How Arteta benefited from the Covid pandemic to mould Arsenal in his image

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FT Desk

Arsenal finally broke their two-decade Premier League trophy drought by winning the top-flight in 2025/26.

For a lot of Arsenal fans, they may have been feeling that it was never going to happen after three consecutive seasons finishing second, but while they adopted the 'bridesmaid never a bride' title, they improved with each passing year and Mikel Arteta's work finally paid off with glory this season.

After the underwhelming tenure of Unai Emery, Arteta took over Arsenal in December of 2019 and quickly started positioning the chess pieces that would allow the Gunners to become a Premier League powerhouse again.

There were teething issues, of course, as the club finished eighth, but the Spaniard did become the first man to win the FA Cup as an Arsenal captain and a coach in that first campaign.

In his first two seasons, Arsenal finished eighth, but crucially during that period, they players didn't have to deal with the ire from the stands as blocks of the season were interrupted by the Covid pandemic which meant games being played behind closed doors.

Arsenal co-chair Josh Kroenke believes the lack of fans alleviated pressure from Arteta and his players which allowed the manager the "space" to implement his ideas.

"Anybody that gets a chance to be around Mikel, you can buy into what he's selling pretty easily," Kroenke said.

"So I don't want to give myself or my father [Stan Kroenke, founder and chairman of Kroenke Sports and Entertainment and co-chair of Arsenal] any credit.

"I don't know if I would ever acknowledge it, or Mikel or anybody - there was something about Mikel having a little bit of what I would say 'space' during Covid when there weren't fans around.

"There were some growing pains that went on during matches, different moments, and obviously we won the FA Cup, but to not have that extra pressure of fans being on top of you at different points in time when we were going through different growth phases was probably something I don't think any of us would acknowledge in the moment. But, looking back I think we can say 'maybe that was a little bit of a benefit'.

"I think Mikel and his staff and our players are the ones that earned those rights to have the patience in those moments by the amount of work and energy they were putting in behind the scenes."

The Kroenkes took full ownership of Arsenal in 2018, having previously been shareholders. Their tenure has not been plain-saiing as there was previously protests from the fans against their control of the club.

There was a "We Care, Do You?" movement from Arsenal fans who called into question KSE's commitment to the club.

They also had to contend with the transition from the Arsene Wenger era.

"There was a lot of heavy lifting going on behind the scenes at the club at that point in time," Kroenke said.

"We went through a big transition from Arsene [Wenger], obviously a legendary person and manager.

"Transitioning to a new era after 22 years was going to be difficult.

"One: it was taking the club private that summer.

"Two: You had a legendary manager moving along, us trying to reinvent ourselves.

"Third: An underestimated thing for me on the back end was [chief executive] Ivan Gazidis' departure.

"For a club of our stature, change is going to be healthy but that was way too much change in way too short of a period of time."

Arsenal won the league after Manchester City failed to defeat Bournemouth in the penultimate game of the season. Fans flocked to the Emirates until the early hours to celebrate and the players themselves were even allowed a party, with Arteta's no-nonsense discipline taking a night off, too.

Kroenke is delighted that the Arsenal "sleeping giant" has awoken after a period in which the club was the butt of many jokes.

"I knew we were a sleeping giant that we needed to awaken in some way," he continued

"We haven't had a team, a squad like this in the social media age. Social media evolved and the Twittersphere and everything else around it.

"The instantaneous information, the 'banter era' - I'm aware of all this. I turned 46 last week.

"I've grown up around this and I've seen it all from my own perspective. I think that's what I'm so proud to see. There was almost a time when you were a closeted Arsenal fan."

Arsenal can make history this weekend by winning the Champions League for the first time, though they face the might of defending champions, Paris Saint-Germain, who demolished Inter 5-0 in the final last season.