How Arteta overcame setbacks to bring Rice’s words to life

First few years of manager’s tenure were far from smooth, but promising young players and his vision led to title

‘It was much better to be the manager 

that followed the manager who succeeded Wenger’

21 May 2026 - The Guardian

Rob Draper

It didn’t start well for Mikel Arteta and Arsenal. On a crisp December night in 2019 at about 1am in a Manchester suburb, Vinai Venkatesham stepped out of Arteta’s home. The Arsenal managing director looked around, satisfied with his meeting. Arteta had just outlined a “hugely impressive” five-year plan to rebuild a club reeling from Arsène Wenger’s departure and Unai Emery’s failed succession. Venkatesham stepped into his car and was driven away with his colleague Huss Fahmy.

The club were about to take a huge gamble, but one with which they were increasingly comfortable. For many Arsenal executives, Arteta had won the interview round in 2018 when Wenger left. Yet it seemed too much to ask a 36-year-old rookie to manage a seismic transition and Emery had pedigree and experience; Arteta had charisma and a strong playing record.

Now Venkatesham was pushing Arteta as the principal candidate to replace Emery. It was important not to antagonise Manchester City, where he was Pep Guardiola’s assistant. Discretion was essential. Which was why Venkatesham was puzzled to be woken early that morning by a phone call from Arsenal’s media chief telling him to look at the Sun. The first he knew he had been photographed leaving Arteta’s house was when the images were published online. It was, to put it mildly, an embarrassment. There was “displeasure” from City, said one source.

Arteta, who was announced as head coach a week later after several days of somewhat fraught negotiations, could have joined Arsenal’s staff when he quit as a player in 2016. But even some at the club told him that joining Guardiola at City would be “the equivalent of a master’s degree in coaching”.

The prognosis for the new Arsenal manager did not look promising when he stepped out at Bournemouth on Boxing Day for his first game. His five-year plan outlined how the club had fallen behind. He and the sporting director, Edu, wanted to build a squad of 22 high-quality, tactically flexible players. For that they needed money, which is where Arteta fits Napoleon’s maxim of requiring “lucky generals”.

“It was much better to be the manager that followed the manager who succeeded Wenger,” said one source. Even more fortuitously, his arrival came after the Kroenke family had finally bought out the 30% stake of the Russian-Uzbek oligarch Alisher Usmanov. The Kroenkes had always said they would invest when they had full control. “Mikel had money Unai and even Arsène didn’t really have,” said a former employee.

“It was the perfect storm in that you had a really driven young manager, bright, well-schooled, ambitious and enthusiastic. You’ve got the money and you had a board that gave him time,” said one former senior employee at the club who was close to Arteta. “He told them it would take five years.”

All the senior Arsenal sources spoken to for this article have praised the Kroenke family and some pointed to the more active involvement of Josh Kroenke, the 46-year-old son of the patriarch Stan, as a key player at that point. “I had the impression he persuaded the board to pull the emergency cord on funding,” said one.

FA Cup and Community Shield wins in Arteta’s first eight months were somewhat overshadowed by Covid restrictions, before a terrible 2020-21 season meant Arteta looked doomed to outsiders. In December 2020, Arsenal lost 2-1 at Everton, seventh Premier League game without a win, five of which were defeats. They then lost a Carabao Cup tie 4-1 at home to Manchester City before Chelsea came to the Emirates.

“They looked poor at Everton,” said one executive. “His future wasn’t being discussed, but I feared for him.”

The board did not waver. Arsenal beat Chelsea 3-1 on Boxing Day to relieve immediate pressure and although they struggled and finished eighth that season Arteta remained backed to the hilt, evidenced by the departure of Mesut Özil in January 2021. “That was totemic,” said one source. “It cost the club a lot of money [to pay up Özil’s contract], but they backed Mikel’s judgment.”

Arteta had made clear there were certain characters he would not tolerate; Özil’s friend Shkodran Mustafi left in the same window. A line had been drawn and when Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang attempted to cross it a year later he, too, was sold, even though Arsenal were in a race for Champions League places and desperate for his goals.

A key scene in the Amazon Prime documentary that chronicled the 2021-22 season was Rob Holding and Mohamed Elneny discussing Aubameyang’s departure. “Boss had balls,” says Elneny. “Yeah, boss had balls,” agrees Holding. The message had landed.

That said, the 2021-22 season started shambolically, Arsenal losing at promoted Brentford, to Chelsea at home to jeers and boos, then 5-0 at City, with Granit Xhaka sent off and indiscipline a clear problem. Insiders say Arteta did not waver. “Mikel is not the type of person to get overwhelmed about anything,” said one senior member of the football staff. “He’s very driven and very solid in his mind. There were difficult times and then obviously Arsenal had invested massively. But the Kroenkes deserve credit.”

Arteta has left his own distinctive stamp on the club – he is most definitely the manager not head coach, a development Arsenal initially wanted to avoid in the post-Wenger era to avoid the personality-cult syndrome – but was also bequeathed building blocks for a first-class side.

William Saliba had been signed by a scouting team subsequently dismantled by Edu, and Arteta almost lost him, sending him away on loan, unimpressed, until he was persuaded to take him back; a deal for Gabriel Magalhães had been put in place by the same scouts and he arrived in September 2020; and he had Bukayo Saka coming through from the academy.

No one at Arsenal doubts the significance of the summer of 2023 in making the step from good to great: the £200m spent to bring in Declan Rice, Kai Havertz, Jurriën Timber and David Raya did not just indicate an intent to take on nationstate funded teams. It also showed Arteta’s charisma was a key part of a recruitment success story, with Rice rejecting Chelsea, City and Manchester United. “The project seemed more exciting and I believe we’re on to big things here,” he said.

Over the past couple of seasons, Rice might have privately questioned that. Now his words look uncannily prescient.

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Season-by-season story of Arsenal’s return to title glory

21 May 2026 - The Guardian

Compiled by Rob Smyth

2004-05 2nd 83pts

The Invincibles are finally slain in October as a record 49-match unbeaten run ends in defeat at Old Trafford. José Mourinho’s remorseless Chelsea zoom past them to the title.

2005-06 4th 67pts

An unlikely run to the Champions League final but a tough domestic season. Eighth at Christmas, a crushing 20 points behind Chelsea. But they finish strongly and pip Spurs to a Champions League place when Thierry Henry scores a hat-trick against Wigan in the last match at Highbury.

2006-07 4th 68pts

First season at the Emirates, and Henry’s last at Arsenal. Never really in the title race, though they do the double over eventual champions Manchester United. Go out of all three cup competitions in a desperate 11-day period.

2007-08 3rd 83pts

A young and mainly pint-sized team, built around Cesc Fàbregas, Mathieu Flamini and Emmanuel Adebayor, are top for most of the season. Four successive draws in February and March, the first a harrowing game at Birmingham when Eduardo da Silva suffers an horrific leg-break, ultimately costs them the league.

2008-09 4th 72pts

It is hard to make sense of a league season that includes four consecutive 0-0 draws, home defeat to Phil Brown’s Hull and madcap 4-4s against Spurs and Liverpool.

2009-10 3rd 75pts

Start with a 6-1 gambol at Everton and still serious contenders until a wretched five days in mid-April. A first league defeat to Spurs in 11 years is followed by a collapse at Wigan. Arsenal’s reputation for flakiness is growing.

2010-11 4th 68pts

Jack Wilshere emerges as a potential superstar and Arsenal are second at the end of February, but win two of their last 11 games. Before that they blew a 4-0 lead to draw 4-4 at Newcastle, lose at home to Spurs from 2-0 up and lose the League Cup final to Birmingham.

2011-12 3rd 70pts

Another season of wild swings. Lose 8-2 at Old Trafford and come from 2-0 down to wallop Spurs 5-2. Robin van Persie scores 30 goals, hoovers up the individual awards – and then joins Manchester United.

2012-13 4th 73pts

Spend almost all of the season outside the top four, only to nick a Champions League place from Spurs at the last. Another 5-2 victory over their local rivals and top-scorer Theo Walcott hits a hattrick in a 7-3 win over Newcastle.

2013-14 4th 79pts

Sir Alex Ferguson has retired and Arsenal are top for most of the winter before falling in a heap. A 6-0 defeat by Mourinho’s Chelsea in Arsène Wenger’s 1,000th game as Arsenal manager is especially humbling. Do at least win the FA Cup, a first trophy in nine years.

2014-15 3rd 75pts

Wenger is booed by Arsenal fans on the train after a 3-2 defeat at Stoke in December. Arsenal are already out of the title race by then, though they improve after Christmas. Retain FA Cup, but the league feel further away than ever.

2015-16 2nd 71pts

Twice beat eventual champions Leicester – more than the rest of the league combined – but other results are erratic. Finish second for the first time in a decade after leapfrogging Spurs on the final day.

2016-17 5th 75pts

Miss out on Champions League for first time in 20 years and finish below Spurs for first time in 22. FA Cup triumph includes wins over Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City and Antonio Conte’s Chelsea.

2017-18 6th 63pts

Truly the end of an era. Arsenal finish 37 points behind champions City and Wenger steps down.

2018-19 5th 70pts

Unai Emery arrives. Beat Spurs 4-2 and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang shares the golden boot, but lose three games in eight days in April to blow a top-four finish.

2019-20 8th 56pts

Poorest league season in a generation, their lowest finish since 1995. Emery is sacked at the end of November and Mikel Arteta arrives. Another FA Cup triumph at least.

2020-21 8th 61pts

Fifteenth at Christmas, but young forwards Gabriel Martinelli, Emile Smith Rowe and Bukayo Saka inspire a mood-changing win over Chelsea on Boxing Day.

2021-22 5th 69pts

Miss out on last Champions League place to Spurs but signs emerge of the team we know now, particularly Saka and Martin Ødegaard, and the ruthlessness shown by Arteta in ostracising Aubameyang.

2022-23 2nd 84pts

Make unwanted history by topping Premier League for 248 days without winning it. Hunted down by City who win a decisive game 4-1 at the Etihad in April and Arteta becomes a born-again pragmatist.

2023-24 2nd 89pts

Signings of David Raya and Declan Rice give a solid defensive spine. Despite winning 16 of their last 18 games, finish two points short.

2024-25 2nd 74pts

Third successive runners-up medal equals the English top-flight record. Little did supporters know an epic season was just around the corner.

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Arteta set for huge pay rise as champions target Kroupi

21 May 2026 - The Guardian

Ed Aarons

Arsenal will reward Mikel Arteta for ending Arsenal’s 22-year wait to be champions by offering him a lucrative new contract that will cement the Spaniard’s status as one of the bestpaid managers in the world. The club are also well advanced with plans to strengthen his squad.

Talks over extending Arteta’s deal beyond next summer were put on hold while Arsenal battled it out with Manchester City in the Premier League, although insiders insist there was an expectation he would have stayed even if the season had ended trophyless. The 44-year-old is the second-youngest manager to win the Premier League, after José Mourinho with Chelsea in 2005, and matched Kenny Dalglish’s achievement with Liverpool in 1986 in making a team top-flight champions in his first senior management job.

Arteta has transformed Arsenal since he was appointed in December 2019 and it is understood his new deal is likely to reflect his achievements.

His contract is believed to be worth about £10m a season, plus a £5m bonus for reaching the Champions League, but he will be offered a large salary increase that some sources have predicted could mean he comes close to matching Atlético Madrid’s Diego Simeone. He is thought to be the world’s best-paid manager, earning a reported €30m (£26m) a year. Pep Guardiola is paid a reported £20m a year by Manchester City. Arteta will become the longest-serving manager in England’s top four divisions when Guardiola steps down after Sunday’s final Premier League game.