Back in the old days, when Mikel Arteta was an Arsenal player and the team had suffered one of those Arsenal defeats, maybe away from home in the Champions League, it was him and only him who would front up to the press and say what needed to be said.
Actually, that is not true. It was Arteta or Per Mertesacker, sometimes both but never anyone else from the squad. Arteta would be collared as he headed for the team bus, its engine revving impatiently, in the bowels of the stadium in, say, Milan or Dortmund, and he would burn with frustration.
They say that you learn more about a player in the low moments, about their character and leadership credentials, and that was certainly true of Arteta. Perhaps it was magnified…