Mikel Arteta says he’s pleased with Arsenal’s progress during his four years in charge but he recognises there’s still room for improvement.
The Spaniard has been instrumental in turning the Gunners into a competitive force on the pitch, using the transfer market and the club’s academy to build a balanced, youthful squad that has bounced back from consecutive eighth-place finishes to secure a return to the Champions League.
Having run Manchester City close in the title race last season, there’s a genuine expectation that Arsenal can go one better this time around, ending a 20-year wait for Premier League glory.
On the eve of a huge top-of-the-table clash at Liverpool, Arteta was asked if he’d have taken the club’s current position when he first took over.
“I’m sure I would. But we still haven’t won enough important things and we want to be better and we want to be more successful,” he said.
“There are a lot of things that we have achieved together in those four years but thanks to the people that have been on the journey with us together and the ones that were behind us as well.”
He added: “It’s something to reflect on, but now we are in the competition, I think you live the present in a really intense way.
“You’re looking for ways to be better, and to improve, to evolve the club, the team, yourself individually as well as a manager, how you can be better for this group, what the team demands.
“Overall I’m really pleased with what is happening around the club, with the people that we work with and how people feel, and how especially our people feel with how we’re doing.”
After his first year in charge, Arsenal might easily have dispensed with Arteta’s services. After a 1-0 defeat to Burnley at Emirates Stadium in December 2020, the Gunners languished in 15th place in the table with just 13 points from 12 games. We hadn’t scored from open play in over 12 hours of football.
Rather than make a kneejerk decision, the board and owners continued to trust Arteta. It’s clear he’s thankful for their patience.
“I’m really happy where we are and how we’ve achieved things, from how we’ve behaved through difficult moments to good moments and the involvement from everybody at the football club, and how they feel that they have participated, building what we are doing.
“It’s a joy to be here with these people, and we need to be better, because we’re not satisfied for sure.”
On tomorrow’s match at Anfield, he added: “It’s always great to to be in the highest position in the league, especially in this league.
“We’ll try to maintain that and to do that tomorrow, we’re going to have to play really well, compete extraordinarily well and be very intelligent to manage the moments of the game as well.”
Love this. Let’s do some winning stuff
“After a 1-0 defeat to Burnley at Emirates Stadium in December 2020″
Just revisited the comments section on the Guardian match report. Made me feel all smug reading all the gloating.
Despite that, still the best and most successful team in the north of London by far in recent years.
In the whole of London, not just the north. Chelsea are shit now
Now. But I’m worried about Pochettino and the future. If he can take a bunch of serial losers like the neighbours to a champions league final, then at Chelsea he has a talented bunch of players who have been criminally mismanaged. If he is given enough time to whip them into shape they could become a threat again. That of course assumes the owners don’t shoot the club in the foot again by firing a multi year project manager for not getting instant results (see Graham Potter).
I’m just grateful to be an Arsenal fan. A club with class and dignity. Forget what the armchair pundits are saying, Mikel is an embodiment of all that. The boldness to hire a young manager in his first managerial job and standing by him through the difficulties to a place where he’s fighting for top titles. That’s what makes Arsenal great. Arteta, Edu, BFG, all in player management positions at Arsenal today know what it takes to put on the shirt and play for the badge, thanks to Arsene for blooding these gems. By the time we’re celebrating the Mikel… Read more »
Let’s start with one of those titles (EPL or CL, maybe both) this year… The building phase is done. The winning phase is now. Let’s go gooners!
I certainly wouldn’t have turned down the Carabao in the last three years.
At the time I thought the decision to hire someone with little experience was not what we needed. Thankfully, I was wrong. MA has definitely won most of us over and long may it continue.
Me too.. It was tough going early, as we thought, but once you make a move like that you gotta back you’re guy. credit the team by staying the course!
I always thought he would come good but my support was wearing thin by the time ESR showed his quality in that Boxing Day Chelsea game. I have always though Mikel is tougher on ESR since that game because he wants him to succeed at Arsenal and due to ESR’s availability issues and perhaps based on Aretha’s perception of how hard he is working for it, he’s tougher to get a reaction because ESR hasn’t been at the required level.
Class & dignity but owned by the Kroenkes an American cutthroat capitalist.
In Arteta’s philosophy you can NEVER win enough.