Mikel Arteta hopes Arsenal's fly-on-the-wall documentary will be a lightbulb moment in the club's fortunes, but he warned viewers: “I know what happens. It's not a secret.”
With his drawings of hearts and brains, or a team talk entitled 'A Great Night' – which he based on pulling his wife in a nightclub – the Gunners manager is the unrivalled star of Amazon Prime series All Or Nothing: Arsenal. Spoiler alert: They win nothing and miss out to Tottenham in the race for a top-four finish.
Arsenal began last season with three straight defeats under the gaze of Amazon's ever-present cameras, but after a hard-fought 2-0 win at Crystal Palace they have a chance to reverse that in their next two games against Leicester and Bournemouth.
But Arteta, who conducted another pep talk in a darkened dressing room by the light of a single bulb in the documentary, has no regrets about his controversial exile of club captain Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang. On talkSPORT, Gunners legend Martin Keown claimed Aubameyang was “not a bad apple, just not a good timekeeper,” but Arteta insisted the Gabon striker abused the leeway he was afforded.
Arsenal boss Arteta said: “You cannot treat everybody the same. They are all human beings with different needs. They need to release energy in very different ways and we are here to understand that and try to facilitate that. But everybody can't turn up at the time and the day that they want - in the end, that’s chaos. If it’s an organised chaos, I’m more happy for that because I’ve been a player and it’s very necessary to have.
"When you need a moment, when you need to go and get lost in the mountains for two days, go and do it. When you need to spend time with your family, go and do it. No problem. But I think we should at least know if you’re going to be coming in or not.”
After seven weeks training alone, Aubameyang's contract was torn up in February so he could join Barcelona as a free agent, and he scored 11 goals to help the Catalan giants back into the Champions League. Keown claimed: “I think it affected the team, because Arsenal didn’t get enough goals. Of course, you have to respect the value of the football club, but I still want to make it into the Champions League ahead of Spurs.”
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Arteta, however, stands by his hardline stance after Aubameyang failed to report back on time from an approved trip to France for personal reasons. He even kept a dossier which chronicled the player's alleged “misdemeanours.” Now Aubameyang could return to the Emirates this season – with Chelsea, who are trying to push through a deal for him.
Arteta said: “Listen, it’s a long time since that happened. I cannot go back every time there is another series. I have made my comments on that, I was really clear and honest with my opinion. What has been done has always been done to defend our club, put the club in best possible position, and being always as clear, as honest and as consistent as we can.
“Auba is an exceptional player. He did so much for us. He was our captain and I think we have to be grateful, very grateful as well, for what he did for this club. I hope he does (get a great reception from Arsenal fans) because I think he deserves that. There are moments in life, there are moments in your career, and sometimes the trajectory or the objective of each individual is different to the club's - and you have to respect that."
Although he wants players to respect each other through standards and discipline, Arteta insisted he does not want to send in the clones. He added: “You need people that are really competitive, some people are maybe more selfish, very win-driven, others that are more modest, others that are passengers. You need all kinds of characters, but you need a balance. You have to be yourself and you have to be genuine.
"We will determine whether we believe that character is going to fit into our environment, but we have to let people be who they are. I’m not here to mould anyone’s character, that’s for sure.”
For now, as the credits roll in the Amazon series, Arteta is living two seasons in one, but he said: “Obviously we all knew it was coming this time and we had to be prepared for it. “We can’t expect to be on camera for a year and then no-one to talk about it.”
