Arsenal’s climb under Mikel Arteta echoes Claudio Ranieri’s Premier League miracle with Leicester

Their striker lived on Red Bull, port and snus (a strong type of chewing tobacco). Their Professional Footballers’ Association player of the year was a rake signed from the French second tier, for less than they spent furnishing supporters with “clappers” at home games.

Their defence were offcuts from Stoke City, Queens Park Rangers, Schalke and Nottingham Forest. The year before they had only just escaped relegation. Despite being one of England’s oldest teams, they were not among the 43 clubs that had ever won either of England’s major competitions, the league and FA Cup. Their pedigree was summed up by their famous odds of 5,000-1.

Leicester winning the Premier League stands alone as a football miracle, and may for ever stand alone, though that hasn’t stopped the disease of recency bias leading some to suggest that if Arsenal become champions the achievement would be equal. That is not to minimise the scale of what would be achieved should Mikel Arteta pilot his side to the title, in the face of Manchester City’s might and challenges from elsewhere. Nor is it to say that there are no parallels between Leicester seven seasons ago and Arsenal now. There are. And these are common ingredients which flavour the 2022-23 Premier League alluringly and distinctly.

In the blue corner, the world’s richest and best club team over the past five years. In the red, a side that a year ago were in sixth place and scraping 0-0 home draws with Burnley.

What you see in the present Arsenal is something also seen in 2015-16 Leicester: a squad going about their business in the same way, from week to week, regardless of the league table, the fixture list and the unexpected heights they find themselves reaching. They play the same way, with the same spirit, same principles, same smile, whatever the conditions. All that was there on Tuesday versus Newcastle United.

Arsenal didn’t win – the goalless draw represented their first dropped points since October, but, against a tough side full of rugged tricks, they pushed for victory from first to last, taking 17 shots and claiming 67 per cent possession. Pep Guardiola, having hoped for a slip-up, admitted: “They again impressed me a lot. They dropped two points but they didn’t drop the quality [with which] they played.”

Everyone expected Leicester to waver but the wobble never came and, in a similar way, Arsenal keep passing what are billed as “tests” that “could find them out”. The biggest of these are yet to come, with their next five league fixtures including games against Tottenham Hotspur, City and Manchester United. April brings trips to Anfield and the Etihad, then May a match at St James’ Park.

But their consistency is such that their points total after 17 games (44) has been bettered only four times in the history of the Premier League and that not even Arsene Wenger’s Invincibles ever started a season like this. Consistency of selection is being used by Arteta to bring consistency of performance and approach, and this echoes 2015-16 Leicester, who, after some early-season tinkering from Claudio Ranieri, settled into an established XI that played more or less every week.

For 2022-23 Arsenal, seven players have started every single league game: Aaron Ramsdale, William Saliba, Gabriel Magalhaes, Ben White, Granit Xhaka, Gabriel Martinelli and Bukayo Saka. It would probably be nine had Martin Odegaard (a starter in 16 league games) not missed a 3-0 win away to Brentford because of a knock, and had Gabriel Jesus, who started every match before the World Cup, not injured his knee in Qatar.

The consistency of mentality also echoes Leicester. During their title chase Peter Schmeichel, a regular visitor to the club’s training ground because of his son, Kasper, told me the mood there was “exactly the same” as he had always found it, whether visiting when Kasper was in the Championship or amid the relegation battle the season before.

Arsenal do not appear to have deviated from the almost gauchely positive and energetic vibe projected in the All or Nothing Amazon documentary that tracked their 2021-22 campaign. They bring to mind a phenomenon described by the legendary NBA coach Pat Riley in his book The Winner Within: A Life Plan for Team Players.

In a key chapter called “The Innocent Climb”, Riley portrayed a sports team, comprising unselfish members, without a history of winning, making an “innocent climb” to greatness – succeeding through their absence of ego and lack of fear. Such a side roll from game to game in a happy bubble, playing on talent and instinct.

This was 2015-16 Leicester and, to date, it has been 2022-23 Arsenal – something Guardiola picked up on when he said one advantage Arteta’s team have on his own one is that they are playing free of expectations. Nobody epitomises this more than Arsenal’s poster boy, Saka.

He is the innocent climber personified, with his wide-eyed, well-mannered loveliness and irrepressible self-expression on the pitch. During the World Cup he summed up his mindset. “I just go out there with the freedom and enjoy it, because it’s still a game of football, just at a higher stage, where I’ve always dreamt of playing,” he said.

The trick will be for Arsenal to stay in this moment. Did Arteta’s antics during the Newcastle game threaten their calm? Time will tell.

Arteta is not the cuddliest figure, but nor is he daft. The headlines became about him, and not Arsenal dropping points – and distracting the press from putting pressure on his team was very much a 2015-16 Ranieri trick.

– The Sunday Times

Originally published as Arsenal’s climb under Mikel Arteta echoes Claudio Ranieri’s Premier League miracle with Leicester