'I've been coached by Mikel Arteta and Thomas Frank – Arsenal boss is different'

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Christian Norgaard admitted playing under Mikel Arteta is unlike anything he's experienced before in his football career. The Denmark international made the move to Arsenal this past summer in a £12million deal from Brentford .

The move across England's capital put an end to Norgaard's six-year spell with the Bees as well as his long-term association with then-Brentford boss Thomas Frank. The 52-year-old - who also left the club in order to replace Ange Postecoglou at Tottenham Hotspur - had signed Norgaard for Brentford back in 2019.

The pair had already worked with each other at Brondby for three years before Frank left his homeland in 2018 to join the west London side. It was a month into the season when the 31-year-old heaped praise on the Gunners boss, revealing just how demanding the Spaniard is.

"It is different than what I’ve been used to, but it’s brilliant how his mind works and the way he wants us to play," Norgaard said in September. It’s very demanding on a physical level and also on a tactical level. So sometimes I still don’t know exactly the things I do, but of course being out there, trying to execute it will always help.

"Now 90 minutes in the bank for me and another learning experience as well to get the tactical stuff a bit more under the skin." The midfielder missed the first month of the season due to injury but returned to action in mid-September.

Norgaard's comments are a similar throwback to what Declan Rice said just a month after signing for Arsenal in his £105m move from West Ham in 2023. The England star hadn't yet made his Premier League debut for the Gunners before admitting he's already seen football in a different way under Arteta's tutelage.

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Despite having worked under the likes of David Moyes and Manuel Pellegrini at West Ham, Rice admitted the tactical knowledge of Arteta was on "another level". He added: "Tactically, on the ball, off the ball.

"I'm happy to know I'm learning so much because I'm trying to push myself to learn. Since the Community Shield, I feel I've taken a big step; everything is starting to click. I was blown away [by Arteta]; and working with him day-to-day, it’s just another level.

Ahead of his maiden league bow in the red and white, he told TNT Sports : "In the last four weeks, I’ve grown so much already and learned so much about football that I hadn’t seen before. I'm honestly seeing the game in a completely different way already."

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"Seeing how he works, how his mind operates, picking up stuff, seeing how he goes into detail on the opposition, and how he wants to improve us as players, individually and collectively, is really impressive.

“It’s just the finer details of what he goes into, so there are no excuses on matchday. You can’t say, ‘we’ve not worked on this or that'. You’re given everything and it’s literally down to you to go and perform. The finer details you go into are on another level, and I’ve never seen that before."