Mikel Arteta made more than 200 appearances for Everton between 2005 and 2011.
Now, ahead of the Toffees visiting Emirates Stadium for Saturday’s Premier League clash, our manager has been reflecting on his time at Goodison Park.
Asked about the biggest values he learned during those six years on Merseyside, Mikel said it was as much about the spirit of the club off the pitch as on it.
“The human quality and then how deep the feeling is towards the club,” he explained in his pre-match press conference on Friday. “As we all know, the club has been through very different stages through its history and recently they’ve had a very tough one, but I love the way they get together, go through their storms and the way they face it is a great example.
“Again, what Sean [Dyche], the coaching staff and players have done in recent years with all the instability around the club, hopefully they can try to be apart from that now with the new stadium, with new ownership as well and keep going and start to have more enjoyable times.
“They haven’t lost the rules and that fighting spirit, togetherness and love for the club in regards to whatever happens - they are there. That’s not easy and that makes them really special. Hopefully that will help them, and give them stability. The project with the new stadium looks unbelievable as well, so there's a lot to be excited about.”
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Everton haven’t played since a 4-0 win at home to Wolverhampton Wanderers on Wednesday, December 4, as the Merseyside Derby was postponed due to Storm Darragh.
But Mikel isn’t paying too much attention to the amount of time Everton have had to prepare for Saturday’s game.
“That’s the context,” he said. “We’re so used to playing every three days. The boys trained today really fired up and looking forward to the game, understanding that it’s always a really tough opponent and we’re going to have to be really good to beat them.”
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