“I think he is just going to continue to dominate. I do,” says Theo Walcott. He is talking about Mikel Arteta and his Arsenal team. It is just days since the Gunners ended their wait for a trophy. Now, there is a sense that they are on the cusp of something greater.
Beat holders Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League final in Budapest and Arteta will elevate himself to another level entirely. Only Sir Alex Ferguson and Pep Guardiola have lifted that particular trophy and the Premier League trophy with an English club.
It was not so long ago that the focus was on how he would be received if he fell short. But perceptions of Arsenal – and Arteta – are being reframed in real time. They are one game from doing what even Bertie Mee, George Graham and Arsene Wenger never did.
Arteta has been patronised even in the build-up to this Champions League final. Luis Enrique will claim that calling him ‘Mikelito’ was an innocent reference to an old team-mate but it was telling. The subtle message from the PSG boss was that he was still his junior.
Arteta never quite made it into the Barcelona first team. Unlike his own players, and the man in the opposite dugout on Saturday with his 62 caps, he did not become a senior international. But Guardiola has been vanquished. Luis Enrique could now go the same way.
In Hungary, there is a growing confidence. At the fan festival in Heroes Square, Arsenal fans chant of set pieces. A youngster is invited to offer a prediction by the host and goes with 1-0 to Arsenal thanks to a Gabriel header. They believe in what Arteta’s Arsenal do.
It has been a journey to transform that mentality. “He has really changed the whole culture of the club,” says Walcott. And he understands better than most. Twenty years have passed since he signed for Arsenal as a teenager. He saw how things changed there.
Back in 2006, Arsenal were a force, edged out by Barcelona in that year’s Champions League final. By the time that he left in 2018, they were no longer qualifying for the competition. The road back to the top table of European football has been a long and painful one.
There were back-to-back eighth-place finishes in Arteta’s first two seasons. “A lot of managers do not get that time, they do not get that energy, they do not get that support. But the club have had that patience.” And Arteta’s work has earned that patience.
Walcott is speaking to Sky Sports fresh from playing in a five-a-side game at the fan festival in Heroes Square in Budapest. The Arsenal supporters there are enjoying his presence, particularly when he mimics Viktor Gyokeres’ celebration after scoring a goal. On the mic, he plays to the crowd by talking of when not if Arsenal win.
Walcott and Arteta were team-mates for five years from 2011 to 2016. “It was his work ethic. He set the examples, and he was always so strict on habits, good habits. And at times, when players didn’t want to do something, he would make sure you would do it.”
It explains why former team-mates tend to believe in him. Perhaps you will have seen the footage of Tim Cahill defending Arteta on Sky Sports in 2020, pointing to the processes that Arsenal were putting in place, while Roy Keane could not look past the poor results.
Cahill, who had played alongside Arteta at Everton, was able to appreciate what he was building even when some of the Arsenal supporters could not see it. What Walcott calls those “good habits” have taken root and now, finally, they are experiencing the rewards.
“As a person, he is very intense,” explains Walcott. “I always felt when he came to the club, this was a man that was going to be a captain. But not just that, I just think it was the way that he held himself. He was always a man that you would want to listen to.”
Importantly, bonds has been forged. “He relates to players. That connection, more so with the person than the player, it helps. It really does. He gets those connections. When I go to the training ground, it is so positive when you walk in.”
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Arteta speaking after being named Premier League Manager of the Season
There is another side to him, insists Walcott. Arteta has told the story of how he found out that his team were Premier League champions, his family rushing outside to tell him because he could not bear to watch Manchester City’s game against Bournemouth.
“He can switch off at times. I was lucky enough to go on holiday and he was there, and he was having a great time with the kids, playing football.” Maybe that will be Arteta very soon this summer, reflecting on this season of seasons. But before that, immortality awaits.
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