Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal are currently riding high at the Premier League summit – but how does his Gunners record compare to their rivals since his appointment in December 2019?
Arsenal has enjoyed success in cup competitions, beating Chelsea 2-1 in the 2020 FA Cup final before winning the Community Shield a few months later.
But his side struggled for consistency in the Premier League, falling out of the top six and finishing two consecutive seasons in eighth place.
After a difficult start to last season, Arteta has managed to turn things around and has earned plenty of plaudits for his work at the Emirates.
“They have a clear structure, clear idea, properly tuned, possession-based, young, full of talent and joy,” Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp said in March 2022.
“If you go through the line-up there’s an experienced striker and then three very exciting young boys and then a bit more experience in the double six and then a pretty inexperienced backline and a young goalkeeper, and that’s not with [Emile] Smith Rowe even in, and then on top of the other guys, it’s interesting.
“Other teams will not like it because it’s another big name back on track but that’s how it looks. There are similarities [to us], you can say it like this, they’re a massive club and qualification for European football in the last few years is not exactly how they wanted it.
“Arsenal fans, maybe since I was in England it was not always easy for them to enjoy. But they seem to be now and that’s exactly how it should be.”
And the excitement at the Emirates, much to the anger of Richard Keys, has reached fever pitch as Arsenal have made an incredible start to the Premier League season – including a comprehensive derby victory over Chelsea – and pundits have started to jump on the Arteta bandwagon.
Speaking after Arsenal’s cathartic victory at Brentford in September, Michael Owen said: ‘I would have been the first person to accuse them of being soft over the last few years and they’ve definitely been that but they do have a maturity [now] despite having a lot of young players in the team.”
“There’s going to be big tests to come because they have had a favourable start but the confidence is growing, they’re maturing.
“If I was an Arsenal fan – after a long few years – I would be starting to get excited now.”
Start planning the open-top bus parade, we say…
But, until then, we’ve taken a look at how the Premier League table would look if it began when Arteta first took charge of Arsenal, against Bournemouth on Boxing Day in 2019.
Note: all teams have played 110 league games unless it’s stated otherwise. If teams are on equal points, the team that has played fewer games is positioned higher. If both parties have played the same number of matches, goal difference has been used to rank them.
1. Manchester City – 254 points
2. Liverpool – 227 points
3. Arsenal – 197 points (109 games played)
4. Chelsea – 196 points (GD: +73)
5. Manchester United – 196 points (GD: +54) (109 games played)
6. Tottenham – 192 points
7. Leicester City – 155 points (GD: +18) (111 games played)
8. West Ham United – 155 points (GD: -16)
9. Everton – 142 points
10. Newcastle United – 140 points
11. Wolves – 138 points
12. Aston Villa – 135 points (111 games played)
13. Brighton – 134 points (109 games played)
14. Crystal Palace – 131 points
15. Southampton – 129 points