Mikel Arteta has put an emphasis on Arsenal’s relationship with their supporters since his first day in charge of the club back in December 2019.Aged 37 at the time, the former Arsenal captain witnessed the disconnect between the club and its supporters just four days before he was announced as the club’s head coach. Sat in the Manchester City dugout as Pep Guardiola’s assistant manager while they dispatched Freddie Ljungberg’s Arsenal 3-0, something did not sit right with Arteta, even if he took the reins less than a week later.“That image, that feeling of the stadium, the crowd (with) 50 per cent of the stadium empty really got into me,” he recalled ahead of Arsenal’s final home game of this season against Burnley tonight.“I said, with this, there is no project. This is not going to work. Unfortunately it got worse very quickly because then Covid hit and then instead of 50 per cent we had zero. So you make the job even harder.“After that we had to rebuild everything. But when it’s harder at the beginning, then it’s better to see that transformation and that joy on the people. It’s something that is beautiful to watch.”Arteta on the Manchester City bench at the Emirates in December 2019, shortly before he took charge of Arsenal (IAN KINGTON/IKIMAGES/AFP via Getty Images)The beauty of that transformation has been difficult to hear and see at all times this season, with periods where tension was the overriding emotion, but that has been understandable.Three consecutive second-placed finishes have generated a sense of expectation, hope and nervousness that has only been magnified by how tight some matches have been. For example, at the turn of the year, no Premier League team had gone into the final 15 minutes of matches with more one-goal leads than Arsenal. At that stage of the season, wins over Brentford (2-0) and Wolves (2-1) were both examples of how that anxiety can build even in matches where Arsenal came away with three points.In March, after a tight 2-1 win over Chelsea, Jurrien Timber told reporters: “You feel it (the anxiety), especially at the end. We stopped playing a bit, which was unnecessary — especially with a man up. It’s something we need to work on, talk about as well.“It happened a couple of times this season already. We put so much effort into the game, especially in the first half, and you have to go up 1-0 or 2-0, but these things happen — especially against a good team like Chelsea.“It’s part of the game, you have to understand what happens in the moment. The energy within the players and the crowd, the anxiety. It’s something we need to address and talk about.”The recent home win over Fulham felt like a breakthrough for this year, with the roar from the stadium at half-time so loud and unexpected that it will be hard to forget. That energy only rose with the team greeted by thousands of fans as they arrived to the Emirates Stadium ahead of their Champions League semi-final win over Atletico Madrid, and on his feelings on the atmosphere in and around the ground now, Arteta added: “(The supporters are) our 12th man and the magic player.Arsenal fans arrived early ahead of their team’s Champions League semi-final second leg against Atletico Madrid (Adrian Dennis / AFP via Getty Images)“When the stadium provides that level of energy, passion and optimism, they play every single action with the team. When we have the ball, when the opponent has the ball, in every element, they live the game like that. The value of that is just infinite. I think you cannot measure it and the team becomes different. It is as simple as that.”