Manchester City midfielder Kevin de Bruyne has lavished praise on his former coach Mikel Arteta for the turnaround he has accomplished at Arsenal. The Gunners were moving towards a relegation battle when Arteta took over the job back in 2019. Since then, the Spaniard has done brilliant work at the club and has now transformed them into league leaders. Arsenal are sitting atop of the Premier League table this season, with 8 wins from 9 games so far.
His young Gunners went rampant against Liverpool in the last games, clinching their first league win over the Reds since 2020. The win further helped Arsenal create a mindboggling gap of 14 points between them and Liverpool, which has them in pole position to finish above the Merseyside club. However, its just one point which separates them from City, who are desperate to reclaim the top spot and currently are seated second.
Kevin de Bruyne sees ‘evolution’ in Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal
Mikel Arteta has been in charge of 142 games so far at Arsenal, with an impressive record of 1.9 points per game and a win percentage of almost 60%. Furthermore, he has formed a solid relationship with the club’s technical director Edu Gaspar with the duo working wonders in the transfer markets. This summer’s recruitment, which saw them bring in the likes of Gabriel Jesus and Oleksandr Zinchenko too has played an important role in Arteta’s project.
While many have been surprised and shocked after witnessing Arsenal resurgence, Kevin de Bruyne says he had Arteta for years and knew he would excel at Emirates. Arteta and De Bruyne worked together when the Spaniard was assistant manager in Pep Guardiola’s staff. He too has been attributed with helping players like De Bruyne, Jesus and Leroy Sane who left for Bayern Munich flourish in Manchester. In an interview with Sky Sports, the Belgian on being asked whether Arteta has surprised him as well, he said:
“No, not really. Obviously I see a lot of similarities with the way we play, but that’s always been his style. When he stopped playing and he had the opportunity to come here I think it was a good learning school and obviously we had great years.
“I saw an evolution from the beginning of Mikel to after three years when he left. At the beginning he was adapting but then he was getting more and more into his role. We also saw he had a lot of ambition and when an opportunity came he took that. It’s nice to see that he got the time from Arsenal. I’m happy for him that it’s going well. They’re playing really, really, really good football. Hopefully they will just not be good enough for us.”
Arsenal have never won against Arteta’s former team Manchester City, as they will hope to break the hoodoo this season. The two teams were slated to face each other this month, but given the tight calendar the fixture got postponed. While the Gunners are enjoying their lead at the top of the table, Arteta himself has admitted that they are still miles away from challenging for the title.
On the other hand, Kevin de Bruyne and his Manchester City are bracing up to face their nemesis Liverpool coming Sunday in the Premier League. City crushing the sides they are coming up against with the help of Erling Haaland who has netted a staggering 20 goals in 12 games so far. De Bruyne too has continued with his Midas touch, accumulating 9 assists 9 league games so far. He will look to continue to feed his striker on Sunday as well, when they travel to Anfield.