Arteta's gatherings, Werewolf and a Gabriel close call - the inside story of Arsenal's season (2024)

In the corridor between the Emirates Stadium’s home dressing room and the tunnel, there is a message on the wall. It is the last thing the players see before they go out onto the pitch: “Fight until the end.”

Arsenal can be satisfied they did that. An 89th-minute winner on the final day against Everton meant they finished within two points of champions Manchester City. Arsenal ended the campaign with a club-record 28 Premier League wins and 91 goals. They also had the best defensive record in the division.

This was a campaign of which Arsenal supporters can feel incredibly proud. And yet for Mikel Arteta, it is not enough. “I think now it’s time to have a break, think, reflect, and please keep pushing and don’t be satisfied,” he told the fans in his post-match address. “We want much more than this and we’re going to get it.”

Lesser teams might have fallen before this point.

When Arsenal convened for training the morning after their Champions League exit against Bayern Munich in April, the mood was understandably flat. The squad was coming off the back of a run of six games in just 18 days — they were physically exhausted and mentally drained.

With weary legs and tired minds, there was a danger Arsenal’s season could go into freefall. Out of the Champions League, they faced a taxing week on the domestic front, with a trip to Wolverhampton Wanderers followed by London derbies against Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur.

When Arteta addressed his players, he acknowledged it had been a long, hard campaign — especially for the first-team regulars. But he called upon the players on the fringes of the squad to support their team-mates for one final push. He emphasised that this was the time when he needed everybody.

He picked out the likes of Cedric, Mohamed Elneny and Fabio Vieira and told them this was the moment their energy was needed. They were required to lift the camp, to maintain the standards in training, and give their team-mates support for the remainder of the run-in. This, Arteta knew, was the sliding doors moment for their season.

Arsenal followed up with three wins in the next week, reasserting their title credentials. The intensity and quality of training went up a gear. Players who had looked spent found a second wind and those on the fringes of the squad coalesced to form one united group: one club, one team.

That unity is the cornerstone of this Arsenal project. That much was evident at full time against Everton when players and staff were joined by their families on the pitch. They’re the unseen contributors to the cause: those who support, guide, celebrate and commiserate with the team at every turn. Part of Arteta’s brilliance is to recognise their importance.

Instead of finishing on a diminuendo, Arsenal found a way to sustain their excellent season, taking their title challenge to the final day and pushing the team to new heights.

This is the story of their season.

Preparations for Arsenal’s title charge arguably began in the winter of 2022 when they commenced their courtship of Declan Rice. He was to be the centrepiece of their summer business — a beacon Arteta would later describe as Arsenal’s very own “lighthouse”.

For Rice, pre-season was a whirlwind of information. He was given a crash course in Arsenal’s game model and putting the theory into practice was not always straightforward for the England international — especially considering that, in those first few weeks with the club, he was nursing a calf injury. He marvelled at how, in certain phases of the game, he was being asked to play at centre-back, in others as an advanced left-sided midfielder. For Rice, adapting to Arsenal was an education.

Kai Havertz was bought principally to replace Granit Xhaka in midfield. Arsenal considered other candidates, such as Ilkay Gundogan and Mason Mount, but Arteta and sporting director Edu were most excited by Havertz’s distinct physical and technical profile.

The addition of Jurrien Timber added flexibility and quality to Arsenal’s defensive options. While he was initially bought to play at right-back and centre-back, a series of impressive pre-season performances at left-back changed Arsenal’s thinking.

The pursuit of David Raya was controversial — externally and internally. While nobody had any doubts about Raya’s quality, there was significant debate within Arsenal about allocating more resources to the goalkeeping department, especially in the wake of awarding Aaron Ramsdale a new contract just a few months earlier.

Arteta, however, would not be deterred. Persuaded of Raya’s qualities by goalkeeping coach Inaki Cana, he was bullish in his pursuit of the Spain international.

There were casualties along the way. As well as the changes to Arteta’s playing squad, there was a significant change to his backroom staff. Arteta’s assistant, Steve Round, was one of those who argued against signing Raya. He felt displacing Ramsdale — popular among players and staff —could disrupt Arsenal’s carefully cultivated culture.

That disagreement played a part in Arteta’s decision to dispense with Round. In his stead, Arteta promoted 28-year-old coaching prodigy Carlos Cuesta. The Mallorcan has become a trusted sounding board for Arsenal’s manager and an increasingly influential presence at London Colney. The change was also about Arteta demonstrating to his younger staff that there was a pathway for them to continue their coaching careers with Arsenal.

In the end, Arsenal managed to do a deal for Raya with Brentford — an initial £3million ($3.8m) loan with a £27m option. It was made clear this option would certainly be taken up and it was simply a question of deferring the payment for budgetary reasons.

Arsenal signed Raya on August 15. By September 17, he had ousted Ramsdale as the first-choice goalkeeper. In the build-up to that weekend’s game against Everton, Arteta explained his decision to both goalkeepers. Although Raya performed well at Goodison Park, his first few months as No 1 were uncharacteristically shaky. Later, Arteta and his staff would admit the external scrutiny and debate were hampering Raya’s performances.

Ultimately, Arteta’s decision was vindicated by Raya’s 16 clean sheets, which earned him the Premier League’s Golden Glove. His move will, as promised, be made permanent this summer — and the terms of his contract are already agreed.

Even before pre-season officially began, a number of players had already started working towards the new campaign. Several first-team squad members flew to Marbella to take part in a training camp.

The pre-season period afforded Arteta and Arsenal time to focus on certain technical aspects of their game. Their build-up was recalibrated to place William Saliba at the heart of their passing game. The intense fixture list leaves little time to focus on the granularity of set pieces, so this is when much of speciality coach Nicolas Jover’s groundwork was done. His philosophy is to establish core principles, which can then be tweaked at regular intervals throughout the season.

Arsenal’s pre-season schedule included three penalty shootouts — in the last of the three they beat Manchester City to win the Community Shield. The idea was to try to replicate a high-stakes scenario to prepare the players for a time when they might face such a situation in a more competitive environment. As it happened, Arsenal would later triumph in a penalty shootout against Porto in the last 16 of the Champions League.

One curiosity of the early part of the season was the absence of Gabriel from the starting line-up. Arteta abruptly ended Gabriel’s run of 73 consecutive Premier League appearances by omitting him from the XI for the team’s first three Premier League games.

In his dealings with the media, Arteta insisted Gabriel’s omission was purely tactical. There was a plausible logic to that: with Oleksandr Zinchenko unavailable, Arsenal played with a narrower left-back and Thomas Partey as an inverted right-back.

There was another facet to Gabriel’s omission, however. Behind the scenes, there was anticipation of a bid from the Saudi Pro League. Arsenal believed an offer was imminent and even went so far as to draw up a list of potential replacements, including names like Marc Guehi and Aymeric Laporte. Manchester City made it clear that having strengthened Arsenal by selling them Gabriel Jesus and Zinchenko the previous summer, they would not be prepared to deal with them on Laporte. In the end, it was Laporte who moved to Saudi Arabia, joining Al Nassr in a deal worth €27.5m (£23.23m, $29.1m).

Once the transfer window was closed, Gabriel immediately came back into the XI and started all bar one of Arsenal’s remaining Premier League games.

After an indifferent opening period, including a disappointing home draw with Fulham, Arsenal’s season was kickstarted by the 3-1 win over Manchester United on September 3. A month later, they beat Manchester City at home — a huge psychological boost to the group.

Although Arsenal’s results were largely good, the team had the look of a work in progress. Raya had not yet settled in goal and made costly errors against Lens and Luton Town. The removal and then reintroduction of Gabriel, as well as the cruciate ligament injury sustained by Timber, disrupted the defence.

Havertz was acclimatising to a new club and new position. When he opened his Arsenal account with a penalty against Bournemouth on September 30, the Germany international felt self-conscious about the attention lavished on him. He knew he had more to offer and that there would be more to come.

With Havertz in midfield and Jesus sidelined, Arsenal lacked something in attack, too. There was a sense Arsenal’s new-look team was still waiting to click.

Their first loss came in controversial circ*mstances at St James’ Park. Anthony Gordon’s winner was allowed to stand despite several contentious incidents leading up to the goal. Arteta called the officiating “embarrassing” and a “disgrace”. His remarks led to him being charged by the Football Association (FA), who alleged his comments constituted “misconduct as they are insulting towards match officials and/or detrimental to the game and/or bring the game into disrepute”.

At a hearing in December, an independent Regulatory Commission found the charge to be not proven. The FA was disappointed Arteta did not receive a ban and ultimately held themselves responsible: they believe they levied the wrong charge. It was too specific, too niche, and Arteta and Arsenal were able to argue their way out of it.

Arteta would later use the controversial defeat as part of his team talk before Arsenal’s 4-1 win over Newcastle United in February. The manager was also a driving force in the club’s efforts to generate a good atmosphere in the stadium for the return fixture, feeling the team had a sense of unfinished business.

Arsenal produced one of their most complete performances of the season to beat Brighton & Hove Albion 2-0 in December, before following up with a 1-1 draw at Anfield. That point against Liverpool ensured Arsenal would be top at Christmas for a second consecutive year.

Any joy was short-lived, though. Between Christmas and New Year, they were beaten at home by West Ham and away to Fulham. They started 2024 with an FA Cup exit against Liverpool.

A team that had been making good progress suddenly seemed beset with problems. For all Arsenal’s promise, staff were well aware that consecutive Premier League defeats could ultimately prove enough to derail a title challenge. The standards set by Manchester City necessitate something close to perfection. Arsenal’s standards dropped for just four days and yet it would arguably ultimately cost them the title.

“Really tough day,” Arteta said after the defeat at Craven Cottage. “It wasn’t good enough. We didn’t deserve to win. When you have opportunities to go top of the league on December 31 and now end up with a really bad feeling, that is football. The lines are really thin.

“If we play like we played in the other 19 games we will be up there (in the league at the end of the season).

“If we play like today we will be nowhere near. Today was a really difficult day to swallow.”

Arsenal needed a break. They needed Dubai.

What was the secret of Arsenal’s transformative January trip to Dubai? A party game called Werewolf.

Arsenal took advantage of the winter break to hold a week’s warm-weather training camp in the United Arab Emirates and returned looking fitter, fresher and, crucially, more clinical.

After coming back from Dubai, Arsenal won eight consecutive Premier League games, scoring 33 goals in the process.

“It was necessary (the camp),” said Arteta in March. “We had a tough period before where we played so many games and had some defeats. It was necessary to help us keep improving and demanding of ourselves, especially with the weather and some of the things we had time to work on.

“It was really good and it came at the perfect time for us. We built the chemistry around the place. The amount of time we spent together — we enjoyed the time on the field and off the field. It was a really positive trip.”

These trips are as much about bonding as anything else. Aside from the conventional football pastimes of playing cards and video games, Arsenal’s squad developed a more idiosyncratic habit. Inspired by the success of TV’s The Traitors, Arsenal’s first team began playing the parlour-game version — known as Werewolf or Mafia.

Over the final few months of the season, these Werewolf games became so popular that soon Arteta’s staff were asking the players whether they could join in.

Outside of that, the secret of Arsenal’s Dubai camp was: there was no secret. The biggest benefits were the change of scene, a break from the monotony of the schedule and a different climate.

Arteta made a late decision to allow partners to join the players in Dubai. That presented an opportunity for the players to mingle with their families. Some took advantage of the free time they were granted to play golf, others to visit the zoo.

The three key players on Arsenal’s right side, Bukayo Saka, Ben White and Martin Odegaard, took the opportunity to go for dinner together with their partners. Arteta believes that friendship is part of what makes their on-field relationship so fluent. “They’re very close, they spend a lot of time together off the field as well and that’s something really important,” he said in May. “You can tell in the way they communicate and the way they look at each other that there is something special.”

The training camp was not entirely an idyllic oasis: for certain players on the fringes of the group, it was a time of considerable frustration. The season’s halfway mark was a watershed moment for certain players and their position in Arteta’s selection hierarchy. Eddie Nketiah is perhaps the best example: between August and January, he started 10 of Arsenal’s 20 Premier League games. In the second half of the season, he has been limited to just eight substitute appearances.

The training was hard. Arteta pushed his players, feeling it was necessary to prepare them for the intensity of the run-in and to ensure they peaked at the right time. Jover took time to tinker with the team’s set pieces. After that disappointing week in December, Arsenal were determined to hit the ground running upon their return.

It worked. Arsenal’s first game back was a 5-0 win over Crystal Palace, immediately restoring confidence in front of goal. The team embarked on a blistering run which propelled them back into the forefront of title contention.

Away from the pitch, Arsenal enjoyed more social get-togethers. In the week before the 6-0 thrashing of Sheffield United, players and staff enjoyed a night out together in central London.

On the field, a new tactical dynamic evolved. Havertz shifted into playing as the team’s attacking focal point, while Jorginho was installed next to Rice. Off the pitch, the convivial atmosphere continued: players and staff enjoyed a night out together in London in February.

Crucially, Arsenal survived the March international break without any significant injuries. When the group were granted a few days off training before joining up with their international squads, some seized a final opportunity to go on holiday. Ramsdale attended rugby’s Six Nations finale in Lyon, while Saka travelled to watch the Boston Celtics at TD Garden. Arteta visited his good friend Gabriel Heinze in Madrid. A number of first-team players, including Zinchenko, returned to Marbella for another brief fitness camp.

A 0-0 draw at Manchester City was regarded as an excellent point, although there were some frustrations internally that Arsenal did not make the most of their chances.

On April 14, Arsenal knew that beating Aston Villa at the Emirates Stadium would see them leapfrog Manchester City at the summit of the Premier League.

It did not go to plan. A 2-0 defeat was followed three days later by the Champions League exit against Bayern. Arsenal’s season, once so promising, looked to be on the verge of collapse.

A number of players were frustrated after the Aston Villa game, feeling they had not performed at their best. Tiredness was a significant factor at the time. Even within the squad, there was some consternation at just how many minutes the likes of Rice, Odegaard and Havertz were being asked to play.

Some senior players — particularly those who had spent time at other elite clubs — were surprised at the intensity of Arteta’s training sessions during this climactic period of the season. Other managers tend to slacken the reins in spring to help players cope with the arduous schedule, but Arteta was determined to maximise every session.

The day after the Wolves game, Arsenal held a get-together for the first-team squad, staff and their families. It took the form of a Sunday roast. Throughout the season, Arteta has used these informal get-togethers to try to foster camaraderie within the team. The timing of this one, just ahead of the run-in, made it all the more significant.

Arsenal followed up with victories over Chelsea and Tottenham. After the north London derby win, they celebrated in front of the away fans before returning to the dressing room, where they were greeted by vice-chair Tim Lewis and other members of the club’s hierarchy.

With no fixture for six days, the players were granted two precious days off. Normally such news would be granted with scenes of jubilation from the players — but in this instance, they were too tired for any more celebrating.

Nothing alleviates fatigue like winning, though, and Arsenal’s players returned to training hungry. On the eve of the match against Bournemouth, training incorporated a mini-tournament of small-sided games: England vs Brazil vs The rest of the world. As can happen in the ultra-competitive environment at London Colney, the matches got a bit feisty, forcing an amused Arteta to call a premature halt to training before any injuries were sustained.

On the Wednesday before the Manchester United game, Arsenal hosted another family day for players and staff at the training ground. It was a final chance for the club to bring the wider support network together. Arsenal finished training on the Saturday to discover Manchester City had won comfortably at Fulham, but did not let that result deter them, beating United 1-0 at Old Trafford thanks to another Leandro Trossard goal.

The following Tuesday, Arsenal hoped for a favour from rivals Tottenham against Manchester City, but Son Heung-min failed to beat Stefan Ortega with his 87th-minute strike. “My kids were running around the table and going like this (head in hands),” Arteta revealed. “You can imagine. That is magic as well, to have the opportunity to be living it, next to your family and next to your colleagues. Being part of that.”

And so to the final day. Even if there was a sense of inevitability about City’s triumph, Arsenal ultimately ensured they held up their half of the bargain. They showed the spirit and determination that has underpinned their campaign.

As Arsenal soaked up the reception from the crowd, the disappointment was etched into their faces — pain mingled with pride. Arteta looked emotional, Havertz bereft. The injured Saka cut a forlorn figure, holding his hands in silent prayer. Away from the main group, the former City players Jesus and Zinchenko sat deep in conversation.

Over the past few seasons, this Arsenal group have shown an alchemic capacity to turn suffering into motivation. They already appear determined to do so again.

“We’re all a little bit disappointed at the moment,” Odegaard told the fans at full time. As the Norwegian spoke, Arteta called his squad into a final huddle to hear their captain’s address.

“We’re so close,” added Odegaard. “But at the same time, I’m so proud of all the boys, I’m so proud of everyone at the club. I’m so proud of the progress we’re making. We’ve changed the club. I think you all believe in us now.

“We have to use the break and come back even stronger and even more hungry and push to win everything.”

Arsenal fought until the end. And now, they prepare to fight again.

(Top photos: Getty Images; design: Dan Goldfarb)