Arsenal future is bright under Mikel Arteta with youth leading the charge

The 5-0 win over Norwich on Boxing Day was the latest in a string of Arsenal performances that suggests the Gunners are on the road to recovery.

Now, a win against a depleted opposition at Carrow Road does not count for much, but in years gone by, this would have been a game that had “banana skin” written all over it. Since the 2-1 loss to Everton, Mikel Arteta has his side playing superb football.

In the last five outings, the Gunners have scored 19 goals and conceded just twice. Some will point at the level of opposition and that the only noteworthy victory was against West Ham. In every other game, Arsenal was expected to win.

While the squad will not be judged on wins against relegation fodder, it is those games that Arsenal has been winning, and comfortably so. The absence of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang could have proved to be a distraction, but if anything, it has galvanized the group. Against Norwich when Bukayo Saka was repeatedly cut down, Alexandre Lacazette and Granit Xhaka made it a point to the referee and were standing up for their young teammate.

Arsenal future is bright under Mikel Arteta with youth leading the charge with fourth consecutive Premier League win after 5-0 Norwich rout

That kind of attitude has been missing for years with the club often described as having a soft underbelly and often bullied far too easily. Now we will get a proper gauge of this when Arsenal faces Manchester City next, but in all honesty, those are the games where the result is not as important – a positive result wouldn’t go amiss – but rather a performance where the club is not pounded into submission as we have been grown accustomed to over the years.

Arteta has transformed a once toothless side, void of any direction and emotion, into a team that plays together and works as a unit. Every player knows their role, where they are supposed to be at any given time and we are seeing the fruits of no European football this season.

Much was made of Arsenal’s exclusion from the elite club competitions this season, but there was one benefit:, more time on the training pitch. With only one game a week for the most part, while others are flying off all around the globe, Arteta has got to work on the training ground and instilled his non-negotiables.

Arteta stated in his press conference in the lead-up to the Norwich game that he doesn’t establish his authority by being ‘ruthless’. Instead, he expect respect and commitment while asking the playing group to do the right things every single day.

This is the style of leadership that has been non-existent over the last decade as players were often allowed to get away with murder during the final years of Arsene Wenger’s reign. One is not necessarily right over the other, but in order to change a culture there has to be utter dedication to the principles you install.

Our faith has been tested, but maybe Arteta is the man to take this club forward after all.

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Arteta is Rewarding the Faith With a Clear Arsenal Vision

The entire squad is now pulling in the same direction. There have been no reports coming out of disgruntled players when there very well could be. Bernd Leno, Ainsley Maitland-Niles, and others have seen their playing time dramatically reduced, but still, the boat has not been rocked. Whether that is because everything is now kept in house or that Arteta has had conversations with players remains to be seen, but the squad is no longer divided by fractures within the team.

We were urged to trust the process and just weeks ago, after consecutive losses to Manchester United and Everton, both of which Arsenal led first but ended up losing, that faith was tested. Surely now, however, people and fans have seen enough to suggest Arteta is the person to take this club forward.

There will be road bumps along the way with such a young squad which could have been the case against United and Everton, but overall, since Boxing Day last season, when Arsenal defeated Chelsea, the Gunners have won the second-most points in the Premier League (82) with only Manchester City (110) above them on the list. Arteta has more points than Liverpool and Chelsea while now having Arsenal firmly entrenched inside the top four (six points clear of Tottenham who has three games in hand).

Since opening the season with three consecutive losses, Arteta has guided Arsenal to a record of 11 wins, two draws, and three losses while improving the club’s goal difference to +9 from -9 in the process.

Arsenal is far from the finished product, but what fans what to see is improvement and a style of playing football. At this point, both are on display for everyone to see. Their next clash against City will tell us a lot about how far they have come from the 5-0 thumping in August.

Regardless of the result against Pep Guardiola’s men, Arsenal are no longer a soft and rudderless team with no backbone. They are led by a Spaniard who is driving the culture himself and is not afraid to call players out on their behavior.

A new era of Arsenal Football Club is slowly coming to fruition and while they are not considered to be the team they once were under Arsene Wenger, maybe, just maybe they are developing into something with similar levels of excitement.

Led by the club’s Hale End Academy graduates, a mix of younger leaders, and a manager who has instilled a culture built on accountability and standards that were severely lacking, the Gunners are moving into a new age with a host of future stars taking center stage.