All posts tagged: Mikel

Spain vs Belgium, FIFA World Cup 2026: Mikel Merino stars again as ESP reach semis with 2-1 win – Action in Images

Spain vs Belgium, FIFA World Cup 2026: Mikel Merino stars again as ESP reach semis with 2-1 win – Action in Images

Published by Parlour News

Published on Jul 11, 2026 03:30 am IST Mikel Merino once again proved to be a super-sub, coming off the bench to score a dramatic late winner as Spain booked their place in the World Cup semifinals. …read more 1 / 7 View Photos in a new improved layout Published on Jul 11, 2026 03:30 am IST Spain’s super-sub Mikel Merino came up with another decisive contribution, scoring a late winner as La Roja defeated Belgium 2-1 to reach the FIFA World Cup semifinals.(AP Photo) 2 / 7 View Photos in a new improved layout Published on Jul 11, 2026 03:30 am IST It was the second straight knockout game in which Mikel Merino came off the bench to score the winning goal for Spain.(AP Photo) 3 / 7 View Photos in a new improved layout Published on Jul 11, 2026 03:30 am IST Spain edged Belgium 2-1 to book their place in the FIFA World Cup semifinals, where they will take on France.(AFP) 4 / 7 View Photos in a new improved layout Published …

How Mikel Oyarzabal’s quiet rise complements Lamine Yamal’s brilliance for Spain

How Mikel Oyarzabal’s quiet rise complements Lamine Yamal’s brilliance for Spain

Published by Webster

5 min readKolkataJul 3, 2026 01:10 PM IST There is nothing remarkable about Mikel Oyarzabal. In a Spanish team filled with colourful characters like Marc Cucurella and Lamine Yamal, the Real Sociedad man’s personality does not shout out from the rooftops. Even after scoring a brace against Austria and firmly entrenching himself in the World Cup Golden Boot race, the chatter is still more about Cucurella’s sublime assists than his calm finishes. But that suits the 29-year-old just fine. Because the last time the limelight was on him, he was savaged by critics after Spain’s 0-0 draw vs Cape Verde a couple of weeks ago. Such was his plight in that match that he set an unwanted record as the first player in World Cup history not to touch the ball in the opening 30 minutes. Quiet achiever Oyarzabal, the silent guardian of ‘La Roja’, would likely want to do without that kind of pressure. It’s away from the chaos that comes with fame where he thrives the most. A loyal soldier, he would much …

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 …

Arsenal’s Premier League curse ends: Mikel Arteta’s rebuild ends 22 years of heartbreak

Arsenal’s Premier League curse ends: Mikel Arteta’s rebuild ends 22 years of heartbreak

Published by Parlour News

Arsenal ended a 22-year Premier League wait on Tuesday after Manchester City’s 1-1 draw at Bournemouth confirmed Mikel Arteta’s side as champions with one match still to play. Arsenal supporters gather to celebrate after Arsenal won the Premier League title after 22 years. (AP Photo/Alberto Pezzali) City needed to win to take the title race into the final weekend after Arsenal’s 1-0 victory over Burnley had moved them to the brink. Bournemouth struck first through Eli Junior Kroupi, and although Erling Haaland equalised in stoppage time, City could not force the winner that would have kept the race alive. The draw left Arsenal four points clear, making the final league match against Crystal Palace a trophy-lift occasion rather than a title decider. How Arsenal finally turned control into a title The title is Arsenal’s first since the 2003-04 Invincibles season and their 14th English top-flight crown. It also ends a long sequence of frustration under Arteta, whose side had finished second in each of the previous three Premier League seasons before finally crossing the line …

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 …

Jon Obi Mikel rips into Arsenal’s playing style from set pieces, brands it ‘illegal’ | Football News

Jon Obi Mikel rips into Arsenal’s playing style from set pieces, brands it ‘illegal’ | Football News

Published by Webster

3 min readUpdated: Mar 13, 2026 07:30 PM IST Former Chelsea player Jon Obi Mikel was the latest to criticize league leaders Arsenal for their playing style, branding it illegal. The Gunners are currently sitting atop the Premier League table with a 7-point gap with second-placed Manchester City. “When I watch Arsenal play right now, they depend solely, solely on corner kicks. You have spent almost a billion, Mikel Arteta and you’re telling me the only way you can win games is through corner kicks? It’s ridiculous. The only reason why the Arsenal fans are not complaining is because they’re top of the league. The creativity that they have, the potentials that they have, it’s all gone out of the window. We don’t see them anymore,” Mikel said on talkSPORT. “What they do during set-pieces, for me, it’s illegal. First of all, they’re impeding the goalkeeper and now they start holding players. When you hold a play, when you impede a player from jumping, I watched the game against Chelsea when they played against us. …

‘You could bully them back in the day’: Wayne Rooney reveals why Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal is finally ready to outlast Man City | Football News

‘You could bully them back in the day’: Wayne Rooney reveals why Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal is finally ready to outlast Man City | Football News

Published by Webster

3 min readFeb 11, 2026 05:25 PM IST Wayne Rooney believes that the Premier League title race is still not a foregone conclusion but believes Mikel Arteta’s men are mentally stronger than ever to cross the finish line this time around. Arsenal last won the title in the 2003-04 season. With 13 games left in the Premier League standings, Arsenal are leading Manchester City by six points. The two teams will face off in a game on April 18 that could have massive ramifications on the Premier League title race. “I think the Premier League title race was never off. I’ve been in title races where you do need to stay calm and a lot can change. I think there was one season where we were seven points clear with four games to go and lost the title that year on goal difference. We drew 4-4 in a game, then lost to Wigan, then lost to City, and then lost the title on goal difference. So a lot can happen,” Rooney said on the No …