Mikel Arteta opened up on having to undergo life-saving heart surgery as a toddler in an emotional team talk to his Arsenal players last season. Watch the video below:
Footage of the team talk has been released as the latest trailer for the upcoming 'All Or Nothing' documentary on Arsenal.
The Gunners are the subject of the latest instalment of Amazon Prime's popular series, which has previously covered Manchester City and Tottenham in the Premier League.
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The upcoming fly-on-the-wall documentary, which will be released on August 4, charts Arsenal's 2021-22 campaign, which ended in disappointment after the Gunners narrowly missed out on the top four on the final day of the season.
Arsenal began the campaign with consecutive defeats against Brentford, Chelsea and Manchester City in their opening three league games.
The latest trailer for the series focuses on a dressing room team talk from Arsenal boss Arteta, in which he gives his full support to his players despite their slow start to the season.
The Spaniard talks about undergoing life-saving heart surgery as a toddler and the "high performance" team of medical staff that treated him.
"In many industries there are high performance teams," former Arsenal captain Arteta told his players.
"These teams are called this because they all have something in common, they get results. When I was born, I was born with a big heart disease and for two years they had to try and save my life. I had the opportunity to have the first open surgery in Spain.
"A high performance team is not just a football team or a basketball team. For example, it can be an emergency team – for example the ones that work in hospitals. These teams have to be surrounded by people that are very special, they are willing to work 100 per cent. They do it for one reason, because they love what they do. That is their drive, that is their purpose."
Arteta goes on to share a graph representing his emotional state, admitted he felt demoralised after their 5-0 defeat to City in their second game of the season.
"I had fear, I had insecurity," said Arteta, who then went on to state all of the positives in his life as motivation for his players.
"I have an incredible family, a wife, three kids. The club, always important, from the top, the owner, everyone," he added.
Arteta then tells his squad that they are also one of the biggest positives in his life.
"I want to say thank you so much to all of you because you made in a difficult moment one of the best weeks of my football career," added Arteta.
"Believe in yourself, I do. You are really good. The last thing I want to do in a difficult moment is blame any of you."
While Arsenal would miss go on to miss out on the top four last season, the Gunners have shown signs of improvement ahead of the new campaign.
They have won all four of their pre-season friendlies, including a 4-0 win over rivals Chelsea.
The Gunners next face Sevilla on Saturday before playing Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park in their opening game of the Premier League season on August 5.
Topics: Arsenal, Football, Mikel Arteta, Premier League
Rory O'Callaghan