Arsenal: 4 reasons we absolutely love this team

In a season that may still end with Arsenal missing out on Champions League football, and perhaps even worse, it has nonetheless brought supporters great joy.

That feeling may well differ come the final game of the campaign. Naturally there will be great disappointment across the fanbase as, having got themselves into a position of real strength with ten matches to go, letting it slip now would be a body blow.

All throughout this topsy turvy season there has been reason for excitement, though.

From the depths of the three opening games to the highs of a North London Derby win and jubilant celebrations among all at Villa Park, there is a different energy around the club.

Arsenal: 4 reasons we absolutely love Mikel Arteta’s Gunners team as they keep pushing for the Champions League via the top four

Football is a wonderful sport, but it does have the capacity to toy with your emotions negatively.

Taking the most recent win over Aston Villa as an example, had the side dropped points or lost that game there would have been two long weeks of international football where you can’t help but stew over the result. One defeat on a Friday night can kill your mood for the whole weekend.

Some people can disconnect from that and separate football from the rest, but many of us can’t.

And just as we can be left glum from this sport, it can take us into soaring highs. The love for Arsenal can never fade, and it was felt that it also couldn’t get any stronger. Somehow, this season, it is. This set of supporters absolutely adore this team, and feel more connected to their club than they have in years.

There are four glorious reasons why.

1. The Youth + Hale End Imprint

Football academies are where the talent comes from. Arsenal have produced their fair share. Yet very few go on to represent the first team regularly.

Who is the best academy product Arsenal have ever produced? The answer to that is quite easily Ashley Cole. He was the best left-back in the world for a number of seasons. A truly world class footballer.

After that it’s slim pickings. Of course, we can include Cesc Fabregas and Serge Gnabry even if they arrived at 15 and 16 years of age respectively, while Jack Wilshere also spent many years at the top, but the point remains that it’s incredibly rare to see a Hale End star make it all the way up into the first team.

Arsenal currently have two.

They’re playing regularly, topping the goals charts, and representing England. As a supporter there is nothing you can connect with more than seeing players with Arsenal in their blood turning out for the team every week. Bukayo Saka and Emile Smith Rowe are both ‘our own’.

Add to that this being the youngest squad in the whole Premier League and the affection grows. It’s easier to feel attached to players who, in most cases, haven’t been at numerous clubs prior. Once they play for this club it is all that matters, but you watch them every week wanting them do well not just for the sake of Arsenal, but also for themselves.

“Youth is happy because it has the capacity to see beauty. Anyone who keeps the ability to see beauty never grows old.”
― Franz Kafka

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2. There is a Spirit & Unity Unlike Any Other

Remember when Alexis Sanchez scored away at Crystal Palace in December 2017 and nobody went over to celebrate with him?

Those were dark times.

Across the past few years at the club there have been numerous versions of the squad that have never truly gelled. The days of a Rosicky, Fabregas, Hleb and Flamini bromance were a thing of the past. That all got replaced with Mustafi throwing his hands up in the air trying to blame someone else whenever he fluffed his lines.

Fast forward to present day and you’ve got a summer signing suffering an injury that rules him out of international duty still traveling up to a lunchtime kick-off to support the guy whose place in the team he took. It may seem minor, but Aaron Ramsdale doing that for Bernd Leno and then the entire team huddling around to congratulate is incredibly special.

Just as it is infectious.

That camaraderie transfers over into the supporters. If you watch a team of misfits every week, or players who clearly aren’t enjoying themselves and the company of those around them, it becomes increasingly difficult to be enthusiastic. That attachment is harder to draw.

Winning games obviously helps. That much can’t be ignored. But even if the team aren’t in their best run of form the reaction would now more than likely be one of support as opposed to vitriol and critique.

They’re together, and we’re together, together.

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3. The Fans Can See the Future is Bright

It is one thing being smitten by the players, performances and results of the present. It is another thing seeing tangible signs of progress that could lead to a brighter future.

There are some clubs, like Chelsea, where certain cycles happen. Their (former) infinite wealth would see them change managers every two or three years and then replace them with the next big thing, also doing likewise with the players. In almost every case that blood money would buy them success.

While Arsenal have spent their fair share of cash under the current management, they’ve had to implement a strategy that catered to every step of the way. They needed immediate results, but were willing to sacrifice short-term success for the stability of the club in the medium and long-term.

Back-to-back eighth place finishes were simply unacceptable. The club and management made major mistakes, following on from many before that.

Finally seeing the wood for the trees, the club invested heavily in youth, has tied down the emerging stars to new contracts and built a team of players who the majority of will come into their prime years around the same time. Seeing how brilliantly this side is now, with a sustainable model and a clearly defined style of play, one can only dream how just how much better it can get.

Some of that will come in the summer transfer window, while in other areas it will be organic, whether that’s through coaching or mental and physical maturing.

The future is blindingly bright. That’s something everyone can get on board with.

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4. Mikel Arteta

It has taken time for many to warm to the manager. Which is actually quite peculiar when you consider he captained the club to trophies during his time as a player.

Firmly behind him to begin with, the dip in performances and results, his poor signings, and his frosty and almost unwelcoming persona all contributed to a fracture in the relationship. He arrived into toxicity, added to it to some degree, and the ruthlessness of some of his decisions, such as ousting Mesut Ozil and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, contributed to the divisions in the fanbase.

But why has he done what he’s done? Everything he’s done has been for the benefit of the club. The cultural reset and turnover of players has been unprecedented, and while he’s made many mistakes during his tenure, this is clearly a very intelligent and diligent man.

He’s building something here. What we’re seeing wouldn’t be in place were it not for him.

Arsenal play and exciting brand of football now, have a clear recruitment strategy in place, and have the best connection with the supporters than perhaps during the entirety of the Emirates era.

Arteta is on course to be one of the finest managers in the game. He has all the tools, and he is still less than 40 years old.

To believe in this team is to also believe in Arteta. Right now that is very much the case. You can tell that these are his players and that they will jump through hoops for him, and the end result is what we’re seeing every week.

He isn’t so bad after all.