When did football’s new normal really crystallise itself for you? The first time players started making their way back to training grounds for socially-distanced drills? As whispers of a behind closed doors friendly defeat to Brentford emerged on social media?
Or that moment where you desperately attempt to navigate the complexities of unmuting yourself on a Zoom call whilst attempting to come up with something insightful to ask because it’s your turn and the whole world doesn’t care that the question you wanted to ask has just been asked anyway?
Robert Peston I owe you an apology. It’s not as easy as it looks.
Arsenal’s first press conference of the COVID age was not necessarily an unqualified success but what teething problems there were lay solely with the intricacies of managing a call with 70 participants from across the world, all of whom would have been rather keen to lob a few questions at Arteta.
Those lucky few who did get a word in all began in familiar fashion. “Hello, can you hear me? Is this thing on? I think I’m still muted.”
If there was anyone who was at ease with these thoroughly modern press conferences it was Arteta, although the Arsenal head coach has had plenty more practice than most of those doing the interrogation.
From day one the Spaniard has understood the value of getting the media on side. Even virtually - looking almost rotoscoped onto another man’s body as his Zoom backdrop desperately attempted to obscure him - he was charm personified.
“First of all I hope everyone is there,” he said to what can only be assumed to be his own face staring back at him from his computer screen. “I cannot see anybody but I hope you're all well.
“I miss you a lot.”
Oh Mikel, we missed you too.
Indeed as Arteta held court once more it was hard not to feel grateful that it was not Unai Emery who had been at the tiller during this trying period. The Spaniard was, at his best, a shrewd tactician and in game coach but even his greatest admirers at Arsenal would not contend that he was a charismatic communicator in a new tongue.
That should not be held against Emery the man but Emery the head coach undoubtedly found the job harder because of these barriers.
Arteta is a far more propulsive force. He understands that a key part of his role is to set the culture around Arsenal, when staff at London Colney and Highbury House talk about the club feeling more united now than it has in many a year they consistently reference the galvanizing impact of the new head coach.
He is no less impressive in his press conferences; questions are not dodged and if you have something to ask Arteta you will invariably feel that you have got a convincing, honest answer.
Asked by football.london whether he would temper his positive approach to counter Manchester City, Arteta expounded in no little depth about his plans, offering a warning that his side could not simply turn up at the Etihad and expect to impose themselves on the English champions.
And yet he kept a great deal close to his chest. “We have to take every game in the same way, to go there and win the game,” Arteta said. “We know that every stadium and every opponent is completely different.
“I have to focus and I have to try to convince my players to focus on what we have to do, we cannot control everything that Man City does, it's impossible. Even if we want to and I will drive the players mad in order to do that.
“So I just try to convince them on what we can do to try and beat them, what is the best plan possible for us to have the best possible chance to compete in that game and to win it.
“Let's see how much we are able to do that because here it's easy, but to go there on the pitch and show it for 96 minutes is different.”
If Pep Guardiola learned anything about how Arteta will approach this first meeting between master and apprentice then he certainly has strong powers of insight. Yet when the Manchester City boss does come to watch his Arsenal counterpart he will surely be impressed.
Because for all these new press conferences staccato nature, their awkward exchanges and technical hiccoughs Arteta can still get his message across just as well as before.
