Arteta Ends Feud Ahead of Brighton Clash
Mikel Arteta insists the feud is finished. The cameras will check that for themselves on Saturday.
The Arsenal manager returns to the Amex this weekend to face Brighton and Fabian Hürzeler, the coach who publicly tore into his style of play during a spiky 1-0 defeat back in March. That night, the German complained that “only one team tried to play football” and accused Arsenal of “making their own rules”.
Those words hung in the air for months. Now the champions are back on the south coast, seven wins from seven in all competitions, and the touchline duel suddenly feels almost as intriguing as the football.
Arteta draws a line under last season’s row
Hürzeler has not exactly rowed back. Asked this week whether he still stood by his comments, he doubled down on the principle if not the tone.
“I think it's very important that in football there are opinions,” he said. “I will definitely always share my opinion if I am asked. But, in the end, I congratulate Arsenal for being deserved champions. They deserved it.”
Arteta, speaking on Friday, chose not to pour any more fuel on the fire.
“That's all done. That's all in the past,” he told reporters. “I have huge respect for Fabian, and what he's done and what Brighton has done as a club.
“It's just remarkable, and tomorrow is going to be a beautiful game to watch, I'm sure.”
The message was clear: no grudge, no war of words. Just a champion side intent on stretching a remarkable start.
Champions in full flow
Arsenal arrive at Brighton in ominous form. Four wins from four in their Premier League title defence have put them back on top of the table. They opened their Champions League campaign with victory over Napoli and, on Tuesday, secured a place in the League Cup fourth round by beating Ipswich.
Count the Community Shield win over Manchester City and the run stretches to seven straight victories. One more on the south coast would equal a 123-year club record for the best start to a season.
“We know how complicated it is to win a football match at this level. So, to win seven, it tells a story,” Arteta said, as quoted by AFP.
He pointed back to the uncertainty that followed the World Cup and the lack of preparation time with his squad.
“After the World Cup, there were a lot of unknowns about how the players and the team were going to react. We didn't have any time with them to work together.
“But I said from day one, the attitude and what I was seeing, I was really impressed with. Then you have to put it down to performances.”
The performances are stacking up. The numbers, too. The champions are playing with the authority of a side that knows exactly who it is and where it wants to go.
A teenager kicks the door open
At Ipswich, another storyline burst through the surface. Max Dowman, just 16, took his chance and grabbed it with both hands.
The teenage playmaker, making his first appearance of the season, scored twice and looked every bit the prospect Arsenal’s academy staff have been raving about. For weeks he had been an unused substitute, watching, waiting. At Portman Road, he made his case.
Has he been banging on the manager’s door? Arteta brushed off that idea with a sharp reminder of how things work in his squad.
“The best way to knock on the door is to do it on the pitch, not in the office,” he said. “Then you just leave out the arguments. When a player delivers constantly on the pitch, every single day in training, that's the best way, that's the best signal for the manager.”
Dowman has sent his signal. Brighton away is a very different stage, but Arteta suddenly has another serious option pushing from below.
Contract talks in the background
All of this is playing out against the backdrop of Arteta’s own future. His contract extension is still not signed, with discussions ongoing for several months. The Spaniard, though, sounded entirely calm.
“I think we are all very much aligned, whenever the time is right we'll get that done. There is nothing to be concerned about,” he said.
So the narrative around Arsenal is not of tension, but of control. A coach at ease with his project. A team winning relentlessly. A teenager breaking through. And a supposedly simmering feud that one side, at least, has chosen to cool.
On Saturday, under the Amex floodlights and the scrutiny of every camera lens, we find out whether the football – and not the fallout – writes the next chapter.
