Arsenal v Leeds United Daniel Farke and Mikel Arteta are two culture warriors winning their battles right now, even if one walks off a loser at Ashburton Grove on Saturday.
In seven years there, Arteta has established Arsenal as one of the best sides in Europe.
They may only have won their first Premier League title under the Spaniard this year, but it was their fourth straight season in the top two,. Now the rival who posed their biggest threat – Manchester City – has been wounded 115 times.
In May, Arsenal reached the European Cup final for only the second time in their history and it took a penalty shoot-out for a brilliant Paris Saint-Germain team to beat them.
WINNING CULTURE: Daniel Farke has changed the mindset at Leeds United (Image: Shaun Botterill/Getty Images)placeholder image
WINNING CULTURE: Daniel Farke has changed the mindset at Leeds United (Image: Shaun Botterill/Getty Images)
But the path has been long and tough. Had the Arsenal board taken advice from the nuggets who bombard football phone-ins and infest social media, Arteta would have been out of a job long ago, just as Farke would have. Instead, he is now the longest-serving manager in English football.
Tough under George Graham and again under Arsene Wenger, the Gunners got flaky in the latter's later years, no longer the muscular Invincibles, more a team who prioritised prettiness and praise over prizes.
Arteta changed that. He took on his mentor Pep Guardiola not by trying to outdo Manchester City at the beautiful game, but taking a less scenic route. Arsenal became the set-piece kings, the master defenders. It was more in the traditions of Graham than Wenger, but try finding any supporter complaining now.
In some ways, Farke's revival of Leeds has been very different, in others very similar.
WINNER: Mikel Arteta lifts the Premier League trophy in May (Inage: Justin Setterfield/Getty Images)placeholder image
WINNER: Mikel Arteta lifts the Premier League trophy in May (Inage: Justin Setterfield/Getty Images)
The Whites lost their way under Marcelo Bielsa as Arsenal did under Wenger, and where Unai Emery failed to put the Gunners back on course, Jesse Marsch, Javier Gracia and Sam Allardyce led Leeds to relegation.
The way they crumbled with the finish line in sight in their first Championship season under Farke pointed to familiar failings. Leeds were falling apart. Again.
Now, United are back, in the best traditions of the pragmatism Don Revie and Howard Wilkinson built them on. Like those managers' teams, they can play, but like Arteta's Arsenal, substance, not style, is the end goal.
Setbacks are just that now, not psychodramas. There could well be one in the 12.30pm kick-off – a setback, that is, not a psychodrama.
GOLD BLEND: This Leeds United team can turn on the style, but substance is the priority (Image: Stu Forster/Getty Images)placeholder image
GOLD BLEND: This Leeds United team can turn on the style, but substance is the priority (Image: Stu Forster/Getty Images)
Just as Arsenal look well placed to retain the Premier League, so unbeaten Leeds feel on course to achieve what Farke calls their "title" – top-flight consolidation – with football less easy on the eye than the stuff which won the Championship, but still much appreciated on the terraces.
Good – and expensive – players, have helped, but in both cases the lion's share of the work seems to have come in restoring winning cultures to clubs that had lost them.
"Stability, mentality, and culture is exactly what you need if you want to be successful as a club," insists Farke.
"If you have a look which clubs have won the title in the recent decades, there was the great era of Jurgen Klopp at Liverpool building this more or less until they won the title and the Champions League, building a mentality, building a culture, everyone on the same page. There was no question which way they wanted to go.
FIGUREHEAD: Arsene Wenger set high standards at Arsenal, but a winning culture was lost along the way (Image: Catherine Ivill/Getty Images)placeholder image
FIGUREHEAD: Arsene Wenger set high standards at Arsenal, but a winning culture was lost along the way (Image: Catherine Ivill/Getty Images)
"They had stability and then, after a few years, it paid off.
"The same with Pep Guardiola with this impressive reign and many titles, creating a special way of playing, creating a mentality, a culture."
That stability looks baked in at Arsenal where Arteta – promoted from head coach to manager during his tenure – was handed a new four-year contract during the international break. Every week that goes by without the third longest-serving manager in the division getting a new deal at Elland Road makes fans a touch twitchier but it feels like all parties are keen to make it happen, just to get it right.
From 2005 to Arteta's arrival in 2019, Arsenal were never really serious title contenders. They looked like being so in 2016, but collapsed to let Leicester City write their fairytale instead.
Farke tells his press conference a story about losing to Arsenal as Norwich City manager where his memory plays tricks with the details, but what he took from the 1-0 away defeat in September 2021 is certainly correct.
"I remember Mikel talking to me after and he admitted how lucky they were,” says Farke. “He said, "At least we are building the first cornerstones. At least they started to run again.'
"These were his words, more or less, after this game.
"Then you see where they are right now, this mentality that they have, this culture that he has implemented, how willing they are to fight for each other, to fight for a clean sheet, to fight to win tight games.
"If someone is not running, then you have 10 other players on the pitch who are shouting at them.
"I think it was hard work when he took it over but he has implemented this culture and mentality. Then you can manage it in the proper way, then you have a chance to win titles.
"But you need this consistency, and this is always good if a club has this."