Premier League English

Arteta pays fitting tribute to Pep for ‘incredible lesson’

The Gunners’ man-in-season Mikel Arteta believes that bringing a broken Arsenal back together as a club is “much more powerful” than just winning trophies, as it can now serve as the crucial launchpad to formulate a team that can start achieving the 100-point seasons necessary to compete in.

Speaking on a new BT Sport podcast ‘Michael Calvin’s Football People’, the 42-year-old – who had only two seasons back been under massive pressure trying desperately to piece together a totally fragmented team with diverse idiosyncrasies –told of how the manager responsible for such sterling standards, Pep Guardiola, gave him an “incredible lesson” by regularly revealing to Arteta how he always was so mentally pre-occupied with the game when he was at Manchester City.

Arteta was asked by Calvin how long it would take to maximise his impact at Arsenal and see success.

“It depends what you call success,” the manager responded. “I mean, if it’s winning titles or it’s bringing our club together. For me, bringing the club together is much more powerful. We have a club that was in a difficult state, with a lot of cracks, a lot of division. At the moment, this is a very different club. And that’s an incredible credit that everybody has to take, from the top of the club to every player. Because we did that together.

“The next step, now. And we are building a team to win, knowing that this era is unprecedented in English football.”

Arteta’s valiant troops continue their siege on the Europa League campaign this evening at home to Bodo/Glimt.