Arsenal reaping rewards of buying a slice of City
TALKING to a Premier League manager before the start of the season was illuminating when it came to the subject of Arsenal.
Put to him that Mikel Arteta had bought two underwhelming Manchester City understudies in Gabriel Jesus and Oleksandr Zinchenko, he replied: ‘Yes, but he has also bought a slice of City’s mentality and that is the clever part.’
It was tempting to think about this as Arsenal unpicked Bournemouth. The current Premier League leaders have also won away at Crystal Palace. Not bad for a side that opened up last campaign with defeat at Brentford.
It is too early to know whether Arteta has brought about the permanent changes needed in the wake of a disappointing end to last season. But there are signs that the current Arsenal group is more united and resolute than the one that turned up at Newcastle for a must-win game last May and fell apart.
Character — and in particular the lack of it — has been a theme at Arsenal since the latter days of Arsene Wenger. By indulging wastrels such as Mesut Ozil, Wenger set his club on a destructive downward path.
Arteta was brought in to change that and after spending two and a half years searching for the mental toughness his squad needs, it is interesting he has now gone out and bought some.
Jesus and Zinchenko cost in the region of £75m between them. That is a lot for two players never consistently part of the first XI at City. But maybe Arteta felt that he was investing in something that runs just as deep as talent in top-class footballers — attitude.
Arteta — having previously worked under Pep Guardiola at City — will know full well what a trophy-winning set-up feels and looks like. One of the great things about Guardiola’s time at the Etihad Stadium is how quiet it has been. There have always been players in the City group who have endured tense, fractious relationships with the Spaniard. Raheem Sterling was one of them and it is one reason he is now at Chelsea.
But, crucially, none of that tension was ever allowed to spill out into the public arena or, even worse, affect what City did as a team. Any disquiet within Guardiola’s squad has always been harnessed as just another way to motivate an individual or a group. At Arsenal, it has not been like that. Firstly, everybody always knew about it. Secondly, it has too often threatened to blow Arteta’s squad apart.
Zinchenko and Jesus will need to perform on the field to justify Arteta’s investment. I have reservations about Jesus’ ability to score more than 20 goals a season but he has started well and has two to his name already.
Both came to Arsenal knowing how the world works, though. The Amazon Prime documentary currently screening possibly shows a little too much of what the old Arsenal was about. Some of it is best watched from behind fingers. But it does illustrate the rot at the core of the squad Arteta inherited and the lengths he went to in order to ease players like Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang out of the door.
Challenges remain, for sure.
Zinchenko, for example, currently occupies the left- back spot previously held by one of Arsenal’s strongest characters, Kieran Tierney. The Scot was expected to be club captain but instead finds himself out of the team. That is a situation that may come to ahead.
But that is the way a big club works. Not everybody is happy. Not everybody likes the coach. But the engine of the machine still purrs, the wheels still turn.
Arteta and his two new signings know better than most what that sounds like.
Ian.Ladyman@dailymail.co.uk