Mikel Arteta is banking on the experience of assisting Pep Guardiola’s first season at Manchester City as his Arsenal side endure a difficult start to the Premier League season.
Arsenal were defeated 2-1 by Wolves on Sunday night, leaving the Gunners languishing 14th in the table with just 13 points from their opening 10 matches.
Question marks are starting to hover over Arteta’s reign, despite such an encouraging start after leaving his role as Guardiola and City’s No 2 last season to replace Unai Emery. Arteta led Arsenal to FA Cup glory and, in turn, a Europa League place in his first half-season at The Emirates.
Guardiola endured an indifferent start to life in the Premier League with Manchester City but soon found his groove and led the club to back-to-back Premier League titles before finishing second to Liverpool last season.
It is an example Arteta is looking to follow – as long as he has enough time to implement his ideas at Arsenal.
‘At Man City in our first year, which was complicated, I saw the reaction of people around Pep, the people in the hierarchy,’ Arteta told DAZN. ‘They didn’t have a doubt, they knew the path to follow – this year something has happened but we are going there and the following years it was different.
‘For me the most important thing when you are building a new project is that you need to be very clear in what you want to do and the people around you have to know what you want to do, believe in that and be willing to defend that for a sustainable and reasonable period of time.
‘Changing to what we want has risks and the way we want to play requires a lot of precision, a lot of game plan. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. We have been very clear where we are going and in this path there’s going to be times when the project is going to suffer.
‘There we have to be stronger than ever, keep our idea and keep trying to bring the players we want, keep the players we have and evolve them. For me that’s the main secret.’
Arsenal and Arteta have a chance to hit back and return to winning ways on Thursday against Rapid Vienna, one of the first games to allow a smattering of spectators back to stadiums amid the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. Arteta’s side have already booked a place in the knock-out stages of the Europa League.
They will then return to Premier League action on Sunday, in a hotly anticipated clash against fierce north London rivals Tottenham, who at present are top of the Premier League.
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