Mikel Arteta has been speaking after signing a new three-year contract at Arsenal, which takes his time at the Emirates Stadium up until 2025.
Interestingly, the Spaniard admitted he was left “emotional” by the Gunners after being offered a new deal, during an interview with the club.
What’s the story?
Well, Arteta seems quite shocked that he was offered a new contract.
The 40-year-old revealed that he was offered the fresh terms following Arsenal’s recent three-game losing run.
Before securing wins over Chelsea, Manchester United and West Ham, it seemed as if Arsenal were about to have a repeat of their collapse under Unai Emery in 2018/19.
The Gunners suffered defeat to Crystal Palace, Brighton and Southampton as their place in next season’s Champions League looked to be disappearing.
Despite that, the likes of Stan Kroenke, Josh Kroenke, Edu and Vinai Venkatesham kept faith in Arteta, and decided to extend his contract.
Speaking about that decision, the Spaniard said: “The club offered me the contract when we lost three matches, and that day I went like this: chapeau and go, that doesn’t happen in football. I haven’t ever seen it and I just got emotional when I see it, because I just said: ‘These guys are serious and these guys are committed.’ So, I better push forward.”
Clearly, everybody at the Emirates Stadium is on the same page, which is a very important thing in football.
With everyone pulling in the same direction – including the fans – magical things can happen.
Mikel Arteta will bring success to Arsenal
In our view, Arteta is destined to bring success back to Arsenal.
In a short space of time, the Spaniard has done extremely well to trim deadwood from his squad, and adopt a clear playing style.
That isn’t an easy thing to do, especially in your first role in management, so it’s no surprise to see Arsenal hand Arteta a new £8.3m-a-year deal, which equates to £159,615-a-week.
With a few more additions, and a full pre-season under Arteta, we see no reason why Arsenal can’t challenge for silverware next term.
Receive exclusive football transfer news and updates twice a week to your mailbox
