Football / Can Arteta hold his nerve? |
The second half of the Premier League season is brimming with stories and subplots. Hundreds of players are hoping to secure places in their national team squads ahead of the World Cup; Sunderland and Leeds are trying to buck the trend for promoted teams to head straight back to the Championship; Manchester United’s permacrisis has entered its next phase; and BlueCo’s financial revolution at Chelsea has moved into a new gear with the appointment of one of their own as coach – Liam Rosenior, from also-BlueCo-owned Strasbourg. More than anyone else, however, the next six months matter to the Arsenal manager, Mikel Arteta. After seven years in the job and three consecutive second-place finishes, the time has come to land a big prize. With a handsome lead heading into the run-in, can Arteta hold it together?
So far, the arc of Arteta’s managerial career has been consistently upward. A cerebral midfielder, he was quickly offered a coaching job at Manchester City by Pep Guardiola on his retirement. Following three years of hot-housing at the Etihad, he was given the Arsenal job, a major coup for someone who had never led a first team........