Arsenal’s Arteta claims Premier League to step from Guardiola’s shadow

Mikel Arteta was Pep Guardiola’s assistant at Man City, but has pipped his former tutor to the Premier League title.Mikel Arteta has silenced his doubters by awakening the sleeping giant Arsenal, restoring the Gunners to the top of English football.Twenty-two years on from Arsene Wenger’s “Invincibles”, Arsenal have finally got over the line to vindicate the Arteta project, which began with his appointment in 2019.Recommended Stories list of 4 itemslist 1 of 4Neymar’s surprise World Cup call-up: All to know about his Brazil returnlist 2 of 4Ronaldo to lead Portugal at sixth World Cup as Martinez names squadlist 3 of 4Iran squad in race against time for World Cup readiness amid US-Israel warlist 4 of 4Los Angeles World Cup stadium workers threaten strike over ICE deploymentend of listArsenal gambled on their former club captain six-and-a-half years ago, even though he had no previous managerial experience.But Arteta was blessed with arguably the best apprenticeship, working alongside his longtime mentor-turned-title rival Pep Guardiola.When Guardiola arrived at Manchester City a decade ago, he sought out Arteta’s experience of the English game and someone he knew from their playing days together at Barcelona.“As a player and as a coach, he’s been an inspiration for me, and he’s the person who decided to bet on me, to include me as a second coach,” Arteta said of Guardiola last year.“I’ll always be grateful to him; otherwise I wouldn’t be here.”Yet, in stark contrast to many other modern coaches, Arteta has not followed the Guardiola approach in building a side that has pipped his former boss to the title.Arteta never quite made the grade at Barcelona, but the influences on his playing career have moulded his outlook as a manager.After brief spells at Paris Saint-Germain and Rangers, Arteta finally found a home at Everton under David Moyes.“I learned from him, on the field and off the field, about building a team and getting the right characters in the team to build what you want,” Arteta said of Moyes.