken the fire that he kindled the club with four-and-a-half years ago. The time is now. 

I am not here to say that winning the title in 2024/25 is a ‘do or die’ kind of impasse for the Gunners—that would be a complete fallacy. As Pep Guardiola said himself earlier last week, they [Manchester City] “get the message…they [Arsenal] will stay here for a long, long time”.

Nonetheless, what I do believe is that the team (especially if our summer squad building goes the way I envision it) is ready now (that = a fact). After Sunday, cordiality became out of fashion for Mikel. After all, respect only goes a certain way if you are trying to supplant the very thing you hold in such high esteem. It is now on Mikel to enact everything he will have considered, estimated, and prefigured in his head to bring us the prize we know he craves.

If in 2022/23 the sense was we rode on the crest of a wave that was destined to peak and crash, this season felt different. There is genuine pain in missing out in a title-race that has us top for so many underlying metrics, despite this taking nothing away from Manchester City’s heartless unbeaten run that stretches from their winter-time defeat at Villa Park. Both teams probably felt like they had ‘warranted’ the title—whatever that means.

Final day heartache may have been just what Arsenal needed to really bear their fangs. We can see this in how tangible the emotion was for the players as well, especially in Martin Odegaard’s and Kai Havertz’s evaluations of the day. Even if nobody realises it yet, a spark has been lit inside of Arteta and his players. Hence, I think the ‘message’ Guardiola has undoubtedly received has been altered already, or the strength of its transmission at least intensified. 

I’ll sign off with a number of quotes from boss to skipper to “6.5” German, that I haven’t been able to include within my effort to ‘galvanise the troops’:

MA: “Nobody has to explain to me the level that is [required], because I have been there for four years [with Manchester City]. So I know what we have to do if we want to reach there [the title], and not only for one season but for the rest.”

MØ: “It’s just a matter of time for this team before we win something really big.”

KH: “I can tell that next year we are going to be an even better team.”

These are the types of messages that win titles. Any improvements still required (the margin of which is one that should excite) are natural components of building a dominant force—a team that has the desire to win “not only for one season but for the rest” (this is Arteta’s imagined ‘phase five’). 

Football is difficult. If it were anything else then the adventure we have embarked upon wouldn’t feel so afflicting, so personal, so worth it. 

YouTube: Harvey Gration

Twitter: @GrationHarvey