Dani Ceballos who is on loan at Arsenal from Real Madrid said the Premier League club was almost dead before the club appointed Mikel Arteta as the manager of the club.
Mikel Arteta took over from Unai Emery who was sacked in November 2019 due to a poor run of games. The club was struggling at the middle of the league table without any sign of resuscitation. But when Mikel Arteta came in, Arsenal began to win games and climbed up the ladder until they got to the 8th spot on the league table.
Besides Arsenal’s performance in the league, Mikel Arteta led Arsenal to FA Cup triumph against Chelsea and a Community Shield triumph against Liverpool in less than a year at the club.
When SunSport asked Dani Ceballos about an incident that happened between him and David Luiz during training, the Spanish player said the incident was a sign that Mikel Arteta has brought life to the club.
It was reported that Dani Ceballos tackled David Luiz very harshly during training. The tackle was so harsh that the Brazilian defender confronted the Spanish midfielder and almost resulted in a full-blown fight.
Though Arsenal tried to hide the incident from getting out, the story went viral and forced the club’s coach to threaten that he would find the person behind the story and the person will face the “consequences”.
Since then, nothing much have been heard about the incident until Dani Ceballos had an interview with SunSport. During the interview, Ceballos who formally said the training grand incident was fake, admitted that it happened and said the incident shown the character of the club.
“It was not an exemplary behavior but it is good to see Arsenal is alive – that the team has character,” Ceballos said.
“The team was almost dead – but after Arteta’s arrival, we won the FA Cup and the Community Shield.
“It’s not even a year since he arrived and he has given a radical change to the club.
“He’s the soul of the club and he’s lucky that the players trust him 100 percent.”
Dani Ceballos went further to admit that he and David Luiz have settled their differences and re-echoed Mikel Arteta’s claimed that they have nothing against each other despite the incident at the training ground.
Ceballos who has played 13 games in all competitions for Arsenal this season, has once had an issue with another Arsenal’s player, Eddie Nketiah earlier in the 2020-2021 season.
The two players were caught on camera arguing while warming up as substitutes in Arsenal’s first Premier League match of the season against Fulham on 12 September 2020 which ended 3-0 in favor of Arsenal.
