Pep Guardiola was a rookie once, like Mikel Arteta, and had to weather his own crisis of confidence in his coaching ability.
Of course, given the gilded life Guardiola has led, his idea of what represents a calamitous run is on a different scale from that which Arteta has endured at Arsenal.
Arteta’s purgatory lasted from late September until Christmas, during which time Arsenal played 12 Premier League games, won two and lost eight. In ordinary circumstances, that would have merited the sack. Only with Boxing Day’s 3-0 win against Chelsea, the so-called P45 derby with Frank Lampard, did the poor form abate.