Mikel Arteta admitted there was a personal sacrifice to Arsenal’s success this season but hailed wife Lorena for managing to “balance him” at home.
The demands of being a Premier League manager, coupled with midweek commitments in Europe, mean Arteta spends large portions of time away from the family environment but says the stability provided by Lorena enables him to perform well in his role.
He said: “There is always a very high cost but I always say, if there is one person who deserves their place more than anyone else in all this success, it is my wife Lorena.
“What she has done for me and my children has no name because I am literally not there [at home]. And when I’m physically there, sometimes I’m not mentally. She has been the one who has managed to balance me at home.”
The results have been remarkable this season with the Gunners cruising to the Premier League title last week while they will attempt to claim a domestic and continental double when they face Paris Saint-Germain in the final of the Champions League in Budapest on Saturday night.
There remains criticism of Arsenal’s style of play and a perceived over-reliance on set-pieces but, having finished as runners-up in each of the last three seasons in the English top-flight before getting over the line, the Spaniard is confident the end justifies the means.
In an interview with Marca, he added: “I respect all opinions and then you must decide where to put them: give them importance, throw them away, leave them in the memory… you use them and they serve you… there is room for everything.
“My job is that if one thing is not enough for us to win, I cannot be satisfied. My job is to look for other formulas to end up winning, innovate, look for other ways than the previous ones. And that’s what we did this time.”
Part joy and part relief, concedes Arsenal boss Arteta
Their previous failures led to Arteta being labelled a nearly man and he conceded there was relief amid the joy at their title success.
“It was part joy and another of taking off the weight, of relief. To say: ‘We already have this’ and we must use that now as a tsunami of emotion, illusion and hunger to win the Champions League.”
Asked what made the difference this year, Arteta added: “Because someone, up there, aligned the planets so that it would be like this. Other years we have been close, but something was missing. The sensation has been different from the beginning, perhaps the quality of player… but the consistency has been similar.
“I was convinced that we were going to be very close. Not to win, because that depends on many things. My job has been to convince them to feel like the best, because there were moments of doubt. I gave them energy and told them to have fun like never before.”
