In a Premier League focus match that just ended, Arsenal finished visiting West Ham 2-0 at home, once again overtaking their opponents to the fourth place in the table, and they returned to the top four after a year. This return to the familiar position shows both arsenal's recent improvement in overall form and a clear gain from the team's summer transfer, and behind this, arteta, who is in charge for the first time, has completed the Rebuilding of the Gunners through a series of stubborn and ruthless moves of his own. As he approaches his second anniversary as Arsenal manager, Arteta's Arsenal are finally seeing the shadow of their former champions.
As Arteta's first official head coaching position, while he may be inexperienced as a result, he cannot be blamed for his decisiveness, determination and ruthlessness in personnel management. Arteta was a tense and serious role during his time as Arsenal captain, allowing him to maintain his qualities as manager. Players know what to expect from them and Arteta often fully enforces his "absolute rules". Many of his players have violated his strict rules, which has allowed him to clean up Arsenal's years of weakness over the past two years through a series of ruthless moves to create a strong division.
As arteta's latest and most compelling case of making rules, stripping Aubameyang of his captain's armband is just one case that has just happened. After a series of violations of team discipline, Arteta decisively removed him from his post and changed the captainship to a "leadership group" composed of Lacazette and others. In a blunt statement, the club said: "We want all of our players, especially our captains, to work according to the rules and standards that we all set and agree on." Leaving if you don't meet the criteria is the most distinctive feature of Arteta.
The same ruthless move also occurred in the team's substitutions, with many experts baffled by Arsenal's move to buy Sheffield United goalkeeper Ramsdale for £24m in the summer. After all, Leno has been the undisputed first goalkeeper for three consecutive seasons and has no particular weaknesses. But Arteta pushed Forramsdale's signing anyway and clarified Leno's replacement position. For now, while Arteta has kept his conversation with Leno confidential, Now Ramsdale's performance does prove Arteta's choice.
In terms of team purges, Arteta's ruthlessness and calmness have been more resolute. As Arsenal's midfield core, Ozil has seen its form plummet after signing a huge £350,000 contract. Despite being the most creative player in midfield, despite receiving a high salary, Arteta resolutely froze the Turk, directly excluding him from the first line and removing it from the Europa League and Premier League squads for the 2020/21 season. As another talented midfielder of Arsenal, Guendouzi was also purged by Arteta for his recklessness and sentimentality, and although he is now performing well in Marseille, Arteta is not impressed, but brings in Lokunga to replace this position.
Guendouzi excelled in Marseille
For the players who want to leave, Arteta also does not drag mud and water, from Willian to David Louis, Arteta did not have emotional matters after their state was difficult to maintain, but seemingly "indifferently" terminated their contracts with them, and finally the two returned to Bajia. Arteta was also decisive in dealing with players who came directly to challenge the authority of the club, and during the summer transfer, Nils directly said that he was leaving on his social media, and Arteta's reaction was not to sell him, but to exclude him from first-team training – disobedience would be punished. As another main striker in the team, Nibraspepe's identity did not exempt Arteta from being harsh and even harsh on him. In november 2019 against Leeds United, Pepe received a red card for his recklessness, and Arsenal were eventually forced to draw away from home. An enraged Arteta angrily denounced Pepe's foul as "unacceptable". Pepe's position in the team seems to have been affected since then, with just five starts in the Premier League this season.
David Luiz returns to Bajaya
These acts seemed heartless and indifferent, but Arteta did it and persevered. Through two years of reconstruction, the team's redundant personnel and tumors were purged, and the personnel structure and salary were balanced. Through Arteta's decisive killing, the players' will to fight and the team's ethos have changed, making Arsenal now more powerful. Perhaps that's what Arteta insisted on and the reward Arsenal wanted.