Arsenal head coach Mikel Arteta has revealed how he is encouraging David Luiz to take greater responsibility and fill the leadership void at the club.
The Gunners have regularly been criticised for lacking strength of character despite former boss Unai Emery naming five captains earlier this season in a bid to share accountability.
Luiz, a £8million summer signing from Chelsea, was not among that quintet but Arteta has identified the centre-back as a key figure in his new setup.
The Brazilian won the Premier League, the Champions League, two Europa Leagues and two FA Cups during his three-year stint at Stamford Bridge and Arteta believes his experience will prove invaluable, having already instigated an upturn in the 32-year-old’s form.
“That’s what I wanted to demand of him,” he said. “He is a player that has won more trophies than anybody else in that dressing room. We have to use that in a very powerful way.
“I wanted him to step up, I wanted him to put all his qualities - his personality and his experience - towards the team and he made a big step forward. I am very, very pleased with him.”
Arsenal kept successive clean sheets for the first time since October – also the last time they won back-to-back matches – with victories over Manchester United and Leeds United as Arteta sets about improving a poor defensive record.
The Gunners have been linked with a number of centre-back signings including Dayot Upamecano and Jerome Boateng but Arteta explained in unusual detail just how he was working with the existing group to eradicate individual errors.
“Different types of drills, drills where they are facing the ball when the ball is far from them, situation where they have to defend transitions when they are overloaded, when they are in equal numbers,” he said.
“When the ball is with the full-backs, what I expect from them. Where I want the line in relation to the ball, not just the opponent, a few things that for us are important.
“For me the most helpful thing for that is communication. If you are constantly communicating with your team-mates around you it makes you stay focused on what is happening all the time. If you don’t talk to each other there are always moments or gaps when your focus can go and the back four can’t have those moments.”
Arteta also batted back Pep Guardiola’s suggestion that he was responsible for “tactical fouls”, with the Spaniard captured in Amazon’s ‘All or Nothing’ Manchester City documentary appearing to encourage players to foul in certain situations.
Guardiola said “you have to go to London and ask Mikel”. Arteta responded: “It was the wrong clip on Amazon! I will ask the journalists to go back to Manchester and ask [Guardiola] the same question again!”
