Former Arsenal defender William Gallas has said that Mikel Arteta is not a ‘world-class’ manager but Liverpool boss Arne Slot is.
The Gunners sit 15 points behind Liverpool after they dropped points for the third consecutive Premier League game with a 1-1 draw to Manchester United at the weekend.
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With the title race all but over, Arsenal will turn their attention to the Champions League, in which they are 7-1 up in their round of 16 tie against PSV Eindhoven.
Mikel Arteta will be disappointed that his side couldn’t get over the line in the league this year with them finishing second to Manchester City for the past two seasons.
However, former Arsenal centre-back Gallas has said that Arteta is not a ‘world-class’ manager, despite the fantastic job that he has done at the Emirates since joining in 2019.
He told Prime Casino: “It’s unacceptable for Arsenal to be making the same mistakes year-after-year with the same manager. I don’t want to hear the excuses. I don’t want to hear about injuries.
“There are no excuses that are good enough when you’ve got a winning mentality. I don’t think he has it because Arsenal should have won at least one, maybe two titles and they couldn’t get it over the line.
“Right now Arteta is a good manager, not a world-class manager, a world-class manager wins titles. When you see Arne Slot, he’s in his first season, and nobody expected him to win the Premier League. Look what he’s done in one year.
“People are going to say he has a good squad. But last season, Arsenal had a good squad, but Arteta has shown too much faith to his players – his squad should be better this year, and the performances are worse than last season.”
Who is the favourite to become the next Arsenal manager?
As things stand there is no indication that Arteta’s position at Arsenal is under threat despite what Gallas thinks about the Gunners’ boss.
However, looking at the odds, who would be the most likely to replace Arteta, should the Arsenal board make a rash decision on the Spaniard’s future.
According to SportsCasting.com, Inter Milan manager Simone Inzaghi is the favourite to take over from Arteta at odds of 2/1. He won the Serie A with the club just two seasons ago.
PSG boss Luis Enrique is the second favourite at 5/1, with former Barcelona boss Xavi at 8/1. In terms of Premier League managers, Bournemouth’s Andoni Iraola is listed at 10/1, and Newcastle United manager Eddie Howe is 16/1.
However, despite this, it doesn’t look likely that Arteta will be on his way out any time soon, the Arsenal boss will want to win a league title first…
Click here to see our manager profile for Mikel Arteta, including information about both his playing career and coaching career.