David Luiz has hailed the "contagious" enthusiasm that Mikel Arteta has brought to the club since taking over in December.
The first-team squad are due to fly to Dubai later this week to take part in some warm-weather training, giving our head coach valuable time on the training pitch with his players.
“He knows football, he knows inside the pitch," David Luiz told Arsenal Player. "He loves football, he loves to work, so this enthusiasm is contagious for everybody.
"What Mikel is trying to build is something big and I really believe in his philosophy, I really believe we can do something big this year and in the future, so I’m really, really happy because we have our way to go. This way, is it going to be a hard way? Yes. Is it going to be difficult to achieve? Yes, but it’s possible. Yes, it’s possible.
“The first thing is to believe. If you don’t dream, and you don’t believe, then your dream is impossible. To do something, I think the first thing is you have to dream, and then you believe you can do it, then after to study how to do it, and then to understand during this process you’re going to have some good moments and some difficult moments but you can never change your mind, you can never change your mentality and you will always have to come back to the beginning and understand."
Aside from the hard work he has instilled, many of our players have spoken about Arteta bringing the fun back to the club - and David Luiz has hailed the importance of this.
“I think the result of people when they are happy is 10 times better than when they are sad," he said. "I believe in this smile, I believe in the fun and I believe in these kind of things – and this is part of football. This is part of the life, but not just that is the main thing.
"I think you have to work hard and you have to understand what we represent, you have to understand the philosophy of the club, you have to understand and to know the history of the club, you have to understand how everybody is involved with the club and the people here inside the club, outside the club, the supporters everywhere in the world. I think this is the most important thing.
"When you know why you are doing something, I think you start to understand the way and the how of walking in this way. Mikel knows that, he has tried to help us and give us the direction and how to live life, how to be inside the club and for me, this is so important to have."
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