The secrets of Mikel Arteta's rise at Arsenal

It was raining and it was cold when Mikel Arteta and his entourage arrived at the Emirates on that late December evening in 2019. The leaving of Manchester City had been hard. Arsenal had come to Arteta’s house in the well-to-do Manchester suburb of Didsbury for talks in the middle of the night and had not asked City first. In the north-west there was a feeling of disrespect that has long since dissipated but stung at the time.

So there was a little tension in the air as Arsenal introduced their new manager. Arteta, just 37, had wrestled with some doubts as to whether he was even ready for the move. At City, he had been assistant to Pep Guardiola. This was different. This was big. Arsenal were a mess. Arsenal were not contenders and had not been for years.

Arsene Wenger had lost his way and lost his judgement. Unai Emery tried to turn his back on Arsenal’s glorious past only for the enormity of the here and now to smack him clean in the face. He had lasted 18 months. So here was Arteta. A former Arsenal captain back at the Emirates. Back home.

He may not have felt it back then but he was at an advantage at least. He knew already what was wrong.

He had been with Guardiola on the touchline in London just days earlier as City had dismantled and embarrassed Arsenal in winning 3-0. Two up after 15 minutes. Three by half-time. Arsenal were ragged and soft. Demotivated. Directionless. Dysfunctional. So, yes, Arteta knew what was wrong. He just had to work out a way to fix it and his first instinct was to fall back on what he knew, what he had learned as a nervous Basque kid at Barcelona’s academy and later at Everton playing for David Moyes and at Arsenal under Wenger.

‘Everybody has to feel privileged to be here and the players