Arteta tells his players to stay calm.
He employs a sports psychologist. He talks constantly about composure, about emotional control, about staying close to his players and reminding them how good they are. He even writes them love letters. Honestly, he said they're like his children and writes them love letters. Bit intense.
He's also the most-booked manager in the Premier League. He got banned from the touchline in 2023 for picking up too many yellow cards. The CEO of Ref Support UK called him the worst in the league for his behaviour towards officials. And last Sunday, Arsenal lost another final. 2-0 to City in the Carabao Cup. Nearly six years without a major trophy now.
Before the match, Arteta told the media the drought "adds more necessity." Think about that for a second. The most important game of his season, and he's publicly loading it with even more pressure. After the match, he called it "a really sad day." Arsenal looked exactly how you'd expect a team to look when their manager can't regulate his own emotions in the moments that matter most. Tight. Anxious. Unable to breathe.
There's a reason for that. Research from Wharton shows that leaders' emotions spread faster through organisations than anyone else's. Your brain contains cells that automatically mirror the emotional state of the person you're watching. When your team sees you tense and frantic, their brains mirror it. It's called emotional contagion, and the leader is always the most contagious person in the room. You can talk about calm all day. You can hire coaches, run workshops, put up banners with the word "identity" broken into an acronym. But if you're visibly stressed when it counts, that stress is spreading through your team whether you realise it or not.
After City won the league over Arsenal last year, Rodri pointed to his head and said the difference was "in here." He wasn't just talking about the players.
I've been that slightly manic, bit intense manager. Early in my career I was constantly stressed, running around, always looking busy. I thought it was a good thing. I thought people could see I was working hard, that I was across everything, that I cared. I was naive about the effect it was having. My team weren't energised by my energy. They were stressed by it. It made me less approachable. And honestly, looking back, I didn't look like a leader. I just looked a bit all over the place.
Here's the thing about Arteta. His intensity rebuilt Arsenal from nothing. He took over a squad with no standards, no accountability, and no direction, and through sheer force of personality turned them into title contenders. That transformation was real and he deserves a lot of credit. But building and winning require different things. The relentless intensity that got Arsenal from eighth to second might be the ceiling, not the floor. If you've driven your team hard to get somewhere and you're now stuck, the question isn't whether you need more intensity. It's whether you've been so intense for so long that nobody around you can breathe.
What does your team see when they look at you under pressure? Ask someone you trust what they think you do when you're stressed. I bet everyone in your team knows what it is.
Have a great week.
Arran
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Arran Russell
Founder, Set The Tone
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Ps: I'm running a 10-week management training programme for new or recent managers who want to some foundations on managing a team. First cohort starts soon. Details here: https://setthetonegroup.co.uk/foundingcohor
