“The fun is back.” – Sokratis Papastathopoulos

Indeed the fun is back. There’s a great feeling around the club and it’s not just because Arsenal beat Manchester United.

Just a few weeks ago, empty seats and the boos at full-time had become a near regular sight at the Emirates. Fans were dissatisfied with poor performances and results; 1 win in 14 before Arsenal took on London rivals Chelsea. Going into the match however, there was already a different feeling at the club.

Much to the joy of the Gooners, an early goal gave Arsenal the lead. Arsenal couldn’t hold on however. An injury to Calum Chambers, a tactical change by Frank Lampard, and a mistake by Bernd Leno lead to Chelsea finding their way to victory, handing Arsenal their fourth successive loss at the Emirates… and yet there were no boos. If anything, the fans seemed to be pleased.

Hope. It’s a beautiful thing.

Mikel is a great coach. He knows football, he was a great player. He brings things where I believe in his philosophy and I think he can improve every single player.

Strong words from David Luiz in his interview after the victory against Manchester United, pretty much summing up the sentiment around the club.

In life, when you are happy, the results can be totally different. If you sleep happy for four hours, it is better than to sleep sad for eight hours. If you work with happiness, with believing what you are doing, it’s totally different.

Talk of happiness, just weeks after the gloominess under Unai Emery. How quickly things can change. When things do change that quickly though, there’s often a lot of talk about players having “downed the tools”. It seems evident when the very same players struggling under a manager suddenly turn up and play completely differently under a new manager. But “downing the tools” implies a conscious malicious action being taken, even if that may not be the case.

It’s not necessary that the players were downing their tools towards the end of Unai Emery’s tenure, but rather the poor performances and the lack of effort was a natural consequence of the loss of belief in what he was selling.

Upon his sacking, all the players, including Ozil, said their goodbyes personally with Unai Emery meeting them one by one. By all accounts there was still professional respect by everyone at Arsenal for the Spaniard. The performances weren’t necessarily evidence of the players having something personal against Unai and that showing on the pitch, but that quite simply the relationship between the players and Emery had run its course. It’s often easy to make accusations and put the players in a vacuum where all nuance is lost and everything is black and white but never grey.

The flipside to subconsciously performing poorly under a manager players don’t believe in, is playing their hearts out for a manager they do believe in. Under Arteta, admittedly only three games in, things seem different. David Luiz and Sokratis’ interview was an insightful revelation into the minds of the players themselves, further proving what was perhaps already seen in the smiles of the players in the post match celebrations.

Even Xhaka, whose exit from the club seemed a foregone conclusion not so long ago, seems to be be staying put at the club and has been made feel welcome again.

Sentiments aside, there has been a remarkable difference in the performances. The ideas and the style of play Arteta is trying to implement can already be seen, unlike under Unai Emery nearly one and a half years in.

For example; playing Torreira in a role where he succeeds at, and playing Xhaka alongside him has resulted in a partnership where both players complement each other and appear to be making up for the shortcomings of one another. As a result, that very partnership has added some much needed steel to the midfield and developed a layer of protection above the defence. An improvement can be seen, even if Arsenal did concede two goals to Chelsea.

Nevertheless, it hasn’t been all butterflies and rainbows. Arsenal did drop significantly in the second half against Chelsea and did ultimately lose the game. Things weren’t entirely different against United, even if Arsenal did hold on to keep a clean sheet to win this time around.

However, it is a work in progress and the second half fall in performances isn’t necessarily a result of a flaw in the tactics from the manager but perhaps a natural consequence of a team currently unable to maintain the physical intensity for 90 minutes of the game.

David Luiz touched upon the subject in his post-match interview:

We were a mature team in the second-half. We have to be honest and humble to admit physically we are not ready.

It’s a work in progress, and with time the fitness of the players should improve, and it’s good to see that the players know that.

The performances do show that there is a lot of room for improvement, but they’ve shown fans a glimpse of what may come if the players continue down this path and that has completely changed the mood around the club.

The obvious can be pointed out; it has been only three games and Arsenal have won only one of those. A remarkably small sample size from which one cannot seriously objectively draw conclusions.

But fans aren’t objective. Fans are romantics and dreamers. And under Mikel Arteta, Arsenal fans dream once again.