Arsenal announce Mikel Arteta as head coach

English Premier League club Arsenal have announced former captain Mikel Arteta as the club’s new head coach, weeks after the sack of Unai Emery.

“This is a huge honour,” Arteta told Arsenal.com. “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.”

Arsenal sacked former coach Unai Emery on Friday, November 29 after an abysmal run of poor results.

Emery’s career at Arsenal was marred by the unimpressive performance from the team, especially in the 2019/2020 season.

Arsenal’s 2-1 loss in the Europa League against Eintracht Frankfurt was his last match for the Gunners. The match made it seven consecutive matches without a win- the London club’s worst run since 1992.

Emery left Arsenal 8th on the English Premier League log with four wins, six draws and three losses in 13 matches.

Arteta will begin his first professional managerial with Arsenal after working as Manchester City assistant manager to Pep Guardiola for over three years.

Having achieved two consecutive Premier League title successes with Manchester City, Arteta’s new club is not in an enviable position, sitting 10th on the Premier League table.

Arteta said he is confident of helping the club to be better with a lot of work.

“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,” Arteta said.

Speaking on behalf of the Arsenal board Josh Kroenke said the club is delighted to be bringing Mikel back to Arsenal.

“He knows our expectations and those of our fans around the world are high and we are confident he can play a lead role in taking the club back to the levels we all demand,” Kroenke said.

Kroenke applauded the team’s interim manager Freddie Ljungberg, who took over the team for three weeks after Emery was sacked.

Arsenal’s head of football Raul Sanllehi said Arteta stood out of several top-class candidates for the job.

Sanllehi posited that Mikel understands Arsenal Football Club and what it means to the fans around the world.

“We look forward to him getting down to work and bringing the best out of our squad as we work to get our season back on track,” Sanllehi said.