Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta insists his team had to go through their current struggles to improve.
Arteta believes Arsenal needed to endure this period of suffering before being able to "build something incredible".
"We are in a different moment in our history," Arteta told Sky Sports News, when asked if perspective is missing from criticism of his work at Arsenal.
"Every club has to go through different patches, and we went through the patch of the last 18 months with a big covid situation on the back of a lot of instability in the club in the last two or three seasons.
"That's a difficult mix to suddenly turn things around and build something incredible. But I'm a big believer that this had to happen. For this club it had to happen - we had to experience this and that's going to make us much stronger.
"I can feel what is happening here, and I can feel what is happening with the supporters, with the generation of players that we have here, with everybody that is involved in the organisation. I think it is going to be pretty powerful."
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