All posts tagged: Arteta

How Mikel Arteta found out Arsenal had won EPL

How Mikel Arteta found out Arsenal had won EPL

Published by Webster

3 min readMay 21, 2026 08:32 PM IST Mikel Arteta who guided Arsenal to their first Premier League title in 22 years said that he didn’t watch the title winning moment unfold when Manchester City drew with Bournemouth which ultimately handed the Gunners the crown. With the 1-1 draw, City went to 78 and can only reach a maximum of 81 points which is currently one short of Arsenal’s 82. Even if Arsenal lose on Sunday and City win, the results won’t change. “I went outside to the garden, I started to build some fire. I started to do some barbecue, I ⁠didn’t watch ​any of it. My eldest son opened the garden door, he started to run towards me. He started to cry, gave me a ​hug ​and said, we are champions, daddy. Then my other ⁠two boys and my wife came over, and it was beautiful, just to see the joy on them as well, “Arteta said. Videos shared by Arsenal on social media ‌showed players dancing and chanting at their training centre …

How Arteta built Arsenal’s first title in 22 years – on trust and a medical he never had | Football News

How Arteta built Arsenal’s first title in 22 years – on trust and a medical he never had | Football News

Published by Webster

5 min readMay 20, 2026 09:04 AM IST You could hear the chuckles in the newspaper headlines. As a reaction to their 8-2 humiliation by Manchester United, Arsenal had gone on a desperate trolley dash to buy any footballer available. One of the five players Arsene Wenger signed on transfer deadline day in 2011 almost did not make it. Paperwork delays meant there was no time for a medical. Arsenal were ready to give up on the signing. The player rang the club himself. Forget the medical, he said. If something goes wrong, hold me responsible. Trust me. Football clubs are not in the trust business, especially when they are about to spend millions on a footballer. Arsenal agreed anyway. That is how Mikel Arteta arrived at the club as a player. Fifteen years later, in a different role, he dragged them to their first Premier League title in 22 years. The theme connecting those two moments – separated by a career, a retirement, an apprenticeship under Pep Guardiola, and six increasingly agonising seasons in …

Pep Guardiola said what Mikel Arteta couldn’t: Arsenal are still in this | Football News

Pep Guardiola said what Mikel Arteta couldn’t: Arsenal are still in this | Football News

Published by Webster

5 min readApr 21, 2026 06:46 PM IST Pep Guardiola uttered the reassuring words every Arsenal fan wanted to hear from Mikel Arterta. “Who is top of the league?” the Manchester City manager asked the press brigade after his team shaved off three points from Arsenal’s lead. “We are not!” he emphasised. “In goal difference, who is better?” ‘They are.” The victory over leaders, he stressed, “gives us just hope.” Time permitting, he could have added: Who has the meanest defence? Who has scored the most goals? Who are the most prolific converters of the dead ball? When the myopic angst dissipates, the City defeat would feel perhaps lighter. The sense of fatalism, the hyperventilating fans would realise, is a mere history-driven panic attack. It’s not hope that flutters, but belief that swirls. It’s the game they lost, but one that could stir them to greater feats. It could unburden them in the sense that their last formidable game is over. It was a game in which they found clarity and relief. The defeat to …

In title decider, Mikel Arteta hopes to symbolically retire his master; Pep Guardiola sets out to render his protege an imposter

In title decider, Mikel Arteta hopes to symbolically retire his master; Pep Guardiola sets out to render his protege an imposter

Published by Webster

The introduction to the Pep Guardiola-Mikel Arteta action flick begins with a flashback set in the Catalan heartland at the stroke of the century. Guardiola, the midfield don of Barcelona, is watching a youth tournament with his understudy Xavi Hernandez. A skinny boy from the beaches with thick dark hair from the La Masia Academy impresses him. He whispers to his heir apparent, “You will retire me. This kid will retire both of us!” It turned half prophetic. Xavi became Barcelona’s rhyme and rhythm. The guy who was to retire them both, Mikel Arteta, waited futilely on the doors of one of football’s greatest empires and left disillusioned. But the bond of the La Masia brethren runs deep. Guardiola, by then the Czar of modern football coaching, had kept his ears firmly to the ground. He had heard that the boy anointed to retire them all, having ended a successful but not spectacular career, was nursing coaching ambitions. So, when Guardiola embarked into building the Manchester City dynasty, he checked with Arteta if he wanted …

Mikel Arteta says Arsenal will use ‘pain’ of League Cup defeat to spur their challenge in 3 competitions | Football News

Mikel Arteta says Arsenal will use ‘pain’ of League Cup defeat to spur their challenge in 3 competitions | Football News

Published by Webster

3 min readMar 23, 2026 05:36 PM IST Arsenal were left heart-broken on Sunday evening after a 2-0 defeat to Manchester City in the League Cup final. This was Arsenal’s first chance at winning a trophy in six years, but two goals from Nico O’Reilly in four minutes helped Pep Guardiola’s City stun the Gunners. It was Arsenal’s chance to win their first silverware since the 2020 FA Cup title that they won in coach Mikel Arteta’s debut season. The Gunners have finished second in the Premier League in the last three seasons. This season, they find themselves in the driver’s seat to win their first Premier League title in 22 years besides an FA Cup title and the Champions League. In the Premier League race, Manchester City are on Arsenal’s tails with the Gunners currently nine points ahead, having played one more game than City. Arteta said that the players would use the “pain” from the defeat on Sunday to fuel their challenge in the other tournaments. Arsenal team players talk before the Premier …

‘Arsenal want it so much’: Mikel Arteta seeks to end to trophyless run in League Cup final | Football News

‘Arsenal want it so much’: Mikel Arteta seeks to end to trophyless run in League Cup final | Football News

Published by Webster

3 min readMar 21, 2026 01:38 AM IST Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta shook off the nerves ahead of Sunday’s League Cup final against Manchester City, saying his team were determined to win their first silverware in six years. The north London club have become the nearly men of English football in recent years, finishing second in the Premier League in the last three seasons, and have not won a major trophy since the 2020 FA Cup in Arteta’s debut season. But that long drought looks set to end with the possibility ⁠of ​a quadruple still alive. They are nine points above second-placed City in the English top flight, are in the Champions League and the FA Cup quarter-finals and on Sunday at Wembley will start as favourites to secure the season’s first silverware.“When you have been in this position and ​years ​without a trophy, it adds more necessity but ⁠also more drive. That’s something that we have, it’s important for us and something we’ve been looking to achieve for a while,” Arteta ‌told reporters on …

Paul Scholes calls Arsenal boring; Mikel Arteta says they are ‘most exciting team in Europe’ | Football News

Paul Scholes calls Arsenal boring; Mikel Arteta says they are ‘most exciting team in Europe’ | Football News

Published by Webster

3 min readFeb 3, 2026 04:34 PM IST The Manchester United-Arsenal rivalry has been one of the defining features of the Premier League era, and the protagonists often can’t quit even when their playing days are long over. Another example came forth when United legend Paul Scholes called the current Gunners team boring – despite they sitting atop the Premier League with a six-point cushion with almost two-thirds of the season gone, and also topping the UEFA Champions League first stage winning all their eight fixtures – on the basis of lack of goals from their strikers this season and the number of goals they score from set-pieces. Even if they end their 22-year title drought in the summer, it wouldn’t change Scholes’s mind. ‘If Arsenal win the league, this could be the worst team to win the league,’ Scholes said on The Good, The Bad & The Football podcast. “If you’re thinking of picking a team of the season and picking the front four, nobody from the Arsenal team gets in that. Look at …

Arsenal braced for in-form Chelsea as Mikel Arteta looks to replace injured Mikel Merino | Football News

Arsenal braced for in-form Chelsea as Mikel Arteta looks to replace injured Mikel Merino | Football News

Published by Webster

2 min readFeb 3, 2026 12:50 AM IST A 3-2 advantage going into Tuesday’s League Cup semi-final second leg at home offers no extra comfort to Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta, who expects in-form Chelsea to pose his team a difficult challenge. Liam Rosenior’s Chelsea have won all five matches since losing to Arsenal in the first leg last month, directly qualifying for the Champions League’s ‍round ⁠of 16 after finishing sixth in the European competition’s league phase and rising to fifth in the Premier League. “Tomorrow we have the home advantage, but we have a lot to do to beat a ​really good Chelsea side,” Arteta told ‌reporters on Monday. “I think Liam is doing an incredible job… we need to make it very concrete ​to win it,” he added further. Rosenior, who took charge at Chelsea last month, has won every match other than the first-leg clashwith Arsenal, and called Arteta’s men the favourites to win the tie. “They’re a goal up and they’re at home. They’ll expect to go through. We need to …

Arteta hails Arsenal’s statement rout of Leeds

Arteta hails Arsenal’s statement rout of Leeds

Published by Parlour News

Mikel Arteta said Arsenal’s 4-0 demolition of Leeds proved the Premier League leaders can cope with the pressure of the title race. HT Image Arteta’s side ended a three-game winless run in the league with a ruthless display at Elland Road on Saturday. The Gunners led at the break through Martin Zubimendi’s header and an own goal from Leeds keeper Karl Darlow. Second half strikes from Viktor Gyokeres and Gabriel Jesus wrapped up a much-needed victory for Arsenal, who had been labelled chokers after allowing their title lead to dwindle in recent weeks. Goalless draws against Liverpool and Nottingham Forest were compounded by last week’s home defeat to Manchester United. Arsenal fans were becoming increasingly anxious as memories of blown leads in previous title races in the Arteta era began to flood back. But Arteta had insisted his players remained upbeat in the face of mounting criticism and they delivered a dynamic performance that repaid their manager’s faith. “We’re very happy, obviously. A very impressive performance, a very impressive result, especially in the context that …

‘Arsenal want it so much’: Mikel Arteta seeks to end to trophyless run in League Cup final | Football News

Premier League leaders Arsenal have a point to prove against Liverpool, says Mikel Arteta | Football News

Published by Webster

Premier League leaders Arsenal will have a point to prove when they welcome defending champions Liverpool at the Emirates Stadium in a Thursday night brawl that could have huge ramifications on the title race this season. With Arsenal currently holding a six-point lead (48 points from 20 games) at the top of the Premier League standings ahead of second-placed Manchester City, the clash against Liverpool will demand excellence all throughout the 90 minutes, believes Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta. “We’re very excited. It’s a massive game against the champions… We have a point to prove, we’re going to have our crowd creating an amazing atmosphere,” Arteta told journalists at a press conference on Wednesday a day ahead of the Liverpool clash. “We are top of the table, we play at home against a really good opponent. We want to maintain our position. To do that, ‌we’re going to have to be excellent throughout the game. That’s the point we have to prove.” Arsenal have a stellar home record so far this season, having won 14 of …