Mikel Arteta admits he was initially “terrified” when he took over at Arsenal five years ago but he is now relishing the challenge of pursuing perfection. The 42-year-old is the Premier League’s third longest-serving manager after overhauling his club’s culture and transforming the Gunners into bona-fide title contenders.
Arteta is now thriving under the constant pressure, but confesses there was once a time when the whole project felt a bit daunting. “I was probably terrified,” he said. “I mean, you haven’t coached anybody at the highest level. It was the middle of season, without any preparation, without a coaching staff, you get asked to take this amazing and big job.
“I was looking around at the people making that decision and they were so convinced. First of all, you want to respond to that trust, and I had very strong feelings towards the club. “I just wanted to make sure I didn’t disappoint anybody, that I was capable of doing it. The only way of doing it is to start day by day, to start to experience that, to start to get close to the players and the staff and see it can work.”.
Remoulding Arsenal’s ethos was a paramount priority for the former club captain, who three weeks after Unai Emery’s sacking took over a 10th-placed side languishing as close to the bottom of the Premier League table as they were to the top. He said: “Well the first thing is understanding what is a good culture and a bad culture. To do that what I did was basically ask, through somebody I employed, to give me their opinion of how they feel to work in this football club.
