Arteta's doctorate: 690 million to resurrect Arsenal and 'sneak' into the Champions aristocracy

«Arsenal had lost its soul. It was not enjoyed, it was not felt. “We had to reconnect the team and the fans.”. With this analysis Mikel Arteta (San Sebastián, 1982) sat on the Gunner bench on December 22, 2019. It was his first experience as a coach and, despite not having had any titles – only the FA Cup 19/20 and two Community Shields in 2020 and 2023 – he is considered successful beyond the Emirates. In the Premier League he is familiar with Manchester City, and a return to the Champions League was guaranteed after six long seasons of absence.. Arteta's doctorate, whom Spanish football is closely monitoring in case the main benches open up, passes through the Sánchez-Pizjuán tonight.

Now is the time for the fruits of that tree that the former Arsenal captain drew to the American businessmen Stan and Josh Kroenke when Unai Emery's project was faltering. After two and a half seasons working side by side with Pep Guardiola, his diagnosis of the London team's illness was accurate.. The leaves were green, with a Europa League final lost to Chelsea and a Champions League qualification that was missed by one point, but the roots were dry.. The club had to be resurrected from below, returning to the essence of what that club was, lost in the post-Arsener Wenger era.

To do so, Arteta relied on another former Gunner, the Brazilian Edu Gaspar, and they completely remodeled the squad with a million-dollar investment.. In three years, Arsenal has spent 690 million euros on players, without being in the Champions League, from where Bayern expelled them in the round of 16 in 2016, and without having managed to climb to the top of the table in the Premier League. .. until last season.

The championship escaped them in April, after losing 4-1 to City. Arteta confessed that, at some point, he saw himself as champion, something that the north London club has not achieved for 20 years. But he has already re-established himself among the candidates and, with nine days played, he has not yet known defeat. They have 21 points, the same as City, thanks to six wins and three draws.

Quarry and checkbook

Arteta substantiates this resurrection with a recognizable style for fans and in a very young squad, with an average age of 25 years old and full of talent, both their own and bought with a checkbook, becoming the fourth English club that has spent the most in the last five years.

Only three of the players he found remain in the team: a forward, the Brazilian Gabriel Martinelli, and the defenders, the Portuguese Cédric Soares and the Frenchman William Saliba. Under Arteta's direction, youth players such as Bukayo Saka and Smith-Rowe debuted in the first team, who were joined by Odegaard, the Ramsdale goalkeeper, Gabriel Jesus and the two most expensive signings: Kai Havertz (75 million) and Declan Rice (116 millions).

The Spanish coach has had to convey to a good part of them the essence of what it means to wear the Arsenal shirt, using all possible resources, from the positive reinforcement of individual talks to bringing to the locker room a replica of the watch that crowned the Highbury stadium for 70 years to remember that Arsenal belongs to the aristocracy of English football.

With firm steps in the Premier, and reinforcing its idea of a good game with players like the Spanish goalkeeper David Raya, who has placed Ramsdale on the spot for his good handling of the ball with his feet, the Champions League represents a challenge. Not only for pedigree but also for economy, as a means of income to recover the strong investment made by the owners to make this return successful.

The defeat against Lens (2-1) after beating PSV at the Emirates (4-0) forces us to look for a victory against Sevilla, a confrontation that will also be repeated the next day in London and that seems decisive for both teams.

The people of Seville, with two draws, will have to wake up after the arrival of Diego Alonso to the bench. It will be his debut in a competition in which he already played, and lost, a final with the Valencia shirt, against Bayern in 2001.. “It will be nice to remember and it will be a good game in which we will have to work a lot in all facets,” he warned.