The 2022/23 Premier League season turned out to be a highly eventful one for the Arsenal players – who endured lots of ups and downs all through it. The biggest positive to come from it is how Mikel Arteta was able to unleash the ultimate potential of his quality young players, who took the league by storm and fuelled their Premier League title charge.
One player, however, who was held back by cruel fate was Emile Smith Rowe. The Englishman actually got his breakthrough at Arsenal under Arteta himself and after spending the 2019-2020 years on loan, he started to soar in the post-Covid-19 pandemic era.
Smith Rowe was one of Arsenal’s best players in an eventful 2021/22 season, scoring 11 goals in 37 appearances and rewarding the faith shown in him by the club – who also awarded him the coveted no.10 shirt.
The 22-year-old midfielder, however, ended up getting lost in the shuffle last season. He sustained a nasty groin injury in September 2022, which kept him out for the remainder of the year. When he returned after the Qatar World Cup break, Smith Rowe was unluckily pushed down the pecking order as Arteta refused to rotate the inspired Martin Odegaard with him.
He only ended up making 15 appearances for the Gunners last season, mostly playing as a substitute and getting just two assists. That sparked speculation if he was going to be offloaded in the summer window, something that has since been rubbished by David Ornstein.
Now, it appears that Smith Rowe is determined to start afresh and reclaim his major role at Arsenal next season. With all the players currently relaxing in the post-season, Smith Rowe appears to have taken this time to get artwork inked into his body.
The Englishman has gotten two relatively simple but interesting tattoos inked to his body, almost as monuments of motivation ahead of the start of pre-season in July. He has tattooed the words ‘Believe in Yourself’ into his left upper-shoulder area and this almost feels like one designed as a way of keeping himself confident about his ability to get back to the top.
But there is another little mantra which he has also scripted into his body and this is a throwback to Arteta’s philosophy. In his groin region, Smith Rowe has inked the words ‘Confia en el Proceso’ – which directly translates to ‘Trust the Process’ in English.
This is a popular mantra used by Arteta throughout his spell at Arsenal, one that got fans believing into it last season during the impressive Premier League title charge too. It’s clear by this that Smith Rowe considers Mikel a mentor and is determined to excel under him next season.
These two tattoos are, although, not the only ones that the English winger has had inked into his body over the last few years. Last year, he confused some fans by revealing a very interesting tattoo inked into his left hand.
Smith Rowe showed off a tattoo of a Roman clock that appears to be inspired by a point-and-click adventure video game named ‘Secret of the Old Clock’. The thing which a lot of fans couldn’t get enough of was how the clock had thirteen Roman numeral numbers to it, which isn’t really possible as a normal Roman-numeral clock normally only has two numbers.
Just below that clock, he also has a vibrant image of a male lion tattooed onto his left arm – which appears to be his favourite animal or trying to embody the spirit of a lion itself. Below these tattoos, he also has a bunch of palm trees and even a rose tattooed onto his arm – which might be a style that has been influenced by Arsenal teammate Ben White.
Smith Rowe also has a tattoo of his mother inked into his body as well, as he wants to carry along the spirit of his mum going forward. It appears that the 22-year-old is really into inking things that are special to him into his body, with the recent-most additions definitely being relatively simpler than the ones before.
The English winger might’ve inked these two philosophical terms onto his body, but he has to inscribe it into his mentality and start performing at an optimum level to break into the Arsenal frontline next season and help the Gunners challenge for top titles.