Wilshere & Welbeck & the Way Back

The recent announcement of Arsenal forward Danny Welbeck’s knee surgery was a potent incendiary device. It combined two highly flammable elements—the club’s (lack of) transfer activity and its injury record—and sparked them with a bit of awkward and untimely public relations. The result was a social media firestorm.

It’s sadly not the first time an injury development has provoked criticism, in addition to amateurish medical diagnosis. The response usually focuses on physical factors, such as the nature of the injury, the scope of the treatment, or the typical recovery period, as if all Arsenal have to do is repair a broken machine.

Lost in all this is the mental condition of the individual affected, even though the psychological aspect is just as important as physical recovery. That’s the conclusion of compelling research on injury and rehabilitation among athletes.

Injury as routine

For years, supporters and media used Arsenal’s injury record as cudgel with which to attack manager Arsène Wenger. He shouldn't insist, some said, on a style of play that exposes players to so much physical risk; he should diversify his team away from so many small, slight players, others claimed; he should relax his stubborn training methods, still others argued; he should stop trying to control all aspects of the club, some proclaimed, especially medical interventions.

All these arguments ignore the research. Many studies have indicated that injuries are an unavoidable element of athletic performance. As Charles Brown notes in “Injuries: The Psychology of Recovery and Rehab,” “serious athletes come in two varieties: those who have been injured, and those who have not been injured yet” (The Sport Psych Handbook, 2013).

Everyone associated with an athletic endeavor, including managers, coaches, athletes themselves, and supporters, should therefore prepare for the reality of injury. After all, the vast majority of elite footballers sustain a performance-limiting injury at least once a season. (See Casper Devantier, “Psychological Predictors of Injury among Professional Soccer Players” in Sport Science Review.)

Fortunately, professional players can deal with this eventuality better than amateur players or fans can. Elite athletes have access to state-of-the-art facilities, breakthrough treatments, and attentive medical and rehab staffs. They’re also adept with the psychological techniques that enable peak performance, which, it so happens, are identical to those needed for effective injury recovery.

As I described a year ago in in “Mesut Özil Plays for Arsenal, and You Do Not,” the specific psychological tools elite athletes call upon are goal-setting, imagery, relaxation training, and positive self-talk. Also important is strong social support, which helps injured players stay motivated and confident. This points to another benefit of team camaraderie.

Warning signs

We can sense the psychological risks of injury in the comments of Arsenal captain Mikel Arteta, who spent more than six months sidelined with calf and ankle problems: “When players go outside for a training session, you feel wasted. They come back, they travel, they have different times to you and you don’t spend much time with them. Personally, I don’t feel productive.”

These types of feelings, while understandable at a human level, can be problematic for athletes. That’s because athletes can become more vulnerable to injury if they exhibit certain psychological traits. In Devantier’s study of Danish professional footballers, poor ability to cope with adversity and the existence of previous injuries both bore a strong correlation to the duration of injuries.

This makes sense. If a player can’t handle adversity or has suffered a prior injury, his anxiety could increase, affecting his ability to stay positive and calm and avoid long injury layoffs.

The real problem for Arsenal is that other research has identified an element of personality in the vulnerability to injury. Brown has observed that "the risk of injury increases if the athlete experiences competitive trait anxiety (routinely feels greater anxiety or tension in performance situations) or anger and aggression during competition."

Implications

Anger and aggression during competition. Remind you of anyone?

Hence a legitimate concern about midfielder Jack Wilshere. He's often the first into the fray, the scrappy English bulldog.

The question is, how does Wilshere separate this aggression from his playing style? He shouldn't heed advice to adjust his style of play out of fear of re-injury, which could actually create the conditions for another injury. What's important is that Wilshere remain in control of his physical and emotional conduct.

He should also rely on his teammates, the strength and conditioning coaches, the physios, the management team, and others. The support of them all is crucial; that's especially the case for Welbeck, who doesn't have the longstanding ties to the club Wilshere enjoys.

Perhaps Wenger knows how important togetherness and support are for his injured charges. It could explain why he's so complimentary of injured players in public and why he stayed behind Abou Diaby through his many long absences. That support was undoubtedly about Diaby, but it might have also been a message to the other members of the team that the club would stand by them if/when they were injured, too.

This approach to player injuries also explains the quick response to England manager Roy Hodgson's statement about the length of Welbeck's absence. Soon after Hodgson said that Welbeck would be out at least six months, Arsenal provided details of Welbeck's cartilage problem to Jeremy Wilson of the Telegraph, stressing that the club prognosis still pointed to a late December return.

Understood in light of the psychological research, Arsenal's purposeful public relations recovery was designed to encourage the player, keep him close psychologically to the first team, and reassure fans that the club is taking a professional, thoughtful, and holistic approach to the inevitable injuries.

Arsenal's Defining Mindset

As the 2014-15 Premier League season draws to a close, Arsenal's manager Arsène Wenger and his players have begun talking about the prospects for next season. One underlying theme of their statements is the type of players the club is likely to retain and recruit, a topic always of interest to supporters.

The easing of the financial burden associated with the Emirates Stadium construction means that Arsenal are again in the market for top-flight talent and will compete with other elite clubs for those players. Among those clubs, physical skill is almost a given and, on balance, does not separate the teams much: For an Eden Hazard at Chelsea, there's a Mesut Özil at Arsenal and a David Silva at Manchester City.

What does set the clubs apart from each other is a finely honed mentality. An exacting mindset, combined with a fortunate-bordering-on-sinister injury record, drove Chelsea to the league title.

At Arsenal, players' mental constitution is emerging as the decisive factor in Wenger's selections for his starting lineups and squads. This filter identifies players based on three major aspects:

1. Decision-making
2. Response to pressure
3. Long-term outlook

Make mature and quick decisions

The players who've earned the manager's trust over the course of this season have been able to strike a balance between patience and decisiveness. Relying on both maturity and agility of mind, they wait for the appropriate moment to act and know what to do when that moment comes.

The prime example of this dynamic is midfielder Francis Coquelin. Loaned out three times, virtually forgotten, and seemingly destined to leave Arsenal this summer, Coquelin was an emergency recall from Charlton in December and by January had made himself essential to this Arsenal team.

He's a combative character in matches, but he has also shown the levelheadedness that Wenger values. As the manager said in describing Coquelin at a recent Barclays event, "It's unbelievable how patient and open-minded you have to be." (Arsenal.com, "Coquelin sticks to what he's strong at")

The counter-example is goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny. His nicotine-fueled indiscretions after his poor performance in Arsenal's 2-0 defeat at Southampton laid bare his poor decision-making, prompted Wenger to bench him, and cast doubt on his Arsenal future.

Thrive under pressure

A second psychological requirement of Wenger's players is their willingness to embrace pressure. I have written about this quality, which psychologists call "resilience," in "Mesut Özil Plays for Arsenal, and You Do Not." In short, Arsenal favors players who view the intense attention and stakes of elite competition as opportunities to improve performance.

It's a mindset now common in the team. Center forward Olivier Giroud, the object of considerable scrutiny during his Arsenal career, spoke about the group's response to pressure in a feature on the club Website. He said: "Nowadays you have to deal with that pressure. There is more media now, and social media as well - it is more than in the 1990s. But I like pressure, and the boys do as well." (" You must be able to deal with pressure")

As a result, we see the team panic less often. For example, when Chelsea visited the Emirates in April with the clear intention of preventing Arsenal scoring, the Gunners did not go headlong into attack and leave themselves exposed to a counter-attack. This patient approach has been at work for much of 2015 when Arsenal have failed to establish an early lead in matches.

Take the long view

Meanwhile, on an individual level, we've seen players bounce back quickly from poor performances. Giroud's response to his nightmare Champions League outing against Monaco--seven goals in his next seven starts--was not out of character for him or this team. They've been able to put specific performances, particularly subpar ones such as Monday's loss to Swansea, into the proper perspective. One reason is that, unlike fans and the media, Arsenal's players are viewing their work as part of a long-term effort.

Tim of 7amkickoff has frequently noted that Wenger manages for the long term. That description is backed up by the manager's own statements, such as "Sometimes in the modern professional game [it] is, 'OK. I go two years to Arsenal, I go two years to Real Madrid.' But that doesn't make a club. You need a core of people who want to live there and want to make their lives with the club."

This philosophy seems like a fatal weakness. After all, it runs against the overwhelming trend among professional footballers, who by and large focus on their immediate, individual prospects. That's the conclusion of Bobby Warshaw, a former Stanford player currently in the Norwegian first division, in his intriguing piece, " Understanding the European Players' Mindset is Key to Understanding Klinsmann."

But what if, rather than weakening Arsenal's position, Wenger's preference for players committed to the long-term cause helps identify exceptional contributors? What if this highly refined filter gives Arsenal a competitive advantage in a business characterized by short-term prestige and financial gain?

Identifying players in this way and showing long-term faith in them are having an effect on their progress and perspective. Coquelin, for instance, recounted his difficult days on loan at the German club Freiburg in an interview with The Observer's Amy Lawrence: "Mentally it was tough. Then one day I woke up and realised: ‘OK, I am not going to play. Now I am training to be ready for next season at Arsenal.'" ("Francis Coquelin is the new Arsenal king of counter-bling")

Coquelin's statement provides evidence that Wenger's long view is present among players as well. Listen carefully to their statements as summer transfers approach. If they hint at a longer time horizon, emphasize the value of pressure, or talk about patience, those players could be in Wenger's plans. If they ignore those mental aspects and stress near-term reward, their short- and long-term futures may lie away from Arsenal.

The Özil Yin and the Alexis Yang

Since Arsenal playmaker Mesut Özil returned to full-time action in late January, questions have arisen about his compatibility with new teammate Alexis. The two have joined forces in seven matches in 2015, during which Alexis has scored just one goal. That's a significant dropoff from his 13-goal production in 18 games without Özil.

This trend has troubled some supporters and commentators, because they see the integration of these two stars as the key to Arsenal's progress. After all, the club paid the two highest transfer fees in the club's history in 2013 and 2014, respectively, to acquire these remarkable players. In the process, Arsenal signaled its reemergence as a prime destination for world-class talent.

These concerns are misplaced. That's because seven matches, plus 531 minutes in eight matches in fall 2014, don't represent a large enough sample size to declare the two mismatched. More to the point, a close study of their playing styles and ability suggests that the two can emerge as ideal complements.

Playing personalities that jibe

Armchair psychoanalysis of professional athletes is always questionable. We've never spoken with them, and, by and large, we wouldn't be qualified to draw clinical conclusions even if we had met them. We are also wrong to expect elite athletes to behave like we would in high-stakes performance environments; as I've written in "Mesut Özil Plays for Arsenal, and You Do Not," their success depends on their acting not like us.

That said, we can observe their playing personalities. Alexis is all visible action, taking on defenders, pressing with abandon, relishing the spolight. Özil operates in the shadows, exploiting the space no one else sees, directing his teammates into promising positions for themselves, deflecting the attention.

These descriptions give rise to an interesting analysis of Alexis as extrovert and Özil as introvert. FourFourTwo's Chas Newly-Burden lays out this case in a compelling fashion in "Özil, Ronaldo, and Football's Distrust of Introverts."

Because football is a team game, though, what matters is how the players work together. Do their styles, preferences, and abilities -- combined and integrated with those of their teammates -- enhance Arsenal's chances of success?

Complementary expertise

Reasonable supporters, football experts, and appreciators of athletic skill and choreography can't honestly conclude that Arsenal would be a better side without Alexis and/or Özil. The suggestion that the two can't flourish also ignores substantial evidence.

In addition to raising the squad's overall levels of quality and play, Özil and Alexis are an almost ideal attacking partnership. It's been argued that Alexis's reluctance to stay in wide areas, shown by his tendency to dribble toward the center, often crowds Özil out of the Arsenal attack. With a less imaginative playmaker, that might be a legitimate concern. But thanks to Özil's vision and refined sense of playing space, Alexis's forays actually create the conditions in which Özil thrives.

Alexis's zealous excursions, even when they aren't successful, force defenses to change their shapes. In the process, they leave space unoccupied, and Özil is probably the best in the world at identifying that space before anyone else and in exploiting the resulting weakness.

The most striking recent example of this phenomenon occurred in Monaco during the second leg of Arsenal's 2-0 win in the Champions League Round of 16. The play preceded Arsenal's second goal and appears in this video starting at the 8:25 mark.

For the entire match, Monaco had been surrounding Alexis with two, three, and sometimes four players. Özil recognized this tendency and the weakness it created elsewhere.

In this instance, Özil has the ball when Alexis drifts parallel to goal, just outsize the penalty area. Monaco midfielder Geoffrey Kondogbia is between the two Arsenal players, but that's not enough coverage to execute Monaco's gameplan.

So Monaco's right midfielder Dirar and right back Fabinho both step toward Alexis. This leaves a gaping hole down Arsenal's left for left back Nacho Monreal to exploit. Özil spots the space and Monreal's run and lifts a pass over all the Monaco defenders, catching Monreal in stride and allowing him to cut the ball back to Theo Walcott. Walcott's shot off the post rebounds to Aaron Ramsey, who shoots home.

Adapting to opponents' adaptations

This combination of awareness and skill is essential because the majority of opponents, like Monaco, are now hyper-conscious of the threat Alexis poses. Premier League sides Crystal Palace, Everton, and Newcastle were all notable in their focus on Alexis, double- and triple-teaming him in an apparent effort to force other Arsenal players to beat them. Indeed, center forward Olivier Giroud's impressive productivity in recent matches might be a consequence of this defensive attention on Alexis.

The player heatmaps and other visualizations on whoscored.com (originating with OptaSports) and the match chalkboards on Arsenal.com show the priority many opponents are now placing on stopping Alexis. Everton sent out three defensive-minded central midfielders, Gareth Barry, James McCarthy, and Muhamed Besic, two of whom largely focused on Alexis's side of the pitch, Arsenal's left. All but one of Barry's and McCarthy's successful tackles occurred on that side, and all their interceptions happened there.

Arsenal varied its attacks as a result. It pushed forward on its left 37 percent of the time, right 37 percent, and centrally 27 percent.

Against Crystal Palace, the attacks went predominantly down the left (again, 37 percent), where Alexis spent most of his time. Palace's primary method of coping with Alexis was to foul him. He drew four fouls, the most among Arsenal players in that match, contributing to his total of 57. That's the fourth-highest figure in the Premier League. (Stats from OptaSports via whoscored.com and from PremierLeague.com.)

These decisions by opponents might be related to Alexis's reduced goalscoring, as much if not more than his tiring or misfiring are. Whatever the mix of factors, the genius and skill of Özil have intervened to provide the perfect complement and to lead Arsenal to success so far in 2015.

Arsenal Deliver Hope

Arsenal's 2-0 victory over Manchester City is an occasion to savor but not to belabor.

As sports fans in general and Arsenal supporters in particular, we have yearned for moments like this, an event that is all the more satisfying for our inability to see it coming. We struggled to imagine the satisfaction of victory because this scenario, in which Arsenal traveled to one of the league's elites, had produced such different conclusions in the recent, memorable past.

The records didn't favor Arsenal, but those records didn't determine the plot or result of this contest. The individual and collective performances on the day did. That's why, compelling statistical correlations and convincing historical storylines notwithstanding, there is always hope.

Mental and physical ability in a familiar package

In addition to the drama created by the unpredictable, we follow sport to witness the highest levels of physical and mental ability. We saw that on Sunday in the person of midfielder Santi Cazorla.

Analysts and supporters by the dozens are rightly praising Cazorla's performance; I won't replicate those ratings here. Instead, I'll be looking briefly at Cazorla as a compelling character in this particular sporting drama.

Cazorla's physique distinguishes him from professional athletes not named Woosnam. He is 5-foot-5 and not exactly muscular. He stands apart from the large majority of professional athletes in most sports, who are gargantuan and/or amazingly defined specimens. Fans can therefore relate to Cazorla in ways we can't to other top-level athletes.

We can also see our own outlooks reflected in Cazorla's. Unlike the joyless hordes of stars who portray their professions as grinds, Cazorla takes great pleasure in what he does. His laughter and smiles show the attitude we would have if we were blessed to play a game for a living. At least that's what we tell ourselves, knowing next to nothing about a professional athlete's  sacrifices, past, or psychology.

What we don't share is Cazorla's remarkable skill, vision, and calm. All were on full display as he controlled Sunday's match, which featured 14 selected members of the world's most expensive sporting enterprise, Manchester City Football Club. (See Adrian Clarke's always excellent segment, The Breakdown, on Arsenal Player for a shrewd analysis of Cazorla's performance.)

The professional perspective

Another trait that distinguishes Cazorla from fans is his perspective. We'll be excited for some time--and understandably so--about what happened at the Etihad. Not Spurs-Special-Issue-DVD-level excited, but buzzing all the same. That emotion is what fans live for.

Professional athletes, though, live for the next contest. I wrote about this mentality after a quite different occasion, the 2-0 loss at Chelsea earlier this season ("Arsenal's Next Steps"), and what's encouraging is that Arsenal's players are now displaying the same level-headedness that they showed then in defeat.

One example was Cazorla's reflection immediately after the match: "Today, the team had good spirit, good concentrate, and we need to play the same the next game, no?"

Quite charming in its earnestness, simplicity, and cross-lingual struggle.

Similarly, midfielder Francis Coquelin, who might be excused some excitement and exaggeration given his rapid transition from a fringe player to a vital contributor, did not get carried away as many of us would. "It's a tough game to win," Coquelin told the club website, "but we did that, and now we need to move to to the next one, because there is no point winning here and then losing at home in the next game."

Captain Per Mertesacker neatly summarized the calm reaction, saying "We don't have to talk too much -- it was just one game, but it was a good response."

Treating the two imposters

These statements from the players suggest that they're handling the highs and lows of the season like professionals. Although we as fans might relate better to full-blown emotional reactions, such swings by the team aren't productive. Instead, it's vital that players manage the stress of elite competition with a cool head. (See "Mesut Özil Plays for Arsenal, and You Do Not.")

I'd therefore expect the management, coaching staff, and team to deploy the same methodology after the City performance as they do after every other match, one I described in the wake of the Chelsea loss. Win or lose, they will:

1. Analyze the performance
2. Avoid excessive praise or blame
3. Apply what they learn
4. Turn their attention to the next match

These aren't inspiring steps, but they are what's required to focus a group of elite athletes over the course of a long campaign. They are also necessary, if not sufficient, conditions for the fulfillment of this side's potential, a hint of which just stunned us in the technicolor of individual and collective feats.
 

Arsenal's Next Steps

As the Chelsea defeat came to a close on Sunday, I thought, "That's just great. We've got two weeks to dwell on this."

The second international break of the season affords fans and pundits 13 days--until the visit of Hull City on October 18--to pore over what went wrong at Stamford Bridge. Thanks to social media, blogs, and podcasts, we also have the means to linger over and discuss the squad's shortcomings.

Expect plenty of moaning and armchair expertise.

The professionals weigh in

Fortunately, the professionals see no value in wallowing in defeat. The post-match comments of Jack Wilshere and Per Mertesaker showed a constructive, mature perspective.

The occasionally temperamental Wilshere observed to Arsenal Player, "That's the difference at this level. You're playing against teams who, when you're on top, you have to make it count; otherwise, they'll punish you. And they did."

With a similarly matter-of-fact tone, Mertesaker, the team captain on the day, told Sky Sports, "We have to admit they are better than us--still better--and we have to learn quickly."

This conclusion suggested the squad will take a series of next steps, consisting of:

1. Analyzing the performance
2. Avoiding paralysis and blame over mistakes and failures
3. Applying what the group learned from the analysis
4. Turning attention to the Hull match

Or, as manager Arsène Wenger put it, "They won. Congratulations to them. And let's go to the next game."

The cold, clear light of day

Assessing the performance soberly and focusing quickly on the next objective do not necessarily appeal to many supporters. They're more comfortable with a prolonged emotional reaction, for several reasons:

• They can only view the last match and not the process of preparing for the next one
• They experience an ongoing flood of information about that last match
• They're subjected to taunts by opposing fans and even fellow Arsenal supporters
• They can't call on the refined psychological traits and techniques available to elite athletes

I wrote recently about this psychological edge in "Mesut Özil Plays for Arsenal, and You Do Not," and the ability to react to setbacks constructively strikes me as another expert adaptation to the stress associated with high-level competition. It contributes to a mental framework that permits optimal physical performance.

"When our brains get caught up in thoughts from the past, or thoughts of the future, it creates a stress response, and we can’t use the part of the brain that keeps us engaged in the moment," Kirsten Race, Ph. D., an expert on psychological awareness, has said. In other words, there's a neurological reason for Arsenal's players to place the Chelsea result in its proper context: Their brains won't be fully geared to succeed in their next match if they're mulling  their last one.

In previous seasons, Wenger praised his team's resilience, which has always been, like anything psychological, a work in progress. The hesitant performances after last season's high-profile disasters suggested that Arsenal team had not evolved mentally to the best effect.

We will see when Hull City visits the Emirates on October 18 how the current group of Arsenal players copes with its first major setback of the season. The good news is, Sunday's 2-0 loss wasn't debilitating, and public statements by the players and manager point to a healthy attitude. That's a better position than many supporters occupy at the moment.

Mesut Özil Plays for Arsenal, and You Do Not

After an unproductive start to the 2014-15 Premier League campaign and a subpar Champions League performance against Borussia Dortmund, Arsenal playmaker Mesut Özil told the German news agency DPA, "I don't play to prove others wrong, I play for Arsenal."

Many observers, though, do think that Özil has something to prove, needing in particular to display "passion" in the traditional English sporting sense. After all, that's how they would react if they were faced with the pressure associated with elite athletic competition. The expectations tied to a club-record financial outlay would intensify the pressure they'd feel.

Yet Özil does not give the impression that he's under any stress at all. This behavior, infuriating to some fans, is one of the psychological strengths that combines with amazing physical gifts to foster success at the highest level of competition.

There's an entire field of psychological research devoted to identifying the differences between these elite performers and the rest of us. The message from many of these studies is that what we laypeople consider shortcomings might actually be competitive virtues.

Inviting and overcoming stress

Most individuals experience stress from exposure to traumatic or negative events, such as violence, natural disasters, or the death of a loved one. By contrast, elite athletes choose to put themselves in stressful situations partly because they believe the experiences can improve their performances. They see stressful conditions and events as opportunities to grow and hone their competitive edge. (Many of these ideas come from researchers David Fletcher and Mustafa Sarkar,  "A grounded theory of psychological resilience in Olympic champions" in the journal Psychology of Sport and Exercise 13 (2012).)

Handling stress and pressure requires high levels of what psychologists call resilience. Summoning this characteristic, elite athletes prove able to succeed in situations that would paralyze most of us with fear of failure or awe at our surroundings. Fletcher and Sarkar have also learned that world-class sportswomen and -men are adept at using psychological techniques on themselves; as examples, they can easily step outside themselves and visualize their actions, relax, and shut out distractions.

Calling on psychological strengths

These techniques enhance the psychological advantages elite athletes already possess. By nature and by active cultivation, top sports performers have developed highly refined, advantageous psychological characteristics. Those are:

1. Confidence
2. Focus, especially on themselves and on process
3. Perceived social support
4. Discipline

The first seems obvious and understandable: elite athletes have to believe they will succeed, or they would have never made it to that level. Focus involves stepping outside themselves cognitively, planning and evaluating their own performance. Top athletes are adept at looking at the process, rather than the outcome, and their own roles in that process. (Findings from Natalie Durand-Bush and John Salmela, "The development and maintenance of expert athletic performance: Perceptions of world and Olympic champions," Journal of Applied Sport Psychology 14:3 (2002).)

The third characteristic, perceived social support, is interesting because it casts player entourages in a different light. These cliques surrounding professional athletes strike many of us as weird and parasitic, but the research suggests they can be essential to overcoming stress and achieving top levels of performance.

The last, discipline, points to the ability to set goals and exercise self-control (See Nicholas Holt and John Dunn, "Toward a grounded theory of the psychological competencies and environmental conditions associated with soccer success," Journal of Applied Sport Psychology 16 (2004).) It's subtly different from focus, which seems more process-oriented. Discipline helps athletes ward off distraction and use their emotional energy to positive effect.

Implications for players we love and loathe

Enough egghead mumbo-jumbo.

What does all this mean for the Arsenal and its supporters?

For one thing, we need to stop demanding that Özil and his teammates show they care in the same way that we would. In all likelihood, Özil's on-field demeanor isn't a sign of apathy; it's an expert adaptation to stressful situations that provides him with a competitive advantage.

The alternative is storming around the pitch, looking intense, flirting with losing control--showing the passion the British have long valued. Far from producing an edge, this kind of behavior actually signals a surrender to stress. The most recent example is Wayne Rooney's tirade as his Manchester United team gave up a two-goal lead to Leicester City.

NBC Sports analyst Robbie Mustoe praised Rooney's outburst, and many of us can relate to his behavior because that's how we would react in that situation. But we are not elite athletes whose training and development have made them experts at managing stress and succeeding under incredible scrutiny.

One of the most volatile characters in sport has reflected on his behavior and now sees the advantage in acting differently. Joey Barton, in a fascinating interview with Henry Winter of The Telegraph, credited psychological consultant Steve Black with changing his outlook and performance. He said: "I visualise stuff now. When I get out of the car on a match-day, I walk into this 'bubble of no reaction' that no one gets in, nobody. I don't waste energy arguing with refs or other players...I'm in control now. I'm empowered."

The Costanza Principle: Do The Opposite!

Supporters of the Arsenal should be further encouraged by Özil's descriptions of the club's extremely supportive environment. That's one of the psychological conditions enabling elite performance. Manager Arsène Wenger should also maintain consistency of expectations because that allows top-level athletes to engage in planning, goal-setting, evaluating, and focusing on the process.

As Michael Keshani (@RoamingLibero) points out in his piece "Appreciating Mesut" for Arseblog, the recent shift to a 4-1-4-1 formation may have failed to take advantage of Özil's physical contributions; worse in my analysis, the change may have undermined Özil's need for consistency and thus his ability to capitalize on his psychological strengths.

The major lesson, though, is that we should stop expecting that Arsenal players show emotion as we would. Their success actually depends on not acting like us at all.