I don't see any change in Arsenal’s Premier League position under Mikel Arteta – but I do see a team playing with more respect for their manager.
Sometimes, those perceptions are the most important window to what’s happening at a club.
The bare stats don’t tell you that. When Unai Emery left, Arsenal were eighth in the table, seven points off a Champions League place.
Now, they’re eighth in the table, nine points off.
Yet things seems different. I can’t pretend to be an insider at the Emirates, I only know Arteta from a distance across my city, when he played for Everton while I was still at Liverpool.
Yet I can see a more content camp, and I can see a manager having an effect on players, I can see a team which is at least invested in his project, even if there are still huge questions in terms of what quality they’ve got there.
I always think a club where you are constantly hearing about ‘leaks’ from the dressing room, about certain players being unhappy over this or that, there are problems in the camp.
When you have a squad with the right culture, in the right environment, you don’t have that moaning, those snide remarks. You just don’t hear the chatter.
We definitely heard it with Emery. We also saw discontent on the pitch, a side who were not comfortable with what they were doing. He didn’t take the players with him.
Arteta is having an effect on the pitch, you can see that in recent results, but also in the commitment of the players, and their resolve. The culture looks better.
Why? For me the conclusions are obvious: man-management. I don’t think you can manage just by using the big stick any more, you need to create an environment for players to thrive.
That’s not molly-coddling them, it’s making them feel comfortable so they can believe. When I arrived at Brisbane as the new manager, they were used to losing. The club was used to losing.
We turned it around by changing everything about that culture of losing. We changed the environment by making the training interesting, by making the players want to be there. We changed the mentality, by showing we believed in them, so they believed.
That’s where it all starts, and Arteta has given players who were not performing some belief. That’s man-management.
As a manager, you have to find ways that encourage players to give what you want, and that starts with belief.
But also respect, from you to them and them to you.
I can see it with Arteta now, but interestingly, not so much with the Tottenham side they face this weekend, and Jose Mourinho.
It doesn’t mean he’s suddenly a bad manager and Arteta is a genius. It’s just a snapshot at this precise moment. Things changes, momentum changes, personnel changes.
Neither side has a squad currently good enough to make the Champions League. Both managers need to change the whole culture.
Right now, Arteta has managed to change it more.
