Arsenal fans haven’t felt such unity with their players for a long time. Tickets for Gunners games are virtually impossible to obtain and the team are thrilling at home. All because of the phenomenon that Albert Einstein called “the eighth wonder of the world”.

Although Arsenal’s victory in the Premier League this season will not be – as Jim White wrote in The Telegraph – a sensation at Leicester City, it would still be a huge surprise.

There are too many indications that Manchester City will win the Premier League in the end. But it’s Arsenal – instead of Liverpool, Tottenham or Chelsea – who are becoming the main competition for Pep Guardiola’s players in the current competition.

This is the first season where the potential of the Gunners’ young players is finally starting to come to fruition.

Be 1% better every day

Albert Einstein once said that the eighth wonder of the world was compound interest. – Those who understand it make money from it. Those who do not understand it must pay for it – asserted the eminent scientist.

What is this miracle? Well, even if the effects of an investment seem negligible at first, the income grows faster and faster over time. A 10% increase over one year means that the amount invested should double every seven years. But in the first, they won’t make a big impression.

Many try to translate this mathematical phenomenon into other areas of life, not just financial ones. In the book “Atomic Habits”, author James Clear points out that if a person grows by 1% every day, after a year, he is in total 38 times better.

The power of small gains

Composition is one of the most beautiful things in the world.

But it can work for or against you.

Extraordinary accomplishments are often just the end result of many small, consistent actions.

Little things become big things.

(h/t @JamesClear) pic.twitter.com/OHnAwMl5B5

– Sahil Bloom (@SahilBloom) July 2, 2022

People tend to overlook the process that makes the other 1% better.

They only notice that someone has “suddenly” become 38 times better.

And this season, Arsenal are showing the power of compound interest.

Everything according to the Edu table

Mikel Arteta became Arsenal manager in November 2019 and Edu Gaspar became the club’s technical director from Emirates Stadium a few months earlier.

After Arsène Wenger’s departure, power within the London club’s sports department was divided between three new employees: coach Unai Emery, scout Sven Mislinstat (considered the best specialist in the world) and manager Raul Sanllehi (came from Barcelona). As usual, everyone started pulling the cart towards them.

The result has been chaotic transfers of often outdated players.

Arsenal, like any big club, have huge structures when it comes to scouting or analysis, but the main thing is that the two most important employees form a duo that understands each other perfectly. And he pulls the cart to one side.

The first effects of their work were slow, and Arsenal still seemed stuck in post-Wengerian stagnation. But in the closing months of last season, “something clicked”.

While it was Tottenham who ultimately finished last in the Premier League top four, it was a solid finish for Arsenal who put the fight to the final round.

And today Arsenal are fighting for the Championship, not just for promotion to the Champions League.

From today’s perspective, every step Arsenal have in building a team seems to be fully prepared.

It is true that from the documentary “All or Nothing: Arsenal” showing behind the scenes of the Gunners during the previous season, the most memorable scenes with Mikel Arteta, who tries to motivate his players in a spontaneous and lively way, perhaps the most important were the photos of Edu’s office, where in the background you could see a large board on which the technical director of the club plans his staff for the next seasons.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0c_oGNRaINo

Nothing revealing

The decisions made by Edu and Arteta were not a football revolution. Arsenal didn’t do anything particularly telling. Over the past decade, similar policies have been adopted by Liverpool and Tottenham, for example.

A coach was hired to fit into the structure of the club, and the transfer policy was based on players just entering their best age for a player. There are no more transfers from Lichsteiner, there are transfers from Ben White or Takehiro Tomiyasu.

Edu constantly built the backbone of the team, rarely reaching players over 25. Although he had transfers like David Luiz or Willian, he finally built a whole new young team on Emirates.

He simply got rid of players who, for various reasons – including characterological ones – weren’t a good fit for Arteta. He replaced them with younger ones, more willing to work. And ahead of this season, the team’s icing on the cake: Manchester City’s Gabriel Jesus, took Arsenal’s attack to a whole new level.

It just had to end like this. It was enough time, constant work in the following windows, and Arsenal started to fight for the trophies again.

A lot of money has also been spent. Football inflation made rebuilding the team based on young players more expensive than before – sellers realized how valuable players had to say goodbye. But still, it’s money spent on the best years of each of these players’ careers. Arsenal paid for potential, not CV. And that potential, as we know, has begun to be realized.

There hasn’t been such unity for a long time

But perhaps the most important, or rather unintended effect, the total change in the mood around the club. – People who have been going to matches for 30 years, who are really emotionally connected to the club, come to me and tell me that they have never felt such a unity in the club, a unity between the team and the fans – said Arteta in an interview with journalist Michel Calvin.

Arsenal have two completely different faces this season: home and away. Everything is good for him in home games. Outside the Emirates Stadium, Arsenal need to do a lot more to get a good result.

Because outside his home, he cannot count on as much support as at home. Emirates is currently the stadium with perhaps the best atmosphere in the Premier League. A year ago, no one would have said that, John Cross of the Daily Mirror noted in the same podcast.

There have been times when the Emirates Stadium has been taken over by the visitors’ supporters. There were times when Arsenal fans were unwilling to support their players. The mischievous recalled that the Cannons’ old stadium – Highbury – was sometimes referred to as the “library”, the library.

Until recently, Arsenal were more comfortable away from home, and captain Granit Xhaka, deceived by his own fans, wanted to pack his bags and leave London and never wear the Arsenal shirt again. Mikel Arteta, however, requested his midfielder for six months. It’s been three years now and Emirates are overflowing with support for their fans. It’s one of the loudest stadiums in England, and buying a ticket for an Arsenal match is almost a miracle.

Arsenal fans feel great things are happening at their club. And they want to be part of it.

JACEK STAZAK