Harry Diamond
Mikel Arteta insists Arsenal should maintain their belief in him and has used Pep Guardiola’s first season at Manchester City as an example that patience can deliver success.
Arsenal have endured a disappointing start to the campaign with last weekend’s home defeat to Wolves confirming the club’s worst ever start to a Premier League season, the north London side currently 14th in the division having lost five of their opening 10 fixtures.
The Gunners’ struggles have increased the pressure on Arteta, who lifted the FA Cup last season but has failed to maintain the promising progress Arsenal showed over the second half of the 2019/20 campaign.
Arsenal have won just one of their previous six league fixtures and have struggled for goals so far this season, though Arteta has urged patience from the club’s hierarchy as he bids to bring success to the Emirates – using the example of Guardiola’s indifferent first season at Manchester City as evidence that it takes time to develop a side.
Arteta formed part of the City backroom staff under his compatriot and delivered back-to-back league titles in the seasons following that underwhelming first campaign, insisting the club’s hierarchy never doubted Guardiola’s ability to bring silverware to the Etihad.
“At Man City in our first year, which was complicated, I saw the reaction of people around Pep, the people in the hierarchy,” Arteta told DAZN.
“They didn’t have a doubt, they knew the path to follow – this year something has happened but we are going there and the following years it was different.
“For me the most important thing when you are building a new project is that you need to be very clear in what you want to do and the people around you have to know what you want to do, believe in that and be willing to defend that for a sustainable and reasonable period of time.
“Changing to what we want has risks and the way we want to play requires a lot of precision, a lot of game plan. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t.
“We have been very clear where we are going and in this path there’s going to be times when the project is going to suffer.
‘“There we have to be stronger than ever, keep our idea and keep trying to bring the players we want, keep the players we have and evolve them. For me that’s the main secret.”
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