No stone has been left unturned in Arsenal’s search for success but the manager must find a way of inspiring his team to play with freedom
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espite all the gimmicks, Mikel Arteta is still searching for answers. The Arsenal manager’s latest innovation involved lighting a fire at their London Colney training ground last week in the buildup to facing Manchester City, although that resulted only in the Watford coach Dan Gosling losing his voice. “Our training ground is across the hedge from Arsenal,” the former Newcastle midfielder said. “There was smoke and you could smell it, it was so strong.”
Arteta has tried pretty much everything since, days after his appointment in December 2019, he planted a 150-year-old olive tree outside his office to symbolise the history of the club and the responsibility “to look after the roots every single day”. From using a lightbulb during a pre-match team talk to “create energy and electricity”, to hiring professional pickpockets during a pre-season dinner and adopting a chocolate-coloured labrador called Win after reading that petting a dog can help to reduce stress levels, no stone has been left unturned.
However, Win will celebrate her fifth birthday in a couple of weeks and has yet to live up to her name because Arsenal have failed to pick up a major trophy since the FA Cup in Arteta’s first season. Over the past four seasons, Arteta has spent 539 nights top of the Premier League without winning the title, surpassing Kevin Keegan’s record by 200 nights. Even more damningly, Arsenal have been top for 959 days since they were last champions under Arsène Wenger in 2004. City, who took over at the summit on Wednesday after their narrow win over Burnley (Arsenal having led the way since October), have been top for 1,201 nights and won eight titles in the same period.
