Arsenal: Gibbs And Bellerin Defiance Provides Confidence

Arsenal’s Hector Bellerin and Kieran Gibbs are defiant for the coming season. Such resoluteness should provide confidence that Arsenal can achieve success this coming year.

So often are the mental traits needed to endure a long and arduous season underrated. It is perhaps the biggest display of Sir Alex Ferguson’s greatness; that he could continually inspire repeated teams to success.

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Ferguson was more than adept in coaching his players, acquiring talent through the transfer market and implementing tactics to win games. However, he is, perhaps more than anyone before or since, a terrific man manager.

“Everyone in training is looking really really good and sharp.” – Hector Bellerin

The Manchester United manager understood that not only did his players need to be physically and technically gifted, but they also needed to possess an unstoppable, unyielding and unwavering attitude to win at all costs.

During his tenure with the Red Devils, winning became synonymous with the club. That is a testament to the value that Ferguson placed on having mentally strong players, not just players who can score lots of goals.

It is an area of success that Arsenal have often been criticized for. They seem to have a lack of character, a lack of leadership and fight to instill a culture of winning. However, Kieran Gibbs and Hector Bellerin, when asked about the coming year in Arsenal’s preseason tour of the States, were both boldly defiant in their hope for next season:

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"“We are a young squad in general and with Per out for a few months it is a good opportunity for the young players and for those looking to become more senior and fill his role off the pitch. We have to focus on our own jobs and hopefully everything will fall into place by the start of the season.”"

These comments from Gibbs and Bellerin above allude to a greater fight within the squad that perhaps has not been seen before. If you have had the displeasure of reading much of my work this summer, you will have heard me banging on about Arsenal’s shocking mentality.

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Well, while preseason comments in which players will always be positive is little to go by, Gibbs and Bellerin are displaying the type of defiance, resoluteness and fight that I have been yearning for. We now just have to hope that it translates to success on the pitch, rather than just meaningless whispers.