Arsenal's New Winning Spirit

I've been absent from the pages of Goonersphere for some months now and not putting my thoughts in print was not the best of feelings. I wanted to write, I like writing, but every week I had so many other things in my life that it came short. And then there are all the topics surrounding Arsenal, but with time cut short the choice of topics gets very small and often there's nothing left as it seems 10 minutes before you turned on your computer all the things you wanted to talk about had already been written about. 

Hopefully today I have found something that hasn't been covered too much yet. There has been some talk of it already with Arsenal finding their feet and being on the track to success despite a lot of injuries. I hope to paint a bigger picture.

Growing mentally game by game 

Arsenal didn't start the season to the best of their abilities but quickly the other big teams struggled for points and that made it possible for Arsenal to rapidily get close to the top again. Many players got injured in the process, almost the entire team has suffered at least one layoff and we've had to deal with injuries to key players like Ramsey, Walcott, Coquelin, Cazorla, Alexis and many others. Swathes of supporters thought that we would struggle with every new injury to a key player, that we were on injury away from falling off the pace but the team showed their depth, not entirely in numbers or quality but in their growing mentality of never giving up and now they are showing they have the stability to compete under pressure. 

Wenger on Monday about the team spirit:

“What’s interesting in my side is there’s a real life in the team, a real togetherness and great solidarity. So let’s take care of that.” 

Difference to last ten years

Wenger had to sell players to fund the new stadium, the best players were sold after 1 or 2 good years at the club. The constant rebuilding hampered the team spirit and the mentality they are showing now did now have the means to grow. It really looks as if this has changed now. I like seeing our players communicating on the pitch, even heckling one another when it is needed, more than in the years before. It shows that the mentality has changed too and that the team is really focused on giving its best even if some key players are missing.

Another part of Arsenal's game has changed since last year. Many Plan Bs were developed and implemented from defense to attack. Therefore we should give a lot of credit to Mr. Wenger and Bould. 

Mertesacker on change of tactics (Monday):

“Last season we played at Manchester City and showed a different kind of gameplan. That is what we had in the locker already but this year we are more consistent and it makes us a bit better as a unit. When I see our players up front working as hard as they did [against City] that makes a difference for us defenders – it makes it much easier to defend our goal. We go game by game and concentrate on having a gameplan and trying to implement it. That has been our strength so far against the big teams and it makes us stronger as a unit.” 

 

I really like that Wenger signed some players from South America and the Caribbean with real quality, not high expectation, low delivery players like André Santos. Bringing in Campbell, Alexis and Gabriel adds a lot of hard working footballers to the team. Admirable professionals who deliver strong performances on the pitch and give their all to succeed.

The whole team seems to be moving forward in all fields of football; development, experience, mentality and togetherness off the pitch as well.

Wenger always talked about the subject saying that he does not want to add players, which have the same qualities as the players he has in the squad already. For some time now I understand what it means for a team. It makes it unique and even more unpredictable with every player having a different style of play and approach to the game – this mix looks fantastic.

The new spirit infects you from the start when watching a game right now. The players really have become a team. A capable and exciting team.

Patience gets rewarded

A lot of us doubted Coquelin's quality last year and were calling for Campbell to be sold this year. Both players have been an absolute revelation. Both fought their way in to the first team in their own way. Coquelin believed in his quality and waited for the opportunity to prove he could be an asset to Arsenal (even if it took him a bit longer to develop), Campbell, due to work permits, had no chance to play for Arsenal so allowed himself to be loaned all over Europe to gain experience then came back to Arsenal and patiently waited to get into the team. Joel has been superb since he was parachuted in. Little was expected of him but his hard-working nature, simple (but not without technique) style of play and great stamina has endeared him to the fans as he grows from game to game.

Both players show that patience can be rewarded in football, but there are enough other subjects where it counts as well. The football business shows it in a ridiculous way how fast life has become. Having the longest serving manager at the club brings steadiness, which gets underestimated seeing managers leaving clubs as fast as players do these days.

We, the Arsenal supporters, know how important a proper team spirit can be and should be grateful for that. There's something special happening at the club right now and it's built on our new team spirit.

Up the Arsenal

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