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Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta says he was ‘shocked’ by the broken link between the first team and the fans upon arrival and has been working to fix that discord.
Arteta took over from the Gunners in December 2019 following the removal of Unai Emery.
Emery’s dismissal was highly anticipated by many Arsenal fans who were appalled by his indifferent tactics and results, culminating in a seven-game winless streak.
Towards the end of Emery’s term in charge, then-Arsenal captain Granit Xhaka waved and cursed the home fans when he was booed during his substitution in the 2-2 draw against Crystal Palace. That incident was a microcosm of the dynamic between players and fans at the time, something that Arteta, who won the FA Cup with Arsenal last season, has been trying to repair.
‘You can’t build something new [quickly], when something has been damaged and seriously injured, you can see a huge divide even between our own fans and the team, ” he told the Gunners’ official website.
“When you were in that stadium 10 months ago, I was surprised.
‘You have to rebuild that [bond]. To do that, you have to build some foundation and then start a process. You have to prioritize that process up front and where you are going to get.
‘To do that you need some pieces that have to be filled in there, and you have to start creating a puzzle and trying to handle it because there will be bad times and you don’t want to break it.
“All the time you have to be very alert because it takes very little to break what you are building.”
Arteta hopes to continue that rebuilding on Sunday when Arsenal travel to Leeds United in the Premier League.
Source: m.allfootballapp.com
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