If Arsenal are to win the Premier League title this season, then the Gunners will need to keep their heads. And not just the players.
Boss Mikel Arteta can be a spiky presence in the technical area, the Spaniard not minding getting involved with fourth officials or rival benches. But that isn’t always a good thing and has, on occasion, blown up in the Arsenal head coach’s face.
As they prepare to face Liverpool on Sunday, looking for a first win at Anfield since 2016, their last Premier League visit and subsequent disintegration in front of the Kop in November 2021 springs to mind.
Then, Arteta had prepared his charges for the trip to Anfield by putting his players through their paces at London Colney to the tune of the Liverpool anthem, ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’.
It became one of the more infamous moments in last season’s All or Nothing, Amazon Prime documentary that followed the Gunners across the 2021-22 campaign.
Outlining the rationale behind his idea from his office, Arteta said: "There is a word we use in Spain on cycling. When a cyclist is going up and looks amazing, and in one kilometre he goes [points down] and looks like he [makes crashing noise]. The word is called 'bajar'.
"I had it once at Anfield. The game was going there and suddenly I could only see red shirts flying around, the game is passing all over me and I cannot react. And people think, 'what is he doing', and I am like, 'I cannot do it, I cannot do it emotionally, physically I cannot cope'. Everything goes too fast and I only had that feeling in my career once, and it was at Anfield."
Arteta’s worry that his players couldn’t cope with a potentially white-hot Anfield atmosphere was subsequently proved correct, as they were thrashed 4-0 by Jurgen Klopp’s men.
But that bombastic atmosphere only came about because of his furious reaction to a first-half challenge - with the game delicately balance at 0-0 - and almost coming to blows with Klopp.
Arteta had to be held back by several members of his staff after a Sadio Mane challenge on Takehiro Tomiyasu led to him seeing red, demanding a red card from the fourth official and spitting venom towards Klopp - more than one telling him to “f*** off” - while the Kop boss was himself unhappy with Arteta’s protestation.
“With the situation, Sadio didn’t touch the player,” the German said on the incident post-game. “Then they go up and ask for a yellow card. I just asked: ‘What do you want in that situation?’ To show yellow cards for no contact, otherwise it would be a crazy game.”
Arteta himself tried to play down the severity of the incident, declaring: “He tried to defend his side and I tried to defend mine.”
Certainly, it isn’t something that Arteta has shown himself to be shy of doing when required, something to which Newcastle boss Eddie Howe and his assistant, Jason Tindall, can attest.
But with hindsight, Arteta will certainly look back at that confrontation at Anfield with regret. Not because it was instigated by himself or because he was letting his anger out on a rival manager whom he deeply respects. But because that moment brought the home fans to life and had an effect on both teams; Liverpool were spurred on and emboldened, Arsenal wilted.
A game that was pretty tepid and meandering, with a crowd that was pretty quiet, was completely changed by his actions. Suddenly, the ‘bajar’ he had warned against returned and bit him once more, his side getting ripped apart in a 4-0 loss.
Asked about the clash on Friday, the Arsenal boss said he did not like how he came across in the heat of the moment reiterating: "I reacted to defend our players the best possible way but I don’t like seeing myself like this so hopefully not.
“It happens in football and after that we hugged each other and moved on. The last time we were together nothing happened. I have full respect and admiration for what they’ve done. We’ve moved on."
Certainly, things have changed since.
Liverpool this term have been a shadow of last year's outfit, while Arsenal are more mature, more used to winning and appear more composed.
Now, with the league leaders full of confidence we’ll see not only how much Arteta’s players have grown in the past 18 months, but how much he himself has too.
He knows his side can’t give anything away cheaply in this title race with Pep Guardiola’s reigning champions breathing down their necks, but if things turn hostile, can he keep his emotions in check? Failure to do so this time could have major consequences… and not just across these 90 minutes.
