Football fans and pundits alike are eagerly awaiting the much-anticipated playoff between The Gunners and Championship leaders, Leeds, later today in the third round of the FA Cup. This fixture could well be the Gunners best chances to grab hold of silverware this season.
For one, Arsenal’s Mikel Arteta is seriously hopeful that achieving success in this season’s FA Cup could create a huge psychogical adrenaline zap to get the Emirates boys seriously addicted to winning again. Having himself had an illustrious history with the FA Cup, winning the competition with the club in 2014 and 2015, the former Arsenal skipper also had a key role in helping Manchester City succeed last season as Pep Guardiola’s main assistant. As the head coach spearheading Arsenal’s assault now, Arteta is banging his hopes on his guys tasting the early fruits of success under his tutelage and Cup experience.
“I think winning brings togetherness and when you have beautiful experiences together and you win trophies, those experiences stay within that group. You like more the people you work with and you believe more in them and share some fantastic moments and that stays.” Arteta said.
Well, at least someone in the Arsenal wings seems to have his Psychology 101 down pat!
“That habit of winning, winning and winning. After you win, you don’t want to stop winning and you become addicted to that and that is what we have to try and implement at this club.”
Arteta should know only too well what a long winless drought means and how this debilitating this would be to the morale of any club, their players and the fans. After all, it was a dreary, dark eight-year spell without a trophy that Arteta and his team mates had endured under Arsene Wenger. When Arteta lifted the FA Cup with Arsenal in 2014, it ended their torment as the Gunners proceeded win it twice more. Hence earning the laurels of being the most successful club in the tournament’s history with 13 triumphant wins overall.
He added: “When I arrived here, obviously we were trying to fight for the Premier League, but at the time we didn’t quite have the level to sustain it every year so the cups become very important. This club has a massive history with that and it was eight years without winning absolutely anything, so for us to lift that first FA Cup was a massive relief.”
“It generated a really good belief and unity around our team and that helped that group of players to achieve what they achieved later when they won other cups.”
The club has long since tumbled from their once lofty heights since 2016-17 when they clinched a record 13th FA Cup. Thyey have since then been on a steep downward spiral, resulting in them dropping out of the top four, unable to square off against earler perennial rivals like of Liverpool and City for top honours.
That being said, there’s that distinct silver lining breaking through in their long-brooding dark clouds. The catalytic 2-0 against Manchester United, together with the uproarious, tumultuous noise and support of the fans on New Year’s Day, bodes the beginning of a hopeful new era of new glory for the Gunners.