A psychological investigation into the retooling at Arsenal Football Club in recent history spearheaded by First Team Head Coach Mikel Arteta.
Mikel Arteta took the helm at Arsenal in December 2019 and inherited a torn-apart squad full of indiviuals which provided a difficult task for him to navigate in the forthcoming seasons, with heightened frustration from the fan base since Arsene Wenger's departure. After leaving his position as Manchester City Manager Pep Guardiola's assistant, Arteta obtained an side sitting in 10th Place in the Premier League, a position incongruous to it's heightened ambitions. Arteta's continual development of the squad along with his likeable character created a facilitative environment for personal improvement. Sitting atop of the Premier League at the end of 2022 seemed unimaginable for this squad as little as 9 months ago, however, this blog aims to uncover the changes that have occured around the team, piecing together public speakings of Mikel Arteta and the illustrious access provided via Amazon's latest installment of their documentary series "All or Nothing: Arsenal".
"The Arsenal Way"
One key factor for the rejuvenation in recent times of Arsenal Football Club has been the shared character that has been created by Mikel Arteta and has been used during the team's recruitment. Arsenal currently have the youngest squad in the Premier League and despite their relative inexperience they hold first position. This has been a combined characteristic of the team with it's youth and inexperience come a naivety and sense of purity and rawness to a squad that is undamaged compared to previous Arsenal teams in the past. Key players such as Bukayo Saka, Aaron Ramsdale and Gabriel Martinelli epitomise what it means to be a stereotypical current Arsenal player; young, bold, full of character but most of all creative. This has been part of Arteta's plan for his Arsenal side since his announcement as Head Coach stating "My first task will be to get them playing the kind of fast flowing, attacking football that Arsenal supporters want to see." This current Arsenal side is exactly as Mikel would have hoped with them (at time of writing) scoring the second-most goals in the Premier League behind a goal-scoring powerhouse and Arteta's coaching development grounds Manchester City.
Mikel Arteta's own personal attributes compliment his side's newfound personality exemplified by his youthfullness, being only three years on from his retirement from his six-year playing career with Arsenal. The "All or Nothing" documentary is very much centered around Arteta and how his personality is conveyed onto the team both tactically and emotionally. Arteta is clearly proactive with his thinking and tactics, evolving from season to season, is personable as shown by the positive opinions from the players and fellow coaching staff creating likeability. However, it has clearly been shown that Arteta can handle a great amount of pressure, during less successful seasons the pressure was still high, with Arsenal spending the most on transfers over the summer of 2021 with the fruits of this labour now becoming more present. Likewise, Arteta displayed his ability to deal with difficult players as shown with the dismisal of club captain Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang after disciplinary issues. This showed that Arteta believed no player, no matter their placing in the club's hierarchy, is bigger than the club and any negativity will be removed from the situation.
These two profiles of players and head coach compliment each other to create a facilitative growth environment. In which all parties are relaxed and encouraged to express themselves with is seen through the clubs open-nature across social media as well as on the pitch with the fluidity shown throughout the season. The high-profile signing of Gabriel Jesus from now-title-contending rivals Manchester City tipifies the fluidity character that Arsenal and Arteta are aiming for. Similarly, the openness of the squad creates a combined squad collective values that all the squad and surrounding staff buy in to creating a desire to work for eachother. Arteta successfully creates this openness through the sharing of personal stories and showing vulnerability which players will create a personal connection with the manager and see him as more than just their manager but a person also. Arteta also psychologically does well to pitch his teamtalks to the players' by not overcomplicating things and making simple psychological messages to take into the game, as somewhat jovially shown by Arteta's pre-match artistry.
This character allows for development for both manager and players in the club, if Arsenal continue to recruit players who fit the same social profile, the togetherness of the team will more than likely continue on a positive trajectory.
Mikel's Mentality
One psychological tool that seemingly Arteta has integrated into the Arsenal culture is through the increased use of reflective practice. During the documentary we see multiple different occasions as part of a team meeting Arteta will direct players to reflect on their previous performances and what can be taken from them both positively and negatively, Whilst this is almost part and parcel at most professional sporting outfits, the way that Arteta frames this to his squad is by highlighting the significance of development in the dynamic nature of elite football in the Premier League.
For example, after a league defeat during the 2021-22 season Arteta completely disregards the result of a game during a post-match debrief with his squad due to the team’s performance not deserving such a result but acknowledges the wellbeing and holistic performance of the squad, once again highlighting his emotional intelligence. This is then taken to the players prior to the next game where the disappointing result is not mentioned but the team dynamics and wellbeing are to encourage the players to not play within themselves but to continue to express themselves because that’s “how football should be played … shoulder’s back, on the front foot”. Psychologically this eradicates any doubt in the players mind that may be looming from the previous result by encouraging positive emotions and eliminating any associations between performing actions (scenarios on the pitch) and previous outcomes. This holistically creates a psychological safety net on the team and encourages this safety within the players to play in the style that Mikel has trained them for and individual errors are simply inevitable in sport.
Another psychological safety benefit that Mikel Arteta provides for his team is the way in which he defends his players. As previously stated Arteta demonstrates high levels of emotional intelligence, a big part of this is his ability to build confidence in his players and limit the negative psychological factors that may influence them. For example in the “All or Nothing” documentary we see a series of poor results which sees pressure pile onto the team. Arteta soaks up this pressure and drives the narrative that the pressure is on him and not the squad, reducing the pressure on the players allowing them to play whilst perceiving there to be less scrutiny upon them. This narrative was further manipulated by Arteta to be beneficial for the team, as when after the team broke their losing streak and won back-to-back games, he framed the pressure as a positive that should drive the team due to their own expectations. Likewise during the pre-match of a North London Derby against fierce rivals Arteta calls upon the team’s kitman, a lifelong Arsenal fan, to explain the importance of the game to the fans, cleverly firing up the players to perform for the fans, increasing their motivation. This safety has clearly proved to be all encapsulating to this point, with the club now experiencing different pressures in them needing to win to stay at the top of the table and even with this, playing with confidence, taking risks and playing the Arteta way avoiding internal and external encouragement.
Finally, another simple way Arteta creates psychological safety for his team is through the use of routines, especially pre-match. Almost always, Mikel would start his final pre-match team talk with a tactical debrief with a small number of key takeaways, followed by a group message, followed by something of an energiser (usually something from another coach, or a simple geeing up). This routine creates a period of calmness before a game in which a player can gather their thoughts, create a sole focus on the match, reducing outside noise and highlight the simplicity of how football can be played. Previous research in the area of controlled temporal pre-match routines (as being forced upon the players by Arteta) has been shown to enhance concentration levels for players as well as reduce the quantity of external stressors that are present prior to the commencement of a match.
Arteta clearly has a good understanding of his team’s collective psychology and how this can effect it’s on-field performance. Whether he is consciously developing this environment or not, it is clear to see that Arsenal are in a much better psychological state than they were 18 months ago which is allowing them to play with confidence and on the front-foot as Arteta wants.
Shiny New Bolstered Arsenal
To conclude this piece, it is clear to see with just the on-field eye-test that Arsenal have completely turned around and have been playing a style of football that completely mirrors the philosophy and character of their manager. Arteta has been fantastic for the team during this rebuild, not always performance-based but character based the team has fully rebuilt. His psychological and emotional intelligence have been key to this success which seems to be in it’s infancy with such a young, enthusiastic squad. The second half of the season may prove to be more difficult for the Gunners but at time of writing, psychologically, this is a completely new Arsenal, fresh, youthful and ready to win.
Couldn't recommend this documentary or any of the "All or Nothing" series more as that was the main inspiration for this piece!
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Where will Arsenal finish this season?
1st
2nd
3rd
4th or below
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