New Arsenal signing Christian Norgaard has opened up about the unique demands of playing under manager Mikel Arteta, describing the experience as entirely different from anything he has encountered in his career.
From West London to North London
The Danish international midfielder, Christian Norgaard, made the switch to the Gunners this past summer in a £12 million deal. This move brought an end to his six-year tenure with Brentford, where he had a long-standing professional relationship with manager Thomas Frank.
Frank, who also departed the Bees to take over at rivals Tottenham Hotspur, had initially signed Norgaard for Brentford back in 2019. Their partnership, however, began even earlier, spanning three years at Danish club Brondby before Frank's move to England in 2018.
A New Demanding Regime at Arsenal
Just a month into the season, Norgaard was full of praise for his new boss, Mikel Arteta. He highlighted the Spaniard's intense and detailed approach, which places significant physical and tactical demands on his players.
"It is different than what I've been used to, but it's brilliant how his mind works and the way he wants us to play," Norgaard said in September. "It's very demanding on a physical level and also on a tactical level. So sometimes I still don't know exactly the things I do, but of course being out there, trying to execute it will always help."
After missing the first month of the campaign due to injury, the 31-year-old returned to action in mid-September. He noted that getting 90 minutes on the pitch was another crucial step in absorbing Arteta's complex tactical instructions.
Echoes of Declan Rice's Experience
Norgaard's comments strongly mirror the experience of his teammate, Declan Rice. Just a month after his own £105 million move from West Ham in 2023, the England star admitted that Arteta had completely changed his perception of the game.
Despite having worked under experienced managers like David Moyes and Manuel Pellegrini, Rice declared that Arteta's tactical knowledge was on "another level". He elaborated, stating that the finer details the manager goes into are so exhaustive that players have no excuses on matchday, as every eventuality is covered.
This shared sentiment from two different midfielders, arriving in different transfer windows, underscores the unique and transformative coaching methodology that Mikel Arteta has implemented at Arsenal.
