Mikel Arteta has guided Arsenal to the top of the Premier League but has been warned the Gunners could look for pastures new in the summer after winning the title.
Former Arsenal midfielder Emmanuel Petit fears Mikel Arteta will be tempted to leave the Gunners for Barcelona. However, he expects the Spaniard to only move on if he leads the London club to Premier League glory.
Arteta started his playing career at Barcelona after joining the club at the age of 15 and going through the academy. He played more than 40 league games for Barça’s B team, with team-mates including Carles Puyol, Victor Valdes and Thiago Motta, but he never featured for the first team.
Petit also spent time at Barcelona as a player and believes Arteta’s return would be difficult to turn down. “Mikel Arteta may be tempted to return to Spain, especially to the club he knew from his childhood,” he told Snavale.
“Honestly, given the work he’s doing, could you imagine if he could win something at the end of the season? He’d probably say, ‘Okay, so-and-so. For me, after almost seven years, I achieved that at Arsenal. I think it’s time to look at something different.’ That’s understandable.
“But in a way it’s understandable that if Barcelona were to knock on your door, you’d think, ‘Listen, Barcelona is one of the greatest clubs in the world. I’d go back to Spain and that lifestyle would be good for my family.’
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However, Petit suggested that Arteta may want to clean up Barça’s defense if he moves to Camp Nou. Under coach Hansi Flick, the Catalan side conceded 39 goals in the league last season and have conceded 17 goals in 15 La Liga games this season, but their attacking power remains top of the league.
Arteta’s Arsenal are scoring fewer goals and conceding fewer goals. Last season, they conceded 34 goals despite a sluggish end to the season, but they have been even more stingy this term, conceding only eight times in 20 competitive matches.
Before Arsenal’s league game against Brentford on Wednesday night, Arteta was asked what he had learned from a busy week that saw him win against Spurs and Bayern Munich and draw with Chelsea. “Well, starting with Spurs, I also learned a lot about the international break again and what happened,” he said. “For example, what happened with Gabi (injured centre-back Gabriel Magalhães) and how to make sure it doesn’t happen again, and we played a team game in a way that we have to learn from. And when you watch them, you can always learn from that.
“Bayern Munich brought players of different qualities that you don’t see every week, but we needed that potential and obviously what they were doing, so we got a lot from them.
“Last weekend we had to play the same amount of games in the game and I think in that sense what happened at Stamford Bridge was about recognizing what happened and what actually happened and why it happened so it was a huge learning experience.”
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