Mikel Arteta - Moments That Made Me | Arsenal Return, FA Cup Success, Title Heartbreak & Declan Rice

It's clear that it's Varus, Nelson has to get his shot right. Oh, that is unbelievable! Oh, my God! And money can't buy that feeling for Miquel Arteta. I'm Miquel Arteta, and these are moments that made me. It was a dream come true, a dream that started probably when I started to play for the club, and then I started to realise that I wanted to go into coaching. With Miquel Arteta in the dugout for the very first time, some new manager bounce would be very welcome for Arsenal, who, like Bournemouth, haven't had a spring in their step for a while. I was very, very excited. You know, I was really pumped up at the same time. Some doubts and fears come in. It's your first manager job. It's a big club, huge demand, and you want to do so well as well because of the connection that you have for the club. So you feel the responsibility, but at the same time, the excitement, the energy that I had, it was immense. Aubameyang striding forward. Lacazette helps it on to Ozil. Nelson, Aubameyang! Arsenal finally click into gear in front of goal to give Miquel Arteta something to smile about. And that day just brings a huge smile on my face because it was a really emotional day for me. That's the full-time whistle. And it's a 14th FA Cup success for the most successful club side in this competition, Arsenal. It's a first trophy as a manager for Miquel Arteta, who wins the FA Cup as the captain and the manager of Arsenal. It was after Covid, you know, and I started being the manager in December. By February, we had to stop. So it was already very challenging, the part of being, for the first time, a manager and making it in that context, it was extremely difficult. But it was a beautiful day, the journey to win it. And obviously the connection that we have with the FA is a big one. The only shame is that we could not celebrate it with our supporters in the stadium. Marras over there with Thierry, swings it in for Torres! Number five. Again, we are still under the Covid context, you know, and I found that extremely difficult. I'm a person that likes to plan and understand what is going to happen. And a few days before the first game against Brentford, we lost nine players. Regardless of if you are missing a player or not missing a player, you're going to be under pressure and the pressure started to build. And I could feel that as well with the recent past, that it could be a complicated moment, you know, that we have to stay strong and clear and continue to do what we're doing. The more difficult it gets, the more you have to step in and show as well who you are and your values and support people and be constructive. The last thing I wanted to do is put any blame on the players and start players to doubt about themselves. And what I wanted to do is create a really positive atmosphere around them that they could feel that they could fail, but they have to try and try and try again. The week before Norwich, it was probably the most amazing week that I had as an Arsenal manager because of what I saw from the people when the moment is difficult and normally people want to turn their faces and go somewhere else. And I had everybody next to each other, really fighting and really motivated to overcome the situation. And that's what happened. That's life. It's a journey and a journey doesn't get from here to there. And when you are here together, you're not aligned and you're going to have difficult moments. You have to be prepared for that. You have to plan for that. And you have to acknowledge that that's part of getting better, you know. And it was a huge step from where we were. And then we end up with the feeling that we didn't reach it. But that was necessary for the team as well. That was an incredible season and some big learnings as well about the capacity that the team has, but especially about the capacity that a club and its people have to transform atmosphere, to transform energy and and generate the lift that can change the result and can change the performance of a team. They asked me many interviews, you know, about being a player and being a manager and the differences. And I always replied, yeah, there is nothing like being a player. But I'm not sure now, because when you live moments like that, when you see the team play, the way you envisage that, when you see people happy, when you see people connected, when you see that that we have transformed a football club and the environment. For me, that's more powerful. And I had incredible moments when I felt that. And it's not a title and we won a few titles, but it's not a title. Probably that's bigger than when you are a player. In goes the corner, cleared only as far as Nelson has to get his shot right. It was happiness. It was relief. It was joy. And at the end, it's what you see there, you know, that how much we want to win. And that's something that has changed a lot. You know, that purpose and that thrive to continue and to don't give up and try again and try again and be ruthless when you have to be to to win. And everybody really cared and everybody was important. In this case, it was Rhys. And it tells you about the power of a team that is not about the level that they play, but it's beyond that. Lovely take by Haaland, supported by De Bruyne. De Bruyne shoots! Oh, brilliant! And I think it's safe to say that if this is a title decider, it's very much gone the way of Manchester City. It took me a while, you know, because I really wanted to win the Premier League. And I think we became really close. There are some learnings as well. I think the biggest one is when it gets to March, April, you need 24 hours on it, available, fit and focus. You know, we didn't have all those four things because we missed certain things, certain key things. Not to do that. But at the end, you have to judge what you have done. And with the amount of points and games that we won any other season, maybe you can win the league, you know? And in a sport, that's the difference. You can do something very, very well, but there is someone else that does it a little bit better. Then you fail, you know? And then you have to shake hands and say, I'm sorry. They've done it and they got more points at the end and you have to take it. We build the right culture. We bring in players that we believe are the right ones for the way we see the club right now, the way we want to play. And I'm really happy with the squad that we have. If I had to describe it with a picture, it would be a lighthouse. This is how I see it. This is when I was in the squad. How can I explain it and how I see him in the team? And that's it. He's present where he is, he's overlooking and everything. He's bringing light and clarity and guidance to everybody. And that's his biggest quality. He is a leader. He's still very young and a lot to learn. But he's got the right foundations to become an incredible player for us. You can sense it, how much he means to people, how much he means to the club. He's going back to the elite and where this club should be. And it's been seven years, so it's a long, long time, you know? And now I say to the players, it's time to embrace it and enjoy it because he's been missed, you know, he's with us now and we have to make the most of it. I'm really proud about the way the club and the team has approached the competition. Space aplenty, on the edge of the box. Odegaard! Envision of Arsenal's future. The captain, Martin Odegaard, a player who leads by example in every way. Tolisso's the target. Now Kai Havertz, Aki close to him. Martinelli's deflected it off Niels. What a crucial, critical blow to the champions. Because we've been really close and the last year as well, we were really close, especially at home and we didn't. Then we beat them in the community to leave the trophy and that was a big boost. And that helped for this one as well, you know? And when you are competing at that level against the best team in the world, you need to be so good to be able to beat them, you know? And that day we did a lot of things incredibly well. And when we had one or two moments, we took them and it was a special day for us.