Football journalist Ian McGarry has been sharing some recent behind-the-scenes details at Arsenal.
This comes after McGarry co-hosted a recent episode of The Transfer Window Podcast, where he spoke about a variety of topics concerning a number of different clubs in the Premier League.
On the subject of Arsenal, who recently beat their north London rivals Tottenham Hotspur 3-1 in their previous league clash, McGarry had this to say about Mikel Arteta’s side and their overall start to the season.
He said: “Obviously, Arsenal’s start to the season was poor. However, they have now won three games on the bounce and our information is that Arteta took some quite dramatic steps with regards to remedying the poor form by inviting his whole squad and obviously, his senior players and his players he relies upon, to speak freely in a team meeting around two weeks ago to discuss what they thought was going wrong with their performances – and indeed, Arteta’s own performance with regards to tactics, team selection, and in-game management.
“A ‘clear the air’ type meeting was held, and that since then, obviously, results have improved, culminating in that thrashing of Tottenham Hotspur last weekend in the north London Derby.”
TIF Thoughts on Ian McGarry’s comments on Arsenal’s team meeting…
Arteta was appointed as Arsenal’s manager back in December 2019 and has since gone on to take charge of 94 matches with the Gunners across all competitions in which they have won 52, drawn 16 and lost 26 along the way (per Transfermarkt).
Arsenal are currently sat in 10th place in the Premier League table with nine points as a result of them winning their three previous league fixtures after losing their opening three, as McGarry mentioned.
Taking into account what McGarry had to say about this apparent team meeting, it seems to have had some sort of positive impact given Arsenal’s recent turnaround in form.
In our view, Arteta should be praised for having the initiative to create a team meeting to clear the air after the poor start to the season.
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Moving forward, if Arsenal can continue racking up positive results, this would be the best way to get rid of any previous doubts there may have been about Arteta’s ability to manage the team.
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