We need to learn to win ugly: Mikel Arteta

"Winning ugly" is not a phrase usually associated with Arsenal or a midfielder as elegant and 'Arsenal-like' as Mikel Arteta but it's one that he raises.

"We need to learn to win ugly sometimes," Arteta explains. "There are parts in the game that you cannot dominate for a number of reasons - you are a man down, you are playing against a good team, physically they overpower you, for whatever reason. But you get through that and you are still winning. And that's a good habit. Winning."

There was rich satisfaction in Tuesday's 2-1 Champions League victory away to Montpellier when Arsenal showed those qualities as well as their slick attacking power. And there's optimism too before Sunday's visit to Manchester City that Arsenal are, indeed, a different, hardened proposition.

Unbeaten this season there appears to be a new resilience and not just in a defence that has tightened up several notches. The arrival of Arteta, Per Mertesacker and Andre Santos last summer has been followed by Lukas Podolski, Olivier Giroud and Santi Carzola - the mention of his fellow Spaniard's name brings a broad smile to Arteta's face - to add a bit of nous as well as nuance.

"When I was hearing that he might be coming I was texting him and saying, 'Come here, because you will enjoy it'," Arteta says of Cazorla, the 16 million pounds recruit from Malaga with whom he has connected on and off the pitch.

"I knew he was the type of player everyone was going to love here, and that he'd suit the team and the way we want to play. He's a different player, the way he moves and uses the ball with both feet, his size you know... You look at him and say, 'Wow'. He's special and talented."

His Arsenal team-mates were also impressed. "They were like, 'Wow, he's good eh?'" Arteta laughs, remembering their reaction to seeing the playmaker in his first training session. Indeed the training ground has been even more important for Arsenal this summer. "Small details," according to Arteta, have changed. The team has "tightened up" - tactically but also mentally.

"We look stronger as well," Arteta explains. "We had periods against Montpellier when we were hanging in and suffering, but when you go through stages like that and you get the result, it gives you a lift because you can't always play nice football and win easy. Sometimes when you play ugly and win that will give you six, nine, 10 points at the end of the season and that makes a big difference."

Winning ugly is, naturally, a relative concept for Arsenal - and it won't come as part of a compromise in style. After all, this is a team that is led by Arsene Wenger and which Arteta, such a key figure, now the nearest Arsenal have to a holding midfielder, can comfortably compare in approach to his national team, Spain. "There are a lot similarities," he says.

"Arsene is very clear how he wants us to play and that's not just admired in England. Over the years if you had to choose a game to watch then nine times out of 10 people would choose to watch Arsenal. And that's for a reason: because they were exciting, they had great players and they always play the same way.

"It doesn't matter who they are against they will not change their style. It's a brave thing to do. You go to Stoke and you can modify your team to adapt and Arsene says 'no, we are going to play the same way and we are going to hurt them here and there'. It's good. For me, it's perfect."

Even last season, soon after Arteta joined, for 10 million pounds from Everton, and with the trauma of losing Cesc Fabregas and Samir Nasri infecting the club while results were a disappointment, "he [Wenger] never panicked and he never transmitted that anger or nervousness," Arteta explains. "He just said, 'Listen, we're going to keep playing the same way, you have to do this and that'. And it was a big statement. We were like, 'Woah, he believes that's the best thing we can do, so let's do it'."

There's also a togetherness which, as vice-captain, Arteta fosters - and was contrary to his expectation. "A lot of things I was hearing before I joined was, 'Oh, Arsenal, because they have 12 or 13 different nationalities in the changing room...'," he says. "But it wasn't like that. At Christmas a lot of guys came to my house with their wives and that's something we have to keep doing because it helps. When you like someone on the pitch you look out for him."

It meant Arsenal could deal with the loss of Robin van Persie to Manchester United - a player Arteta is quick to compare with Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo. "He's that good, he's that good compared with the rest of us, and that is what makes the difference," Arteta says. "Some of his goals are unbelievable. When you watch him in training, with his natural ability, he wasn't sweating.

"We knew that Robin was irreplaceable," he adds. "The manager said that. But we have had to replace him somehow but not with one man - with a team. And I think we are doing it."

Not that Arteta is getting carried away. Arsenal will soon have gone eight years without winning a trophy; and that "needs" to change although he is aware how fierce the competition is - not least posed by today's opponents, City.

"People say, 'yeah but with that money' but sometimes you can make big mistakes using your money," Arteta says. "When you look at their team now, the depth of the squad and the quality they have, it's tremendous. So they are going to be a big test for us. They have so many different ways to hurt you." The chief weapon appears to be Yaya Toure. "Physically if you get tight with him he's like Carlos Tevez, strong," Arteta explains marvelling at how Toure left Real Madrid midfielders in his wake in midweek. "He holds you and turns you and that's the last thing you need to do. You need to play your position but not just let him play. It will be demanding but I'm sure they will be aware of us as well."

Would Toure, hypothetically, be able to do something that has evaded Arteta and break into that midfield of the Spanish team?

"He left Barcelona because he couldn't start as Sergio Busquets was there," Arteta says of the Ivorian. "And apart from Busquets you have Xabi Alonso and Xavi, Iniesta, Fabregas, Silva. It's tough. For me, he's one of the best midfielders in Europe, yes. Could he play in the starting XI for Spain? Not sure. That shows you how strong they are."

Strong enough to deny Arteta caps? "I don't know if I would describe it as a frustration but it's something I would love to do," he says of playing for his country. "And you look at that team - they have won the Euros twice and the World Cup - and you'd say, 'wow, to play with those players'. You have to be exceptional. I would enjoy that - not just to represent my country but to play with those players. For me, it's a shame.

"But I'm realistic. I'm sure we [Spain] have the best generation of midfielders that any country has ever had in the history of football! And that says a lot. You can think of midfielders from any other country - and they would not play in that Spanish team."

It led to suggestions - scotched by Fifa because Arteta represented Spain at junior levels - that England would poach him. "It would have been a tough decision - I'm happy now because I didn't have to choose," he admits.

"I played for every under-age team for Spain but I didn't play for the senior team and then I had a chance to play for England. I feel like England has given me a lot - both personally and professionally. If it had been any other country then I would not even have thought about it."