Mikel Arteta’s backroom staff have been just as important as his players in Arsenal’s title-winning season.
The meticulous work done behind the scenes at London Colney has been pivotal to the Gunners ending the 22-year wait for a Premier League title.
One man, perhaps more than any other outside of Arteta himself, has been central to that.
Now, according to The Telegraph, Arsenal are set to reward him with a new contract.
AGREE or DISAGREE: Arsenal’s best addition last summer was actually Gabriel Heinze…
Arsenal set to offer Gabriel Heinze a new contract
Gabriel Heinze arrived at Arsenal last summer as a replacement for Carlos Cuesta, who left to take the Parma job.
Heinze and Arteta have been close friends since their time together at PSG in the early 2000s.
Arteta had been trying to bring him on board for some time, but the stars wouldn’t quite align.
That changed when Heinze watched Arsenal’s brilliant dismantling of Real Madrid at the Bernabeu in April 2025, met up with his old teammate after the game, and the appetite to make it work finally became irresistible.
The results have been transformative.
Gabriel Heinze has been as valuable as any player Arsenal signed last summer
Declan Rice has previously spoken about how Heinze has taken Arsenal to a new level, making the team’s defence so well-drilled that opponents have struggled to find a way through.
And the numbers back it up. Last season Arsenal received 67 yellow cards and six red cards — more than any other Premier League club.
This season, they topped the fair play standings with 50 cautions, no red cards and no penalties conceded.
They also racked up 32 clean sheets in all competitions, more than any other team in Europe’s top five leagues managed all season.
It’s not just defensively where Heinze has helped improve Arsenal. The Argentine coach played a key role in unlocking Viktor Gyokeres’ potential, working specifically on the Swede’s hold-up play and link play in the second half of the season.
His methods are unconventional and deliberately unpredictable — one day putting players in headlocks in training, the next delivering a blunt dressing down.
Roy Keane famously described him as “a nasty f***er” in his autobiography, and that edge is precisely what Arteta wanted to inject into his squad.
Heinze has also given Arteta a trusted sounding board and a deep emotional understanding. For example, when Arsenal needed to regroup after the bitter defeat at Manchester City in April, Heinze took Arteta for Argentinian steak at La Patagonia in Camden.
He has been influential in making substitutions too. For instance, following Ben White’s knee injury at West Ham, Arteta was spotted asking Heinze on the touchline: “Mosquera or Zubi?” to replace the injured right-back.
Heinze’s fingerprints are all over Arsenal’s campaign. Offering him a new contract is essential.
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