Arsenal squad show off their skills in training exercises
Mikel Arteta has proven he is a different type of manager to Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola, claims French football expert Philippe Auclair. Arteta spent three-and-a-half years as assistant to Guardiola after hanging up his boots as a player in 2016.
Arsenal news: Mikel Arteta left Man City in December after three years under Pep Guardiola (Image: GETTY)
Auclair thought a Guardiola style at Arsenal would not work with the current players but admits it is clear already Arteta is taking a different route to the City boss.
“If I go to Mikel Arteta, I wasn’t convinced at all at the beginning I must say that he would fit in as he has fitted in but he’s impressed me,” Auclair said on the Transfer Window podcast.
“I’m going to be a bit counter-intuitive here, what has impressed me is that people saw him coming from his assistant job at Manchester City where he’s playing with the manager who is a bit of a fundamentalist with the way he wants his team to play and somebody who lives in a kind of world of his own invention.
“So you think maybe that is going to be the case with that kind of team [and I thought] ‘I’m not sure it’s going to work’.
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“But what he’s shown since he’s been in place is that he’s first and foremost, like he was as a player, a pragmatist, with an eye for the right pass, an eye for who [to pass it to], sometimes laterally, sometimes backwards, sometimes it’s an assist, and he has the same qualities as a manager."
Auclair also says Arsenal fans are pleased with Arteta's communication skills, which previous boss Unai Emery struggled with.
He added: “He’s also very outspoken, which I think has given people after Unai Emery, whatever his qualities are and he has genuine qualities was not the best of communicators, it was great for Arsenal to have a manager who can actually express himself like Mikel Arteta quite clearly does, quite frankly.
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Arsenal news; Mikel Arteta earned rave reviews from Pep Guardiola during their time at Man City (Image: GETTY)