Mikel Arteta: ‘I don’t ask people to like me or love me’

The 40-year-old Arteta is the linchpin of Amazon’s latest reality-documentary series. Others drift in and out with single-episode arcs but his narrative presents the clearest through-line

ALL OR NOTHING: Emile Smith Rowe, Ben White, Mikel Arteta, Takehiro Tomiyasu and Kieran Tierney arrive for the ‘All or Nothing Arsenal’ Premiere at Islington Assembly Hall last night. Pic: Ian West/PA

Mikel Arteta is extremely intense. That much becomes pretty clear, pretty quickly during the early episodes of All or Nothing: Arsenal – Amazon’s fly-on-the-wall documentary of the club’s 2021-22 season. His team talks are life and death: opponents are there to be killed, expletives screeched.

“Whatever happens I don’t want one fucking player complaining, one fucking player walking,” he demands from the Emirates Stadium changing room at half-time, before sending the team back out to face Chelsea.