Arteta determined to evolve to motivate Arsenal players

Mikel Arteta is determined to continue evolving as a manager, claiming his Arsenal players need a “different manager” today than they needed three years ago.

The Gunners finished second in the Premier League for the third successive campaign last season, but enjoyed a Champions League run that saw them lose to Paris Saint-Germain in the semi-final.

Since joining Arsenal in December 2019, Arteta has taken charge of 210 Premier League matches. The Spaniard has won 123 of those games, scoring 396 goals and averaging 1.95 points per game.

Arteta believes he will need to adapt his managerial style to get the most out of his Arsenal players.

“There is much more to come,” Arteta told The Athletic. “Because the manager that the boys needed three years ago is a different manager than they need today.

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“The team has grown so much in every sense of that word that they need somebody else — and that somebody else has to adapt and identify what is really important, what is really going to get that fire in the belly to get the best out of them.

“That’s the evolution of the manager. It’s not just the idea of changing.

“If we go to YouTube and the next evolution is, ‘Oh look, he has put this player in this space!’ that’s not evolution of the manager.

“[I want to be] Exactly what they need, and each of them are going to require a different manager.

“Each of them are going to require at some point a certain something that they don’t expect from the manager. And that’s the beauty of it. When it’s something new — ‘Oof, that is going to make me better and I didn’t see that coming’.”

Arsenal begin their 2025-26 campaign with a trip to Old Trafford on Sunday to face Manchester United.