5 Things To Watch Out For in Arsenal’s All Or Nothing Documentary

Following the success of the All Or Nothing documentary series for clubs such as Tottenham, Manchester City and Juventus, Amazon subsequently commissioned another documentary that this time, will follow North London side Arsenal.

The eight-episode series will follow the Gunners over the course of their 2021/22 season, giving football fans a peek into not only what went on behind the scenes during what was a very challenging season for the club, but also delving slightly into the personal lives of figures at the club during that period of time.

The first three episodes of the documentary drop this Thursday and the next three will be released a week later on the 11th of August. The final two episodes of the documentary will come out on the 18th. Ultimately, we know very little about what is going to be shown, but based on small teaser clips and the official trailer, here are 5 things you can expect from the documentary…

Another thing this documentary series will show is not only how Mikel Arteta works, but also how he tries to motivate his side before, during and after games.

Clips already shown include Arteta revealing how he underwent heart surgery as a child before a win against Norwich, Arteta getting his squad to close their eyes and rub their hands together to create “positive energy” before a game against Leicester, and Arteta even letting club photographer Stuart Macfarlane deliver a team talk ahead of the North London derby in September.

As the episodes are released, we will hopefully see many more of the different methods that the Spaniard has utilised in an attempt to motivate his squad. For example, it will be interesting to see what Arteta does to motivate his squad after the opening three games of the season – the Gunners suffered defeats against Brentford, Chelsea and Manchester City to leave them bottom of the league.

The first three episodes of the series heavily feature club talisman Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and his final few months at the club leading up to his departure for La Liga giants Barcelona in January, in a move that was a huge shock for Arsenal fans everywhere.

The striker, who scored 92 goals in 163 appearances for the Gunners, joined the Catalan side after being stripped of the Arsenal captaincy amidst concerns by Arteta over Aubameyang’s attitude and willingness to buy into the philosophy he wants to instil at the club.

The trailer shows Arteta delivering the news that Aubameyang is no longer the club captain, before cutting to fellow striker Alexandre Lacazette exclaiming “Wow!”. It’s not much to go on, but as the episodes are released, we will hopefully get a deeper insight into what exactly led the forward to be stripped of the captaincy and ultimately leaving the club.

The plans for a European Super League caused outrage in the footballing world when they were announced, and those plans were ultimately shelved due to the fierce backlash that the participating clubs received. Arsenal were one of the clubs involved in the breakaway league, but they did later announce that they would be pulling out of the league.

Arsenal fans protested their clubs’ decision to join the scheme via a gathering and demonstration outside of the Emirates Stadium before a Premier League fixture against Everton.

We can hopefully expect to see this period of the season covered, and perhaps how the players and staff at the club reacted to the news. Josh Kroenke, son of Arsenal owner Stan Kroenke, will reportedly be making an appearance in the documentary’s first episode, and so perhaps we will get some answers from him about the whole saga.

New signing Aaron Ramsdale is reportedly a big part of the opening few episodes, with manager Mikel Arteta recapping the phone call that convinced him that Ramsdale was the goalkeeper he wanted, and Ramsdale’s family by his side at his contract signing both being shown by the cameras.

The goalkeeper was a £30m arrival from Sheffield United in what was a busy 2021 summer window for the club, when other players such as Ben White, Martin Odegaard and Takehiro Tomiyasu also all joined for large fees.

Hopefully, some episodes of the doc will give us a slightly deeper look into how the club goes about its scouting process – what qualities Arteta wants in a player, how the scouting team search for this, and how the deals and contract negotiations themselves unfold.

The 2021/22 season was a difficult one for Arsenal – they failed to secure Champions League qualification despite being the favourites to get it for most of the season, and they suffered 13 defeats over the course of the season, a figure that is more than Liverpool, Manchester City and Chelsea combined.

Many of these defeats were of an embarrassing nature, and so it will be interesting to see how these affected the players.

Clips released show bottles being thrown in the dressing room, unhappy faces, and what appears to be a training ground fight between Alexandre Lacazette and another member of the squad, with other players quickly rushing over to separate the two – with Arsenal picking up many bad results over the season, the episodes will hopefully explore how the players felt about those results and what that training ground fight was about.