Arteta looks back and looks ahead as he reaches 250 games

As Arsenal host Nottingham Forest on Saturday, Mikel Arteta will celebrate the milestone of 250 games in charge of the club.

The former midfielder joined in December 2019, kicking off his reign with a 1-1 draw at Bournemouth, and has led Arsenal to 146 wins in his 249 games in charge to date, giving him a higher win rate than any other manager when reaching this particular milestone in the dugout for the club. In terms of silverware, the boss has guided Arsenal to an FA Cup win as well as two Community Shields.

Looking back on his first 249 games on Friday, Arteta expressed his gratitude for the position he holds at the club and how things have gone so far.

“Extremely grateful, very happy, (I’ve) enjoyed every minute of it,” he said at his pre-Forest press conference.

“I enjoy it because of the people that I work with every single day and because I understand how lucky we are.”

Asked about his greatest success so far, the manager said:

“Bringing the club together, 100 per cent, lifting the spirit, giving a very clear DNA to the football club. And I said pride, again, to be representing this club and these shirts from the players and everybody involved for the club in the way that is expected at this level.”

Not many managers make it to 250 games nowadays and Arteta, in his first managerial job, is the fourth longest serving manager in the professional game in England, behind fellow Premier League bosses Pep Guardiola and Thomas Frank, plus Harrogate Town manager Simon Weaver.

“Yeah, it could have been much shorter, to be fair! So, yeah, especially in the world that we live in right now, I really appreciate it. That’s why I said that my first word, I think, was gratitude.

“Not only for the job that I do, where I do it, with who. And, yeah, that’s what I love, what I do. It’s no coincidence, I feel really lucky and hopefully we can continue for a long time.”

However, after back-to-back second place finishes in the Premier League and having led the club back into the Champions League, Arteta is not satisfied with the club’s achievements to date.

“We always want more,” the Spaniard declared.

“I feel a huge pride to see the people that work in the organisation, how they feel about the club right now, what we transmit as a football club, as a team, the people that I work with, but it’s about winning at the end.

“You want to win more, you want to win big trophies, and we are on that journey.”

And how does he plan to get there?

“You have to maintain a lot of the things that you do. Sometimes you achieve them, but they can drop very quickly, so it’s maintaining them, that’s a work that you have to do consistently every single day, but now it’s about winning, that’s the next step for sure.”

As Arteta steps into one milestone, the path to the next begins: Tuesday’s trip to Lisbon to face Sporting CP would be game 251, beginning the journey to 500. If he’s up for another 250, that is…

“If it’s about energy and what I love doing, for sure.”