Barcelona manager Xavi Hernandez insists he is not surprised by the success Mikel Arteta is enjoying at Arsenal.
The Spaniard has transformed the London club and could lead them to win the Premier League by the end of this season.
Having moved to the Emirates as a rookie boss, not everyone was confident in what Arteta would achieve, but Xavi thinks he already had a very good head start.
He told The Times: “No, he’s not surprised me because he had the best references [having worked alongside Guardiola at City] and because if you have played as a central midfielder at Barça you already have a headstart, you have the map of your pitch in your head.”
Just Arsenal Opinion
Arteta was groomed at La Masia as a player and worked under Pep Guardiola as an assistant coach and these experiences prepared him for life as a manager at Arsenal.
We have made steady progress since he has been at the helm and we expect the team to keep improving under his leadership.
Another good part of his management of the club is that the Kroenkes are more than happy to keep improving the playing staff and this makes working at the Emirates much easier for the gaffer.
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Arteta single handedly is responsible for Graham Potter to be still in the job at the bridge presently, in my opinion.
Chelsea has stolen Arsenal blue print and is trying to reconstruct their club likewise.
From the shaky start the gaffer had to their intrest in young talented players, Chelsea is trying to copy the gunners to every single area of the club.
So the decision as not to sack Graham Potter is to see if he can actually bounce back like our gaffer did, in my opinion.
You are actually correct because the news of Chelsea wanting to copy arsenal blue print is everywhere now example is they bought a lot of young players in the summer and January that’s what Arsenal did before.