It hasn’t been an easy few weeks for Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta.
The Spaniard led the Gunners to FA Cup glory in his first half-a-season in football management in August, reiterating that he’s one of the best young coaches around.
But Arteta’s team selections and tactics have come under scrutiny from Arsenal fans lately.
Arteta’s side have lost four of their last six games across all competitions and qualifying for the Champions League still looks like it could be a difficult task for them, especially with Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang struggling for the talismanic form that earned him a £250,000-a-week new contract recently.
But the players are firmly behind Arteta and Shkodran Mustafi spoke glowingly about his head coach this afternoon.
Mustafi, a World Cup winner who also played under Arsene Wenger, revealed to the club’s official website that he has never experienced the sort of training sessions that Arteta puts on, hailing the 38-year-old for the level of detail that goes into them.
The German defender, a £35 million signing in 2016, said: “I have to say, I have never had such detailed training sessions. We are working in great detail about everything. Of course, we try to do our football first but then we analyse the next opponent and see where we can defeat the opponents with our strength.
“He always has an idea of how he wants to play the next game and not every game is the same. He analyses the team so well that when we go to the training pitch, he knows exactly what he wants to do, what we have to train to then be prepared for the weekend.”
Arsenal are home to Dundalk in Europa League action tomorrow night and that should, in theory, represent a straight-forward three points for the hosts, but the way things are going, you wouldn’t back against the Gunners making hard work of the Irish outfit.
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