Jose Mourinho told Sky Sports News (03/12/20 at 8:05 am) that Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta is a ‘good’ coach and ‘we cannot deny’ what he has done so early on in his career.
The Tottenham boss was making reference to Arteta winning the FA Cup and made it clear that the under-fire Arsenal man has ‘already won an important competition’.
Years after sitting next to Pep Guardiola in the Etihad dugout, Arteta took his first steps into the main hot seat last December and guided Arsenal to the FA Cup within his first season.
Whilst Mourinho didn’t want to go as far as Eric Dier and say he is the ‘most exciting young manager in Europe’ because he didn’t want to do any disservice to others, he was still respectful of what he’s done.
“I don’t want to go into that direction [Dier’s comments] because I don’t know them all [the young managers],” said Mourinho. “It’s very hard to say that.
“He has won already an important competition in the first few months of his career. That we cannot deny.
“To be the Arsenal coach, you have to be good if you are not good then you are not there. So, yes, I think Mikel is a good coach. But I want to respect the others, especially the others that I don’t know well and that are also very talented.”
The Arsenal fans are divided over Arteta, at the moment, because of how they have started the new Premier League campaign.
A win on Sunday would change the tide back towards him and ease the pressure which has been building for weeks now.
But, on the other hand, losing to Spurs, just like they did after the restart, will only boil the blood of the already disgruntled Arsenal faithful.
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