Zidane the Arteta ‘fire’-fighter to save Arsenal from nervous breakdown | OneFootball

The Arsenal board members ‘concerned’ about recent results under Mikel Arteta are unlikely to have had their minds put at ease by the manager’s unhinged pre-Sporting press conference to mirror a touchline demeanour which is putting each and every Gunners player and stakeholder on edge as they look to get over the line this season.

“No fear, pure fire. That’s it,” Arteta revealed as his message to players and those fans who forgot to “bring your dinners” for Bournemouth.

“Pure fire, that’s what I want to see from the players, the people, myself. The opportunity is unbelievable. Let’s confront it, let’s go for it and put everything into it.

“I’m on fire. That’s it. Nothing else. I’m dreaming so much. I’ve done so much to be in this position, because I know how this club it was.

“Have zero fear. Fear I had when ‘oh, if we don’t get this done, this club. I don’t know what going…’ That was fear.

“Now there’s no fear. It’s just purpose, fire, direction and conviction that we’re going to do it.”

Issuing a call to arms to a group of players routinely sh*tting the bed in games they’re terrified of losing on the back of similar battle cries is a strange decision. A man on “fire” is a disaster for a team needing to be ice cold in the face of adversity.

“Mikel Arteta needs to take a breath and calm things down,” says former Manchester United midfielder Lee Sharpe. “He looked agitated and nervous; he was all over the place on the touchline and that doesn’t settle the players on the pitch. Everyone is going to be nervous in a title run-in because of what’s at stake, but the manager needs to show a calmness.

“Arteta looks very animated in every game Arsenal play, and that doesn’t help the players. He will be as anxious as the rest of them, but it looked like the whole stadium was feeling it.”

A leopard can’t change its spots. Just as no one can reasonably expect Arsenal to become a free-flowing, dynamic football team in what remains of the season – and why would they when the drudgery has got them this far? – Arteta isn’t about to sit calmly taking notes on the bench.

But where have the ‘just another game’ cliches gone? Why isn’t there at least the public insistence that they’re preparing for these huge clashes with the same intensity as any other?

We all know that’s bullsh*t but Arsenal could really do with some of that soothing nonsense right now. It’s like he wants them to be stressed; in that aim at least he is succeeding in spectacular fashion.

Our friends over at TEAMtalk report that some members of the club’s hierarchy are ‘somewhat concerned’ by the recent form of Arteta’s side and that Arsenal will wait until the end of the season to conduct ‘a full review’ of the situation before deciding whether to offer him a new contract.

But what about this season? There’s a long Premier League history of relegation firefighters arriving at clubs and effecting immediate change for good or bad in a bid to avoid the drop.

And while we’re not advocating for Sean Dyche to save Arsenal’s season, the most likely means of Arsenal winning the title right now may be through the appointment of a serene perennial winner to douse the “fire” Arteta is fanning to all corners of the club.

Maybe they could be some sort of interval manager, taking over to win them a title before Arteta returns at the start of next season, or even just a managerial consultant acting as a madness translator, toning down the anxiety Arteta exudes as a go-between for the players.

In any case, Zinedine Zidane is available as a tonic for the agitated Arsenal manager pushing the players and fans to the brink of a nervous breakdown.