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BIRMINGHAM — It was some time ago that Arsenal supporters fell head over heels with much of this deeply likeable team of youthful vigor. Mikel Arteta though, that was a harder task. An admired but never adored club captain had become something of a dogmatic figure on the touchline. After two straight eighth place finishes some of his critics feared he might raze Arsenal to the ground while the chances he could build it back from the ashes remained very much in doubt.
You would struggle to find many Arsenal doubters at Villa Park today. Instead the away supporters were serenading “super Mik Arteta,” the man who “knows exactly what we need.” For a manager who has spent more of his career coaching in empty stadia than with the crowd at his back, it must have been a particularly welcome treat to have the fans on his side at last.
“That’s what gives sense to everything we do,” he told CBS Sports. “You realize it in those moments that those people have big emotions towards the club, and you can make them happy. Everything just makes sense. The connection that they showed with the players and with me as well, you just have to be very grateful because they have come along on this journey, and I think believe on what we do.
“Personally, it feels great, because we’ve been through a lot and we played nearly two years with no crowds. To gain something that, in my opinion, was the most important thing, which is unity around the club and a sense of direction and belonging, it was going to be really important and it produces belief and energy.”
Such was the vitriol aimed at him on social media (if not ever in the Emirates Stadium stands) Arteta might be inclined to hold a grievance against those who doubted him but now want on the bandwagon. “They can jump! The more people we have on board the better.”
The exertions of Wednesday’s defeat to Liverpool were writ large across this Arsenal performance,…
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Source : cbssports
