Mikel Arteta is here to stay. We all knew that, but now it has been made official.
The Arsenal boss has committed his future to the Emirates, signing a contract extension until 2030. At a time when there is so much uncertainty around their rivals, none more so, of course, than the chaos at Manchester City, the timing couldn’t be better.
But it’s further evidence of how far they’ve drifted from the playstyle of Arsene Wenger: the fluid passing, the artistic expression, the overwhelming trust in individual intuition. Under Arteta, that sort of romance has been replaced by complete structural control. And whatever people want to say about that, they cannot dispute that it has turned them into winners.
Mikel Arteta and Arsene Wenger
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Look at how Manchester United fans and ex-players are still clinging to ‘the good old days’ and longing for the club to play ‘the Manchester United way’. That has clearly done them more harm than good.
The Wenger days were incredible. Even during the struggling Emirates years, you knew you were watching one of the best pure footballing sides in Europe. But in the later years, they lacked steel and a bit of streetwiseness.
Mikel Arteta had to move away from Arsene Wenger’s beautiful football
Wenger’s teams were less rigid than those of the top coaches we see today. Much like Carlo Ancelotti, Wenger often handed his players the trust and belief for them to figure out solutions on the pitch themselves.
He gave the likes of Dennis Bergkamp, Cesc Fabregas and Mesut Ozil total freedom to drift into space as they saw fit. They were encouraged to play ambitious, creative passes where possible. They wouldn’t be getting that same level of freedom under Mikel Arteta, and that’s largely due to how the game’s changed.
When those Wenger teams clicked, it produced absolutely breathtaking football. However, every team in the Premier League is now micro-managed and analysed to the extreme, meaning every side has smarter pressing and defensive structures. The reality is you can’t play with the same level of expression anymore.
If players drifted wherever they saw fit in today’s Premier League, all it would take is one misplaced pass in the final third to invite a swift transition where your backline is vulnerable and exposed. That’s exactly the sort of flaw that plagued the later years of Wenger’s tenure.
Mikel Arteta sees the game in a completely different way to Arsene Wenger
Arteta views the game through an entirely different lens. Shaped by his years alongside Pep Guardiola and to just as important an extent, by his playing years under David Moyes, his entire setup is designed to remove chance.
He splits the pitch into strict positional zones. His players occupy particular spaces to maintain open passing lanes and, crucially, to block counter-attacks before they can start. Over time, he has been able to get more fluid within this structure, where players cover for each other depending on the pattern of play.
We’ve seen this most clearly on that right flank between Bukayo Saka, Martin Odegaard and Ben White. But importantly, if they lose the ball, they are always well positioned to systematically suffocate the opposition and win it back.
When Arsenal lose the ball now, there is no mad race backwards. The team hold an immaculate ‘rest defence’ behind the ball, and immediately swarm the ball-carrier and recover possession high up the pitch. That’s why Arsenal have consistently posted Europe’s elite defensive numbers over recent seasons.
Then of course, there’s the set-pieces. Wenger often treated corners and free-kicks as a bit of an afterthought, but Arteta has maximised their potential with the help of specialist coach Nicolas Jover. They wouldn’t have won the league without them.
The types of players the club signs have changed, too. Wenger loved small, hyper-technical midfielders who could play out of tight spaces, like Santi Cazorla or Tomas Rosicky, whereas Arteta prefers physical powerhouses. Players like Kai Havertz, Gabriel, Declan Rice, and Mikel Merino are exceptional duel-winners, dominate the air, and physically wear opponents down.
It’s easy to look back at the football played under Wenger with nostalgia, but the Premier League has changed. The sport has changed. Most teams Arsenal come up against now defend in deep, highly organised blocks that can pounce on the counter. And in Bournemouth, Brighton and Brentford’s case, they’ll press you off the park from the off if you’re not ‘on it’.
This wouldn’t have been the style of play Arteta would have envisaged winning the league with when he arrived in 2019. But he has had to adapt and change with the times. He may have taken away some of Arsenal’s old flair, but he has given them the steel required to win the biggest prizes in the sport.