Mikel Arteta has planted an olive tree in the grounds of his office.
He used it as a metaphor for the club and as a reflection of his Spanish culture. While the fruit and leaves are the main attractions of the tree, they are not as important as the branches that hold them and the roots that grow beneath it.
The people who help the first team flourish and embody the core values that will make the club bigger and richer are the roots for Arteta.
The top of the tree would die without these roots.
Arteta held a team meeting around an olive tree in April after three defeats in a row.
It might be a coincidence, but since that meeting, the Gunners have won four in a row, and are on the verge of qualification for the playoffs for the first time in two years.
The injuries Arteta suffered at the end of his playing career made him think long and hard about his profession. He spent up to 12 hours a day attached to a scanning machine, talking to doctors, being treated and so on.
He tried everything he could to recover from the battle he was destined to lose, but eventually he had to accept his playing time was up. He has never forgotten that he loved something so much that it was taken away from him.
His playing CV included 14 years in the top flight of English and Scottish football, having grown up in the Barcelona youth system, and also played at Paris St-Germain, where he crossed paths with Mauricio Pochettino, then a player at the team he now manages.
His career has been touched by a number of managers, and he used that experience to build a relationship with the Manchester City coaching staff, asking questions in his quest to improve.
The experience he gained working with him was priceless, because it helped him to refine his thinking process and establish his own philosophy.
He has always been a student of the game, but after looking into the league, he now knows everything from the interaction with the media to knowing all about other teams.
He knew he was ready to take on a big job in the last year of his apprenticeship.
He was interested in signing with a number of clubs, including the ones that hired Unai Emery.
He is similar to his mentor, but more along the lines of the English premier league, rather than the Spanish or German ones.
He is different to his friend and former colleague. We will get there.
He wanted to make sure he had the right coaching staff around him, since he was an assistant.
Steve Round had worked at a number of clubs, including Manchester United, and was with him when he arrived. The former coach at Belgium club Genk and the former assistant manager of Manchester United and Wales were also present.
He brought them in because he trusted them to ask the right questions, to have similar expectations, the same standards and integrity, and the necessary understanding of leadership, tactics and gameplans that could help win this level.
They had to ask themselves if they had a synergy with Arteta that would help him succeed in his coaching career. They all came to north London to win.
The first step in changing the culture of a club that hasn't qualified for the playoffs since the arrival of the Frenchman was to install a new coach.
Working with Arteta on a daily basis is never going to be easy because he expects from those around him the kind of energy, passion and drive he expects from himself.
He arrives at the training ground at around 8am and makes sure everyone is on their toes from the beginning. I've heard people compare him to a teacher who can be intimidating but who you know can bring the very best out of you.
He is a ball of energy, but also a man of compassion, a caring person with a natural sense of justice, and someone who wants to find happiness and harmony in the dressing room.
He has to design a group that can create that dynamic. Shkodran Mustafi, Mesut Ozil, Sead Kolasinac, and most recently Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang were never going to last long with Arteta at the helm.
He is unmovable when he makes his mind up about what he wants to do. He was under no pressure to make peace with him. After he decided the German was surplus to requirements, the board backed his judgement and the German's stay at the club was over.
Arteta spoke to the first team and all the staff about how lucky and privileged he was to have been given one of the great jobs in football at one of its top clubs in one of the greatest cities in the world.
While they should all enjoy every moment they have, they are still going to have to work hard and suffer. They should be happy with the hard work that is ahead.
It is said that one of the reasons that it was difficult for him to change was because of his obsession with loyalty to everyone around him. In a modern club that is no longer an efficient way to run things, everything went through him.
Arteta is more ruthless when it comes to working out what someone can bring to the club. He will not hesitate to make career-changing decisions when it comes to players.
By the time of his departure, the club was in a state of disrepair because of the loyalty of those close to him.
There are new methods in place under Arteta. Arteta has taken that to another level because of the people who have known both regimes and Emery helped by instilling a competitiveness at all levels.
The culture is being transformed as the message is coming across.
The players are finding themselves constantly challenged, and that competitiveness is now everywhere at the club. He and his staff spend a lot of time watching who leads the discussions, who is the most proactive and who doesn't join in. The devil is always in the small details.
He loves that Martin Odegaard is willing to put the team first and always looking to improve.
The sick note excuses that used to exist are gone, with players looking for reasons not to play. Everyone wants to play every game, or at least do whatever it takes to get into contention.
Arteta and his team will always look for players who go the extra mile for the team.
He made a point of getting to know the players and their families. Arteta asked his wife what she needed to make sure she and her husband were happy at the club when a key member of staff was considering another job offer.
The attention to detail is what distinguishes this new regime.
He always seems to get the right tone with an intensity I am reliably informed brings out goose bumps on the most seasoned professionals.
He knows when he has made a mistake, but he is not quick to admit it. He is willing to take risks if he feels that is the right thing to do, even if it is against the judgement of those close to him. Sometimes he feels isolated, with his mind constantly looking forward, always a step ahead.
Stan and his son Josh have a good relationship with Arteta, who has the most interaction. He has always told them that the most important thing at the club is its structure, and while he tries to get the best players to the club, equally important to him is trying to get those players to join the club.
Sometimes it means difficult conversations. He has had meetings with the club owners where he has defined his vision for the club in the short, medium and long term. It would suggest he already has the club on his shoulders.
Many assume they have known each other for a long time because of his close relationship with the technical director. The two men met for the first time shortly before the interview stage for the manager's job, but the bond is so strong that they are helping each other to create that competitive culture.
They talked on the phone for the first time and it was about everything other than football. The connection between the two was strong from the beginning and has gone from strength to strength in some dark moments.
Arteta was looking for a new culture at the club, so he needed little persuading in trying to create it, even though there were things that were missing. He saw that Arteta was a well-prepared coach with a clear ideology who wanted the same as he did for the club.
Arteta knows that it will take a while to put in place that style and structure and that he has to build it day in, day out. The Spaniard is not averse to taking advice from those in power at the club and even from those around him, but he is a man who knows his own mind and is not for turning. He knows the buck stops with him.
Arteta can be found on the training pitch every day, but he also has his coaching staff with him when needed.
Even if only a few of the senior players are present, he will still get involved because he believes it is his duty to be seen doing his work.
He doesn't deal well with defeat and will spend hours looking at the mistakes his team have made, but also the ones he might have made himself.
The performance that led to the loss at Crystal Palace came out of the blue and was compounded by an even worse one in their home defeat by the Seagulls.
Arteta dealt with it by telling his players that he was going to take a hard look at himself and try to figure out what went wrong. He told them that it would make him suffer and that he expected his players to do the same thing.
He goes out of his way to connect with the players who don't make the cut for the big games because he knows he can only pick 11 starters and use three subs per game.
At the start of the season, when things were not looking good, he never lost the dressing room, and not a single player or member of his coaching team said a bad word about him. It was not always the case during the reigns of Emery and Wenger.
Arteta is not known for being a joke and his way of thanking people is to spend time with them. He is still a fan of the British sense of humor but prefers to build relationships through informal gatherings.
He invites his friends and colleagues to break bread at his house.
Many clubs take their teams to places like Dubai during international breaks, but not all of them do, as was the case recently when the families of the players were taken with them. It was a chance for the manager to show his relaxed side, surrounded by his closest and dearest.
He will always send flowers if there is a death at the club. He always celebrates Christmas with a huge Iberico ham from his Spanish home of San Sebastian.
His wife, who is a model and actress, temporarily parked her career to help him settle in his new job.
He is a frequent visitor to the home of Edu. At the beginning of the season or during their bad run in early April, someone who will pat him on the back, tell him to relax and reassured him that things are going in the right direction, is the Brazilian who he can turn to.
Everyone at the club is aware of how good a coach he is and how potentially great he could become. They are not yet where they want to be and he cannot do it on his own.
He realises that he has limitations and knows that he needs to address them, but he is so involved that it's caused by the fact that he is so intense. A more balanced approach will appear in the future.
With a top-four finish still not assured, the board have shown their faith in him with a contract extension that could see him at the club until at least the end of the 2024-25 season.
There is a lot of work to be done before he feels like he has control over the dressing room.
The fear is that the intensity that is his calling card will lead to eventual burnout. For the time being, he has the passion, energy and dedication to make sure he takes this side back to where their supporters feel they belong.
Guillem Balague writes a regular column throughout the season and also appears every Thursday on the Football Daily on Radio 5 Live.
You can listen to Football Daily here.
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