**Atletico Madrid boss Diego Simeone says Mikel Arteta is doing a “fantastic” job at Arsenal.**
Simeone’s side face the Gunners at the Emirates Stadium in the Champions League on Tuesday night.
And ahead of the game, the Argentinian, who has been in charge at Atletico since 2011 and has won five major trophies with the club, was asked what advice he has for Arteta.
“Just keep doing what he’s doing,” Simeone responded.
“Don’t lose that identity. Be authentic and genuine, be respectful when you don’t win. There are ups and downs in life and he’s doing a fantastic job.”
Simeone is wary of the threat the current Premier League leaders could pose his team.
“We’re facing a very good team tomorrow,” he said.
“They’ve had an incredible approach to every game for the last five or six years under Mikel Arteta. They’ve had a very clear identity and they’ve just been improving by bringing in better players.
“They have improved in the areas they feel they have needed to with players with the right qualities and they have certainly shown their ability and their identity.
“We’ll have to tip the game in the direction where we think we can hurt them, in a wonderful stadium, and the fans will be right behind them.
“They are very good at pressing in the opposition half in terms of ball recoveries and transitions. They have great speed down the wing, they try to dominate the game but we’ve been working hard and we want to take the game in the direction where we can hurt them.”
Simeone also says set pieces are an area where his team will have to be especially good.
“First of all, they’ve got very good set-piece takers and lots of tall players who are very good headers of the ball,” he said.
“Of course they’ve been working very hard on that so that’s why they’ve been scoring so many goals.
“We won many games this way in 2014 so of course it’s one of the ways they can win games.”