The Trilogy is now complete.
Saving Granit was the first edition. Saving Kai the next instalment. Saving Sterling is the final chapter.
More on this later. Arsenal knew a forward was necessary. Discussions with Toney mid-season were followed by a surprise bid for Sesko. Both led to nothing. Havertz ‘rebirth as a CF changed the game plan but Arteta & Edu both knew the forward line needed to be bolstered. Why? Why would a team with their best scoring record need more ammunition? Because a new season brings new obstacles. A large chunk of those goals came between January & May. A huge portion didn’t occur in the opening months. Football has a nice way of highlighting segments of a season. More firepower was needed because Arsenal were fifth with the biggest chances created in the league next to Chelsea. The novelty of their attacking threat is no longer new. Teams become aware of the set piece routines & Odegaard – Saka – Kai template move. A proactive thinker is always thinking ahead. A new signing allows another dimension to exist. But it was also needed to suppress the quality issue. Havertz requires a certain game plan. Haaland requires minutes in a game. He already has two hat-tricks. This is the level of killer you’re up against. To close the gap, the margins need to be tighter.
For Havertz’s assimilation as a 9, you have Jesus’ abdication as a 9. A player who is completely disinterested in being a CF. As for Martinelli & Saka, they needed this. They needed the load to be shared. Already you’re seeing the travails of repeated patterns not clicking for Martinelli. As for Bukayo, another season without a serious rotation option would’ve caused a fatalistic expectation doom meets us around the corner. And Then there were Five. Trossard, Saka, Martinelli, Sterling & Jesus. It just feels better. Perception plays a major role in the cooling of fans’ temperament. For all of the focus on LW, Sterling solves yesterday’s problem but also issues in the future. Maybe Saka is off-form and needs a rest. Maybe Kai has an Injury so Martinelli takes the 9. Maybe Trossard is out of form as is Gabriel so an old-fashioned pairing of Sterling & Havertz leads the line. Options breed for optimism because at last, the configuration of the attack doesn’t fall on Plan A & Plan B (Trossard from the bench). So Arteta leads Arsenal with a Squad of 22. He trusts Sterling. He knows his qualities in 1v1s and had a role in developing him. He knows he will be motivated to play football with a smile again.
He now finally trusts all of his squad. With Emile Smith Rowe, Eddie, Vieria & Nelson gone, he no longer looks at the bench with the corner of his eyes. Everyone there: he believes in. However it is to be said, it’s one of the thinnest in the league. He thrives working with not a squad of players but a Family. A family with a dog called Win and a collage of photos shown to the world that show training, not as a session for athletic professionals but as a sanctuary of joy-filled spiritual aerobics. Where an exercise that includes only a whistle, a few cones and a bib hallmark the same purity and effervescence displayed in the photo dump from all photographers that shoot at the best of weddings. There’s love there and Arteta and his team want the world to show it. He works with a tight-knit group because there’s more power in the unified few than the talented many. He’s personable and has led Arsenal to the top again through his man management. You see the devotion the players have just from the pre-match huddles & interviews and goal celebrations. After going 2-0 up at Anfield in 2023, the whole team pillaged to the corner flag, arms interlocked and embracing the goal but solemnly, a clear respect to the game that hubris shouldn’t supersede us and only focus and professionalism should follow. It was like Arteta was in that inner ring at that moment.
That togetherness has stayed on but what’s interesting is, that the saviour complex isn’t just fulfilled through Kai, Granit & Raheem. In a way, Arteta’s way of nurturing and developing the young players is part of the overall essential characteristic trait that defines his management: “Together on this journey we go up together”. The squad is young, all the players before Arteta were names in the game as promise, but now they are establishing themselves as soon-to-be if not already world-class players, like the manager himself. Young talent that now the world recognises. They have a lot in debt to him as he does for them. As both resemble the fruits of talent. good ideas and processes. It’s much easier for him to sell this vision of glory to a younger core who are eager to become something. Ben White was at Brighton, Gabriel at Lille, Tomiyasu at Bologna, Merino at Sociedad, and Martin Odegaard a Real Madrid cast-away. Can you see the saviour formations forming? It’s just slightly different. A back-room staff with an Assistant Manager at 28, Cuesta, who is one of the most coveted coaches in the world. Declan Rice, although 105 million was a player wanting to “prove’ he could move up to a new level. The experienced heads: Jorginho was bought to be a coach on the pitch, and Zinchenko was 2nd choice after Martinez but again exiled like Gabby Jesus. In terms of marquee signings, Thomas Partey represents the only signing who was brought in to help Arteta more so than Arteta could help him.
It’s not a knock on Mikel, it’s a clear running theme of his to sign players that aren’t simply put ‘big wigs‘. Rory Smith of the New York Times spoke of how Pep at City made sure he had a team of players with no misdemeanours, a quite passive and malleable group that had no thrones or egos like the Zlatans or Yayas of the past. A group where he didn’t have to spend time getting pushback on buying into his process. At Arsenal with Mikel, it’s the same. What Arteta has is a gift of reminding you of your value, that at Arsenal you can become something great, that your career doesn’t need to plateau and that what you have is special and valuable. It is why Arsenal have yet to sign a stellar, marquee, established name of the likes of Sane, Osimhen, Frenkie, Rodrygo or even Musiala or Bellingham. Names not of a pedigree above Arsenal but names that carry a certain expectation that they can be the catalyst for a better Arsenal. Names where you would need to build a team around them. Names that carry less input from Mikel & more of an acceptance that the player is going to do his magic and I must bow to his talents. Marquee names require you to build a team around them. Arteta wants to build a team around him.
It’s what has made them successful so far, their rivals & his mentor have adjusted his similar model though with Haaland & KDB. Two monsters that simply require little input because they win you games by letting them do what they do. That’s the ceiling Arsenal need to aspire to reach. Where low blocks are not an issue because you have players of a calibre that rifle through anything. Game breakers of the highest level. Where chaos is encouraged & favours you as it comes in the blink of an eye and suddenly an away game at the Allianz isn’t a lacklustre defeat of a performance that lacked inspiration. Maybe, that’s the edge and development in the saviour gene Arteta needs to manifest for trophies to follow. He’s got them so close. Maybe it follows after this Trilogy.