Mikel Arteta has turned Arsenal into Premier League champions but does his new contract take him into a new stage of his project? And can he bring more trophies to eclipse Arsene Wenger? In a special podcast, Ron Walker is joined by Gary Cotterill, Nick Wright and Sam Blitz to discuss Arteta's new deal in detail. The panel reflect on his tenure so far and look at the challenges ahead as he aims to build an Arsenal dynasty. Nick Wright said: "The club is unrecognisable from 2019, on and off the pitch.
It's been a collective effort but Arteta is the driving force behind it. He's one of few constants over these six or seven years. He has brought the club back to the elite.
This is a team winning titles now, also consistently reaching the latter stages of the Champions League. Obviously, there are still imperfections. There's still fallibility.
The Brighton game showed that. But what made that defeat such a surprise was that it was so uncharacteristic, and that tells you a lot about the standards that he has set. Arsenal hadn't lost a game by three goals in the Premier League for over three years.
It just doesn't really happen. And it's what we've come to expect, that capacity to deliver consistently. They have become so difficult to beat.
And remember, Arsenal used to get bullied and beaten up all the time. It's a total transformation of their identity under Arteta. They are defined by that competitiveness.
They are a super-competitive team, they are relentless, and that's a reflection of the manager. These are the things that define him, and these are the ways in which he has imprinted his own personality on this team. The team is very much a reflection of Arteta and the way he approaches his job." Sam Blitz said: "It's been well-documented that when Arteta arrived, he had a five-step plan to bring Arsenal to the top of English football.
Step one was creating that culture. There was that infamous story of the first-team meeting with the Arsenal players, where the players walked in and the room was a mess. Chairs and tables were everywhere and Arteta said, 'this is what English football thinks of you, and we're going to fix it bit by bit'.
Step two was probably getting the right players in. We saw that with the likes of Gabriel joining, Ben White, Aaron Ramsdale. These are more the profiles of what he wanted.
Step three then was to challenge, and that coincided with the time when Gabriel Jesus and Oleksandr Zinchenko arrived. Arteta said those two 'changed our world', so that got them challenging for the top honours once again. Step four was to win, t...".
Source: Sky Sports Champions League · Summarized by HeadlinesBriefing