Mikel Arteta has agreed a new three-year contract with Arsenal, extending his contract until 2027. The 42-year-old has been in charge of Arsenal since December 2019, helping the Gunners finish runners-up in the Premier League for two consecutive seasons, but is now entering the final 12 months of his contract.
The new deal was made ahead of the Super Sunday match against Tottenham in round 4 of the 2024-2025 Premier League.
In Arteta's first season, Arsenal won the FA Cup in 2020. Along with 2 Community Shields in 2020 and 2023.
Arteta has transformed Arsenal so effectively that it is easy to forget that, for the first nine months at Arsenal, his role was simply that of “head coach”. The idea was to focus on the team, but that was too narrow. Arteta wanted to inject life, courage and direction into the club.
When Arteta was appointed, Arsenal were out of the Champions League, 10th in the Premier League and they had no clear DNA in their playing style.
Arteta cannot simply coach them back to the way they were, there needs to be drastic change.
In September 2020, after working hard to cure a “culture of complacency” and proving his ability to improve Arsenal across the board, beyond just the pitch, Arteta’s title was changed to “first-team manager”.
Arteta not only runs the team, but also works alongside sporting director Edu on football operations. This is the relationship that Arsenal revolves around. Together, they have transformed the club – and so much more.
In Arteta's first two seasons, Arsenal finished eighth. That position in 2020-21 meant they missed out on European football for the first time in 25 years.
Fifth place next year qualifies for the Europa League, before finishing behind Manchester City for the second consecutive season to return to the Champions League for the first time since 2016-17.
The 2023-24 season will see Arsenal record their highest ever Premier League win tally (28) and collect 89 points – just two behind Pep Guardiola’s Man City. For the Gunners, this is an increase of 33 points since Arteta’s arrival, with each season seeing a steady increase in points total.
But perhaps the biggest leap forward has been in goal difference. Last season, Arsenal finished with a +62, scoring 91 goals and conceding just 29 - the lowest in the Premier League. That's a huge improvement on +8 in 2019-20, and still significantly better than the +45 in 2022-23, showing improvement in both attack and defence.
Arteta's first transfer window was in January 2020 and Arsenal have spent nearly £700m on players since then, with the biggest spend being Declan Rice from West Ham for £105m.
Looking at Arsenal's starting line-up for their opening-day Premier League win over Wolves, only three players - William Saliba, Bukayo Saka and Gabriel Martinelli - were not Arteta signings.
Looking up at the bench, there are also only three players not signed by Arteta, but they are all products of the academy - Eddie Nketiah, Reiss Nelson and Ethan Nwaneri.
The last four and a half years have clearly been a slow, steady build-up to a team capable of winning major trophies. The Gunners squad is built according to Arteta’s vision, and with Arsenal’s hierarchy, they will have to continue and add trophies to the trophy cabinet.
