Mikel Arteta takes his team to Bournemouth this evening content in the knowledge that things are moving in the right direction.
Arsenal have won both of their Premier League matches this season, against Crystal Palace and Leicester City, and are riding a wave of optimism down to the south coast. Arteta’s pre-match press conference on Friday showed a manager in a good place – and Bournemouth provides an opportune moment to reflect on how far the Gunners have come under the former midfielder.
Arteta’s first match in charge of Arsenal came against Bournemouth on Boxing Day 2019.
Asked how much he had changed as manager since then, Arteta gave a thoughtful response. “You have to constantly be evolving, now we have to thrive, this club at a different speed and before we had to have a lot of protection to keep us in the right place and not fall apart. This is evolving,” he said.
Arteta then dodged a question about whether his current team was a “Mikel Arteta team”, but looking at what he had then, what he has now, and what it has taken to get there shows he is not far off.
Of the players who started Arteta’s first game in charge, only Bukayo Saka and Granit Xhaka remain starters. Two others, Ainsley Maitland-Niles and Reiss Nelson, are still at the club, but are very much on the fringes, with possibilities they could leave in the coming days of the transfer window.
Arsenal have been busy in the summer transfer window, bringing in five new players: Oleksandr Zinchenko, Gabriel Jesus, Fabio Vieira, Marquinhos and Matt Turner. A sixth could still be coming, if it is deemed worth it. “[It] has to be the right person and has to be the right player,” Arteta said. “We only want to bring top quality through that door. If not it’s not worth it.”
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That tallies with Arteta’s ultimate goal in squad assembly, which he shared with the world at the back end of last season. “If you can financially afford it and we don’t have to do the turnaround in the squad that we’ve had to do, if you ask me what I want, it’s 22 outfield players and three goalkeepers,” he explained. “You have to come a long way in the aspects that you see on the pitch, it’s a lot of things that have to be put in place, and that takes time.”
He is very close to achieving that goal. If Hector Bellerin and Nicolas Pepe leave before the window closes, which looks very likely, with three Spanish clubs chasing the former and Nice in talks over a loan for the latter, Arteta will be left with 22 first-team players, as per the club website.
That is serious progress, with departures just as important as arrivals. As well as bringing in lots of quality, Arsenal have also offloaded the likes of Bernd Leno, Sokratis, David Luiz, Lucas Torreira, Mesut Ozil, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Alexandre Lacazette, Shkodran Mustafi, Emiliano Martinez, Konstantinos Mavropanos, Joe Willock and Matteo Guendouzi over the last five transfer windows.
Working with sporting director Edu, Arteta has been able to shape his squad in his own image. Players like Aaron Ramsdale, Ben White, Martin Odegaard, Thomas Partey and, now, Jesus and Zinchenko are Arteta players. The difference between then – Bournemouth, Boxing Day, 2019 – and now – Bournemouth, August 20, 2022 – is huge.
