Arsenal’s new mindset: From ‘soft underbelly’ to winning mentality

When Reiss Nelson's left-footed shot flew past Bournemouth goalkeeper Neto to give Arsenal the most dramatic of comeback wins it was the start of a 24-hour period that left Arsenal fans smirking.

Not only did the victory maintain their lead over Manchester City at the top of the table, before the five-point gap was consolidated on Sunday with a simple 3-0 victory over Fulham, but it reinforced the feeling that this is a new Arsenal. No longer the Arsenal that would buckle under pressure, the team that conceded six goals at Stamford Bridge and the Etihad Stadium and five at Anfield all in the same season and once lost 8-2 to Manchester United. No longer the Arsenal that were accused of having a 'soft underbelly' year after year.

No, this is an Arsenal that comes back from being 2-0 down with 30 minutes remaining and scores a 97th-minute winner in the process.

Just over 24 hours later, Manchester United, the team that were once renowned for never knowing when they were beaten, for always managing to find a winning goal no matter whether their performance had deserved one, for scoring late on in games so often that the period between 90 minutes and the final whistle became known as 'Fergie Time' (named after their long-serving manager Sir Alex Ferguson), were embarrassed 7-0 by their old enemy, Liverpool.

Although both clubs have been in 'transitional' states since those two descriptions really applied, it felt almost symbolic that those results happened on the same weekend. Has the script finally flipped?

Have Arsenal — who have fought back from a goal down to win five times already this season — now become the team that can dig out the three points from almost any situation? And if so, how have they done it?

“It's like, 'How do you create a beautiful, delicious cake?'. It's about having the right ingredients,” says sports psychologist Dan Abrahams when asked how it's possible to change the mentality of a team.

“It's a combination of having the right systems in place, where good players are recruited and they're also demonstrating signs of leadership, which is being shown at Arsenal. The coaching is good and very competent. And then the head figures, the manager themselves, can be highly effective as coaches.

“That doesn't have to be an inspiring figure. It could be someone who's just known as a very good technical coach. But if they've got that and more — which Mikel Arteta seems to have — that's quite a powerful combination. Arteta, Pep Guardiola, Jurgen Klopp: they're those kinds of characters.”

It's not, says Abrahams, about just one person being inspirational, but it can be led. He extends his baking analogy to describe the manager or head coach (Arteta, in this instance) as the head chef, who is mixing the ingredients and making sure that everything is there that's needed for the desired result: “It's the right recruitment, it's helping those players lead better, it's having the right tactics, it's being flexible with those tactics.”

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Since being appointed in December 2019, Arteta has shown himself — in words and actions — to be firmly allied to his belief that no player stands above the team as a whole. In doing that, he leaves his squad in little doubt as to what he is asking from them, and the consequences if they fall short of delivering that.

“He wants and demands a lot. But he also wants us to demand a lot from each other. Every day, 100 per cent,” Arsenal midfielder Granit Xhaka said in a recent interview with Sky Sports.

Arteta's expectations of his players are high, and they know it. After the 1-0 win over Dutch side PSV Eindhoven in October, which put Arsenal through to the knockout stages of the Europa League, he was asked whether it was sustainable for 21-year-old Bukayo Saka to start as many games as he had been.

Saka has not missed any of Arsenal's Premier League, Europa League and FA Cup matches this season (Photo: David Price/Arsenal FC via Getty Images)

“Look at the top players in the world — they play 70 matches, every three days, and make the difference and win the game,” Arteta replied. “If you want to be at the top, you have to be able to do that. And if we start to put something different in the mind of our young players, we are making a huge mistake. I want it to be ruthless — every three days they going to be knocking on my door: 'I want to play and I want to win the game'.”

Arteta's demands go way beyond the physical. Taking responsibility is also key.

One word that he likes to use when talking to the media is “initiative”. After Arsenal beat Everton 4-0 at the start of March, he praised the performance of Oleksandr Zinchenko, saying: “You have to produce those magic moments and take that initiative. Have that mentality of, 'I'm going to do it on the pitch. I'm not going to wait for someone else to do it'. When you have a few players with that willingness and capacity to do that, you have a better chance to win more games.”

It was there again when he spoke to BBC's Match Of The Day after the Bournemouth game: “I loved the initiative, the courage, the personality and the willingness to make things happen when it's ugly and when it's difficult. That's what big teams do.”

Arsenal's players celebrate their late victory over Bournemouth (Photo: Stuart MacFarlane/Arsenal FC via Getty Images)

Arteta's words tell his players they all have the ability and power to change games. To support that, Abrahams says, there has to be the right coaching process and environment in place. One that “enables players to experience daily the opportunity to lead”.

He continues, “If they're just constantly told what to do, it's very difficult for them to learn how to take the initiative and make decisions. I'm guessing that Arteta gives them ample opportunity to practise those things: tactical flexibility and leadership and teamwork.”

Arsenal have one of the youngest first-team squads in the top flight (with one of its youngest managers leading them). In one sense, players and staff are inexperienced, but might their youth also lead to a lack of inhibition, even of fear, when it comes to fighting back in matches (not to mention battling to win the club's first league title in 19 years)?

It's not quite as simple as that, says Abrahams, who points out that individualities can't be overlooked. “You can have a young player who's pretty mature and might exhibit the kind of leadership, teamwork skills and game flexibility skills that you'd want. And you can have an older player who doesn't have that.

“So maybe the answer here comes back to recruitment. Who have you recruited? Are you recruiting for game intelligence, for leadership, for teamwork, or are you just recruiting 'good players'?

“You're always going to try to recruit good footballers, but if it's just good footballers alone, then no matter their age, they're not necessarily going to be able to lead. Recruitment is the answer, because ultimately, whether you're young or old, it's about whether you have the capacity to do this. And then, are we giving them the experiences to be able to improve?”

Former England cricketer Jeremy Snape, who is now a mental skills coach who has worked with Premier League club Crystal Palace and the England rugby union setup and hosts the Inside The Mind Of Champions podcast, agrees. Snape says: “Having strong characters in the team is crucial, as they become role models for the work ethic, skill and accountability needed to deliver.

“Great coaches are always looking for people who are working hard, putting the team first and showing personal leadership. When these examples are identified and amplified, everyone strives to do them more, and positive momentum continues.”

Although the broader changes at Arsenal (on and off the pitch) have been a process dating back to the early days of Arteta's reign, changing the mentality of a team doesn't have to be something that takes years, according to Snape.

“The mentality of a team changes after a win or a loss,” he says. “Great coaches are like performance detectives, looking for the clues in individual motivation or social chemistry. Leaders need to start the chain of events by role-modelling the culture — once teams behave in this new way, it's remarkable how quickly they can turn a downturn into a string of positive performances.”

Arsenal's most recent “downturn” came at the end of last season, when away defeats to Tottenham Hotspur and Newcastle United in their third-last and penultimate games saw them blow their chances of qualifying for this season's Champions League. Arch-rivals Tottenham took fourth place instead, to rub salt in the wound.

They started 2022-23 strongly, going unbeaten in their first five league games, including a 2-1 comeback win against Fulham, the first of their 15 points won from losing positions (the most in the division). And after a 3-1 derby win over Spurs in October moved them four points clear at the top of the league, goalkeeper Aaron Ramsdale explained the impact that disappointment in May had on the team.

“The experiences at the end of last season are adding to our team spirit and mentality,” Ramsdale said.

“It's not just the lads who have come in (the summer signings) who have brought this winning mentality. We all have the fire burning inside because of what happened at the end of last season. The day I returned to pre-season, the standard of training had increased. People are demanding more of each other, training is a lot more competitive and there is definitely a mood swing when you lose.

“There were always certain people who were upset when losing in training, but now it is a collective. The team spirit is really, really strong.”

Which brings us back to that special Saturday against Bournemouth, and the possible impact that Reiss Nelson's 97th-minute winner might have on Arsenal's season.

It comes down to self-confidence, says Abrahams, who refers to the “self-efficacy theory”.

“Self-efficacy is situated self-confidence,” Abrahams explains, meaning there are certain situations in which we know we are confident. “One of the sources that influences self-confidence is past experience. It stands to reason that, if we've done this before, we can do it again.

“There is a collective efficacy built when you, as a team, demonstrate that you can be a couple of goals down and then come back. And the more examples you present to yourself, of having the capacity to come back to win in the last minute, to fight to the very end, and influence the result, the more there is a feeling of confidence that you can do it.

“It just gives you that feeling of being a bit more bulletproof.”

For Snape, what Arsenal did in that game does two things: “It reinforces the belief of the resilience and composure the team has, and it builds the underlying sense that good fortune is on your side. You need both to win trophies.”

The fact Arsenal have come back from losing positions to win on multiple occasions this season can form part of building a new identity, adds Snape. “Every team develops a belief or identity and the experiences they have — especially under pressure — either dilute or strengthen it. Winning against the odds is a potent part of the story, as it's all upside without the burden of expectation. The more this identity story plays out and the more emotional the context, the more powerful the belief becomes.

“And when teams develop the belief that they can win from any position, they are lethal. Not only do they attack more in the closing moments but their opponents also know it and freeze and fracture under the pressure of trying to prevent it.”

Late on in games, two things tend to happen to teams. “In simple terms,” says Abrahams, “the brain works in one of two directions: approach or avoid. Towards or away. What can tend to happen in the final minutes of games is teams become avoidant, they become a bit inhibited. Whereas Arsenal are showing themselves to be in 'approach behaviour' towards the end of games: being positive and proactive with their actions right the way to the end, whether they are leading or not.

“Their identity as a team starts to become, 'We never give in. We stay on the front foot, no matter what, right the way through to the 95th minute. We've shown ourselves to be able to do this before, we can do it again'. So there's a sort of a cocktail of psychology going on around self-confidence, situated self-confidence, and also being in approach behaviour, so positive and proactive actions, right the way through to the end.

“All of those play on a team's identity. The most obvious example in recent English football history is Manchester United's 'Fergie Time'. That kind of language and identity wrapped up in a team is very powerful.”

There is, of course, a way to go yet before Arsenal can lay any sort of claim on having the mentality that brought so much success to United. But this season has suggested they are in the process of putting the right foundations in place.

The next few months will show whether they can handle another of the phrases Sir Alex left behind: Squeaky-Bum Time.