Arsenal: Stephan Lichtsteiner has the perfect attitude

Stephan Lichtsteiner was involved in Arsenal’s pre-match press conference ahead of Thursday night’s opening Europa League match against FC Vorskla. His attitude was absolutely perfect.

When Arsenal made a 34-year-old reserve right back the first acquisition of the Unai Emery era, there were certainly questions asked of the club’s intentions and ambition. It is not the most reaching signing in the world.

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But there were reasons for offering Stephan Lichtsteiner a one-year deal after his contract with Juventus expired at the end of the last season. The need for depth at the position was one — Hector Bellerin played more than 3000 minutes the previous year and needed to be rested more frequently. The financial restrictions of the budget with other areas of the squad in need of investment — Lichsteiner being free was most attractive. However, more than any other factor, it was the attitude, the experience, the leadership and the character of Lichtsteiner that made Arsenal want to sign him.

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All of those qualities shone through in Lichtsteiner’s pre-match press conference appearance on Wednesday morning ahead of the opening Europa League group match against FC Vorskla. When asked about his new position as a reserve, Lichtsteiner maturely stated:

"“I’m trying to start more and for that I have to work, that’s the only thing I can do in this moment to show the coach that I’m ready to play.”"

He is respectful of Bellerin and is keen to highlight what he must do to earn a starting role, not what Bellerin must fail to do to keep his starting role. Later, Lichtsteiner is keen to highlight that it is him and Bellerin working alongside one another for the good of the team, not one against one another in competing for the sole starting role:

"It’s not Hector v Stephan, it’s Hector and me for Arsenal, so we have to work together to improve each other, to get better each day, to make the team win and Arsenal as a club win.”"

Similarly, he was not willing to degrade the personality and apparent lack of character of the team, something that he himself was allegedly signed to address:

"“I’ve already seen good personalities in this team. I don’t see that, what they wrote or what they said.”"

It would have been very easy for Lichtsteiner to slip into the trap the journalists are setting for him: journalists will ask questions that try to get a player to answer in a way that provides a controversial statement, even if they didn’t mean to say it. It is the nature of the industry. Lichtsteiner wasn’t so easily fooled. He wanted to champion his new teammates, not degrade them.

It is easy to simply dismiss this as public speak that he has to say without getting in trouble. But it does portray an awareness, an experience and a character that a 34-year-old, serial winner and international captain would have. Lichtsteiner was brought to Arsenal to provide these immeasurable qualities. He is perfectly demonstrating them here.

There is just one final quote that I want to highlight from Lichtsteiner that perfectly demonstrates the leadership capabilities that he exudes:

"“To come back to the glamour games, you need to win the other games first.”"

This Arsenal season is about getting ‘back to the glamour games’. That much is clear. But as Lichtsteiner states, they must ‘win the other games first.’ What a perfect attitude.