All or Nothing review: Mikel Arteta’s quirks take centre stage in Arsenal’s season of mellowed drama

Every loss Arsenal suffered last season carried a little extra weight. The Gunners were on the losing side 13 times – their joint-most in a Premier League campaign – and after each of those defeats there was a recurring theme: rival fans reacted with added glee knowing the anguish they had inflicted would have to be relived, while Arsenal supporters made a mental note of another episode of All or Nothing they would have to fast-forward or watch through gritted teeth.

The Amazon Prime Video series returns on Thursday with the first three episodes of a nine-part series, this time tracking a campaign that offered plenty of promise and progress but which was bookended by calamity and despair. Fortunately for Arsenal fans – and unfortunately for those expecting carnage and chaos, the footballing equivalent of disaster porn – it is those shoots of optimism that All or Nothing has chosen to focus on. Less melodrama, more mellowed drama.

It is immediate very early on that Amazon sees its subject as the underdog, a club that is a work in progress, and that is the prism through which it treats Arsenal’s setbacks and failures. In the first eight minutes alone the word ‘young’ is mentioned six times, either in reference to manager Mikel Arteta or his team – which actually boasts over 500 international caps – while that tally hits double figures long before the first episode is over.

Three back-to-back loses at the start of the season against Brentford, Chelsea and Manchester City are dealt with in the first half-hour and there is little behind-the-scenes fall-out or recriminations. Josh Kroenke offers some support to Arteta during a canteen chat, but the only real histrionics come from the riled fans being interviewed. While there may