Mikel Arteta cuts out the ‘chaos’ to bring best out of his young Gunners

Mikel Arteta told the story this past week of how Gabriel Martinelli, frustrated at being in and out of the Arsenal team for the past two seasons, would hammer at his door. “When he wasn’t playing he was all the time in my office, and every time showing me on the pitch how wrong I was,” he said.

“He was just a sad boy. He loves what he does so much, he’s so eager to do whatever it takes for him to play that he’s there all the time, pushing you and giving you the right reasons, in the right way, to give him more minutes.”

Martinelli’s output has stepped up a few notches in this season’s early weeks and the same can be said of Arsenal’s collective. Hunger has been matched by refinement: Arteta’s side can rip you apart but they can also gather themselves, take a breath and consider how to go again when one of the errors that still slip through seems likely to cost them.

That is how they defeated Fulham last Saturday after Aleksandar Mitrovic’s soft opener and they were similarly composed in immediately recovering from Douglas Luiz’s freakish equaliser for Aston Villa four days later.

It was Martinelli who secured all three points that night, finishing brilliantly at the far post to complete a move he had started, although the goal’s creator deserved high praise too. Bukayo Saka’s clipped, teasing delivery gave Martinelli the chance and the sequence was a reminder of the way Arsenal’s young wide men have risen above the wild undulations of recent years to produce virtually unparalleled results.

“It’s really rare what they’re doing at a big, big club,” Arteta said. “Really rare. If not, just give me examples of things that are happening [elsewhere].”

There are not many. On Monday Saka will turn 21, the same age as Martinelli.