‘It can’t all come from the manager’ – Keown on how Arsenal can become winners

People are asking how they might move up the ladder and win a significant trophy with Sunday’s win over Newcastle, which almost certainly means Arsenal will almost certainly finish second in the Premier League for the third year in a row.

I’ve personally witnessed this, and while it can sometimes seem very easy when you’re always winning, I realize how difficult it is as a player to keep coming so far without any reward.

You have to deal with all the negativity about what has gone wrong, including how you have either bottled it up or your team has lost something to make you a winner, along with your own disappointment.

My Arsenal team finished second to Manchester United three years running without winning a trophy between 1998-1999 and 2000-2001 because of that perception and Mikel Arteta and his players are now hearing it.

It takes a special group of people to overcome the humiliatingness of being the bridesmaid so frequently and win.

I was fortunate because I was one of a select group of Arsenal players, but it still needed improvement.

We were referred to as second best by Arsene Wenger because of the statistics that were presented to us during the summer of 2001.

He later admitted he didn’t think the statistics were accurate, but we weren’t all that happy with that.

He said, “We have World Cup winners in here, and you have all won trophies in the past,” as he looked around the dressing room. His message was that we simply needed to find it under the bonnet.

Wenger made a wise decision, and Arteta could try it as a result. However, it is up to the players to decide how to respond.

I can recall sitting on the Millennium Stadium pitch after Liverpool won the 2001 FA Cup championship, thinking, “Well, this can’t happen again,” which it did.

We didn’t significantly alter our squad, which had already accomplished the Double in 2001.

Wenger and I told Sol Campbell that Sol would always play and that one of us would accompany him when Everton signed Francis Jeffers, but Sol and I only made one major signing.

This Arsenal squad doesn’t need a complete overhaul, either, but it always seems like it needs to do so to win trophy after all.

A new player in a specific position, like a center-forward this summer, is typically the answer.

In some areas, Arteta needs to improve, but I believe the mindset I mentioned above is what they really need to succeed in because they are such a powerful group with a burning desire to win.

You want to know that everyone in the dressing room is feeling the same way and that they will use this disappointment as fuel as well.

With Wenger’s Arsenal, I was aware of the feeling I was surrounded by people who, like me, wouldn’t let go of until we achieved that glory.

I wish I could have been there at half-time on Sunday because I believe the manager’s motivation is what caused a lot of the difference between their first and second-half performances.

Last week, when they lost 2-0 to Liverpool at the break, Arteta told them he was not accepting that standard of performance, it was the same at Anfield. They did not fall short of Newcastle this time, but they could have, and he deserves praise for their newfound success.

Arteta has his lieutenants, the players on whom to rely, and Declan Rice stepped up once more on Sunday. He was starting to lose some weight, but Arsenal needed him, and he came in.

Because both teams were relying on the other team to win the Champions League, and of course there was an edge, as Newcastle had already defeated Arsenal three times this season.

Even with a tense conclusion, Arsenal managed to put them to bed in the second half.

Even though I don’t believe Arsenal fans were celebrating second place at the end of the first half of the season, it is still a great accomplishment to return to the Champions League for the third time in a row.

When Arteta took over Arsenal in 2019, I believe he has done a fantastic job.

Although injuries have had a significant impact on them this season, it still feels like we have our Arsenal back. He will follow, and the accolades he wants will come.