Interview

'Leadership is being able to transform a person'

For all the talk of the relative youth of our squad this season, Mikel Arteta has stressed the role some of our elder statesmen can have too.

Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Alex Lacazette and Thomas Partey were crucial to our victory at Aston Villa - and the boss believes they can have a huge impact on their younger team-mates.

"The group age [of the squad] is a little bit closer so they are experiencing most of the same things and they talk a lot about it," he said. 

"Then we have the senior players that they have to lead and they have to take that role, and they are doing that in a different way. 

"Leading is not telling someone what he needs to do, for me it is being able to transform that person and not just with words, but with facts as well. 

"There are players now that on that pitch that they are able to transmit something and change certain behaviours and attitudes in other players. That is contagious, and for me that is leadership."