The Gunners boss is pleased with the progress he has overseen during his first year in charge, but also admits that there is still much to do
Mikel Arteta believes the future is “really bright” for Arsenal, but admits that he needs to find “solutions to win more football matches”.
Having represented the Gunners in his playing days, taking the captain’s armband under Arsene Wenger, the Spaniard knows all about the weight of expectation in north London.
He was under no illusion as to the size of challenge he was taking on when returning to Emirates Stadium in December 2019.
Arteta had no managerial experience of which to speak when accepting an SOS call from Arsenal, with his coaching teeth cut at Manchester City as assistant to Pep Guardiola.
He has, however, shown himself to be a good fit for an ambitious outfit looking to move in a different direction.
A fresh approach has been embraced by most of those working under Arteta, with others frozen out, and optimism is building again.
The Gunners remain a work in progress, with there still a number of issues to iron out, but their current boss believes he can be the man to recapture former glories.
Arteta – who admitted after a 3-0 defeat to Aston Villa that his side are not “the team we’re supposed to be” – told the club’s official website on how things are developing: “It’s part of a process. The results have to be immediate, and the challenge we have with the club we are representing is that we have to win as quickly as possible every game in every competition.
“So far we have played 14 games in all competitions this season, we won 10 and lost four and the four of them have been in the Premier League, so it is a little bit imbalanced.
“There are a lot of things to do, short term and medium term, we have seen a lot of changes not only on the pitch but structurally as a club as well, it’s been difficult, it’s been a challenging time in the last three or four months, a lot of things have happened.
“We have to settle and everyone has to realise where we are now, but I see the future as really bright. I am a really positive person and I tend to learn much more when things don’t go well and we have a defeat like we had the other day that really hurt after the performance we had at Old Trafford.
“We have to understand why it happened, be really critical first of all with myself and try to understand the players better, and give them more solutions to win more football matches.”
Arsenal will return to Premier League action on Sunday with a trip to Leeds.
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