Two for the diary as Arsenal kickoff in West London.

Morning all.

I saw a clip of this little fella on the news last night. Dubbed ‘the little Messi’ at just the age of six, his football skills are ridiculous. Thankfully though, despite living in Liverpool, he wants to play for Barcelona.

If there are any six year olds dribbling their way around north London, I hope they’re wearing a red and white shirt.

The new season fixtures were announced this morning. No doubt you’ve all picked out key dates like the north London Derby, the trips to Old Trafford, The Etihad, Stamford Bridge and Anfield. The grounds at which we seldom do well. Although in recent years, it’s not just those I’ve listed which have caused Arsenal problems. Aston Villa, Brighton, Burnley, Crystal Palace, Bournemouth, Everton, Norwich, Leicester, Sheffield Utd and Watford; all clubs we dropped points against and ultimately, that’s what cost us a top four finish. 27 points dropped on the road against clubs we should be beating. That’s not me being arrogant but squad v squad, Arsenal’s is better. 14 of those 27 points dropped against the clubs above were post Mikel Arteta. Beating Wolves away and Liverpool at home though was an improvement on season’s gone by. Defeating Southampton at St Mary’s was something we didn’t manage under Unai Emery, or Arsene Wenger during his last season or two.

But of course, many of our dropped points under Mikel Arteta came when he first arrived, with a squad devoid of confidence, organisation and discipline. Who honestly believed back then that this team would beat Sheffield Utd in the FA Cup, let alone Man City in the Semi-Final and then Chelsea in what turned out to be our biggest game of the season? To suggest I wasn’t confident would be an understatement. But we did.

Mikel Arteta has been looking back to the day he arrived and how his first eights months in management have gone. He’s been talking to Arsenal Digital:

I could have a sense from the outside what was happening, everything I was reading, the people I had inside the club that could feed me some information.  But I think until the day that you walk through that door and start to really feel the energy and what is happening, it’s difficult to predict what the role is that you have to take in terms of the impact you want to make. I was worried, I saw a lot of things that worried me in terms of the unity, the energy that was around the place.

 

But I must say that straight away in the next few days, I completely felt that something was changing. I must say a big thank you to all the staff for how helpful they’ve been with me since the moment I joined and as well to the players because they really got on board, they changed their attitude straight away.

 

They started to be together, to train really, really well and paid a lot of attention to what we wanted to do. And obviously to the fans because I was with City [at the Emirates] just a few days before my appointment, and I saw the stadium and what was happening there.

I don’t know about you guys but after Mikel Arteta joined the club, results were a bit of a sideshow. Top four was still possible but in all honesty, not probable. More important than results was improvement. Time for the new manager to form his own opinion on the players he inherited. Who would work with him, who thought they were too good to be taught by a novice. Who would buy into the Arteta game plan, who needed moving on.

And here we are now, FA Cup winners, a place in Europe secured and a transfer window which has already been quite busy. Per Mertesacker has  three new players for his academy, Mikel Arteta has added Willian, a player rich in both experience and trophies and if NN etc are to be believed, Gabriel Magalhaes is soon to be a Gooner. Plus, Aubameyang signing a new contract looks likely.

PS. – North London Derby Days.

• Tottenham v Arsenal (December 5)
• Arsenal v Tottenham (March 13)

A trip to Fulham is our first fixture.

See you in the comments guys.