Arsenal appoint Mikel Arteta as their new manager on contract to 2023

Arsenal have appointed Mikel Arteta as their manager on a three-and-a-half-year contract. The club’s former midfielder joins from Manchester City where he was an assistant to Pep Guardiola. The ex Barcelona manager has wished his best to Arteta and thinks that he can do a wonderful job at the Emirates. Unai Emery was sacked last month after a poor run which led the team just on the brink of the bottom half.

Freddie Ljungberg was named the interim boss but he couldn’t turn Arsenal’s fortunes as the club continues to struggle in the league. Under Ljungberg Arsenal have managed to win just one game, draw two and lose two. With the arrival of Arteta, hope has been restored among the Gooners that their former star can bring fresh ideas to the camp and help the team regain it’s lost touch. The North London club have reportedly paid £1 million as compensation to City for Arteta’s services.

The 37-year-old Spaniard has no experience as a manager, though he has worked alongside Guardiola since July 2016. Arteta was a candidate to take the Arsenal job 19 months ago but the club opted for Emery. The Spaniard expressed gratitude on taking the managerial job and has promised to help the club become better with time. Arteta’s first match as Arsenal boss will be on Sunday when they take on Everton at Goodison Park.

“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,” said Arteta to the Guardian.