Arsenal injury mind games, new penalty record - How Mikel Arteta wore Pep Guardiola down

September 2024. Arsenal had just narrowly scraped past Leicester City, winning 4-2 at the Emirates Stadium after initially blowing a 2-0 lead, by the skin of their teeth following two stoppage-time goals.

When Mikel Arteta arrived for his post-match press conference, there was something he wanted to address: a lingering soap opera that was threatening to get out of hand.

Pep Guardiola had publicly invited his former Manchester City assistant to clarify comments he made in response to Bernardo Silva and John Stones , who accused Arsenal of time-wasting following a spicy 2-2 early-season firecracker between the two Premier League title contenders at the Etihad Stadium.

Arteta had claimed to have "all the information" on City but later retracted his remark in a bid to diffuse escalating tensions.

The back-and-forth had also come just weeks after Guardiola had conceded the motivation to win another Premier League "was not there."

Perhaps Arteta also realised that poking the bear this early into a gruelling domestic campaign was unlikely to end well.

Nineteen months on, the tables have turned. Arteta, through sheer persistence, consistency and grit, has gradually worn Guardiola down.

A new dawn was always inevitable but it also felt highly significant that Arteta finally got his hands on the trophy that had long eluded him on the same day his counterpart bid an emotional farewell to the Etihad Stadium following a decade of spectacular dominance.

It felt like the start of a potentially historic shift because Arsenal must now smell blood, having walked a long-winding road to achieve top-flight supremacy and the monkey is now off their back.

"Don't ask me why I'm leaving," said Guardiola in his final pre-match press conference last Friday.

The truth is, while he no longer had anything left to prove, he also didn't possess the energy to continue fending off a rival as relentless as Arteta - a commanding, deeply-analytical thinker who squeezed every single drop from different corners both within and outside Arsenal to maximise performance.

Amongst Arteta's coaching staff, there was already huge emphasis on marginal gains before this season but after three successive near-misses, the Arsenal boss cranked things up a notch.

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Pre-match press conferences, where team news was concerned, became a game of cat and mouse. The 44-year-old wouldn't dare give any information regarding his potential starting XI away unless it was absolutely necessary or unavoidable.

There were actually several instances, one being before Arsenal's Champions League semi-final first leg away to Atletico Madrid, where there was a sense Arteta may have been purposefully misleading in a bid to create extra confusion around his team.

One insider joked to Mirror Football : "Mikel would rather the media think he's being deceitful than give anything away."

Back in December 2020, Arteta vowed to "destroy" the dressing room mole that leaked an alleged training ground altercation involving David Luiz and Dani Ceballos. One month later, he hinted he'd identified the culprit.

Additionally, when the club published training galleries on their website before games, extra players - on top of those who were absent due to injury - were occasionally removed to create an extra element of mystery.

Online news outlets and eagle-eyed aggregator accounts on X would then spot that a player was missing and rumours would swirl, blindsiding opponents.

While it's clear opposition managers do not shape line-ups and tactical blueprints around social media rumours and fan speculation on such matters, most clubs do have staff that will monitor such noise because occasionally, it can be of value.

Contrastingly, Guardiola's approach to press conferences in his final years at City couldn't have been more blasé. Understandably - Jurgen Klopp actually stated media responsibilities were one of the reasons he walked away from Liverpool in 2024 - Pep became entirely bored of speaking to the press and would casually confirm aspects of his starting line-up mid-ramble.

Slowly but surely, City began to lose their fear factor and eventually lost 15 Premier League games over the course of the past two seasons.

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Arteta also learned how he could utilise the media to his advantage. Sources close to the Arsenal squad say there is widespread appreciation for the consistency of his messaging, particularly this term.

Whatever he said to his stars in the dressing room was also reciprocated in post-match broadcast interviews and press conferences. The alignment helped the squad maintain control and belief in moments of difficulty.

If Arteta had said one thing to his players and another to the press, it may have created a degree of insecurity amongst the squad that their boss did not entirely believe in them.

In one instance, following the 1-1 draw at Brentford in February, some players were surprised by Arteta's relaxed nature post-match after they were nearly beaten at the death.

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He is said to have noted that the high-flying Bees were having a great season, that they were a tough outfit and on the night, they would have taken points off any other top-flight side.

There was no fury or panic and also acknowledgement that the outside noise would now intensify. Six days later, it obviously reached whole new levels following the disastrous 2-2 draw at Wolves but still, Arteta found the composure and the right messages to wrestle back the tide.

These are all small parts of a much wider and bigger picture. There is also Nicolas Jover's exceptional set-piece record, Arsenal also became the first side in Premier League history to neither concede a penalty nor receive a red card in a single campaign. Last season, their wretched disciplinary record wrecked their title hopes.

Then there's Andrea Berta and the execution of a record-breaking summer transfer window, the development of two more Hale End gems in Max Dowman and Marli Salmon, throw-in coach Thomas Gronnemark, the AI-generated song, the transformation of the Emirates Stadium atmosphere, the creation of a family unit, barbecues, social gatherings, Win the dog. Collectively, with one almighty push, Arteta has put Arsenal back upon their perch.

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