Arsenal have officially confirmed the appointment of former club captain Mikel Arteta as their new head coach.
Arsenal have made an official statement to confirm that they have appointed former club captain Mikel Arteta as their new head coach. The newly-appointed Spaniard will take charge of the Gunners from Sunday, meaning caretaker boss Freddie Ljungberg will oversee the north Londoners’ fixture against Everton on Saturday.
Arteta has previously spent five years as a player at Arsenal and was the Gunners’ club captain till his retirement in 2016. Since hanging up his boots, the 37-year-old had been a part of Pep Guardiola’s coaching staff at Manchester City, where he was the assistant manager since the start of the 2016-17 season.
? Introducing our new head coach…
Mikel Arteta ✍️ pic.twitter.com/PTmElGDMR3
— Arsenal (@Arsenal) December 20, 2019
Having learned the ropes from one of the best managers in world football, Arteta has been primed to be a managerial success for some time now. The Spaniard was even previously linked with the Arsenal job before the Premier League heavyweights appointed Unai Emery as Arsene Wenger’s successor.
Emery, though, was unable to improve Arsenal’s fortunes and after a horrific start to the 2019-20 season, the Basque coach was shown the exit door at the Emirates last month. Since Emery’s dismissal, Freddie Ljungberg has taken charge as the interim manager, although Arsenal have struggled all the same in the last month or so.
Now, though, a new era beckons Arsenal, with Arteta returning to the club he represented for five years. Upon being appointed as the Gunners’ head coach, Arteta expressed his delight while also insisting that he will set his team up in a free flowing, attack-minded style that Arsenal fans have been yearning for lately.
“This is a huge honour. Arsenal is one of the biggest clubs in the world. We need to be competing for the top trophies in the game and that’s been made very clear to me in my discussions with Stan and Josh Kroenke, and the senior people from the club. We all know there is a lot of work to be done to achieve that but I am confident we’ll do it.
“I’m realistic enough to know it won’t happen overnight but the current squad has plenty of talent and there is a great pipeline of young players coming through from the academy. My first task will be to get to know the players better and get them playing the kind of fast flowing, attacking football that the Arsenal supporters around the world want to see.”
Arteta will begin his work as the Arsenal manager on Sunday, meaning Ljungberg will take charge of the first-team for the final time against Everton on Saturday. It now remains to be seen if Arsenal can return to the top echelons of the Premier League, a status they have not enjoyed for a few years now.
