Mikel Arteta has been told he's moved away from the teachings of his mentor Pep Guardiola and is now slowly becoming the new Jose Mourinho. That's according to Liverpool hero Jamie Carragher, who blamed the Arsenal's negative tactics for failing to beat the Reds after drawing 2-2 at the Emirates Stadium on Sunday.
Arteta began his coaching career working with Guardiola as an assistant to the Catalan at Manchester City, working in the role for four years. But when the chance to replace Unai Emery at Arsenal cropped up in December 2019, the Spaniard snatched it with both hands.
Nearly five years later, Arsenal have become a Premier League powerhouse and mounted two serious challenges, only for Guardiola's City to pip them to the title on both occasions.
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Arteta is hoping it will be third time lucky this season, but their hopes took a hammer blow after twice throwing away the lead to draw with title rivals Liverpool.
Bukayo Saka's opener was cancelled out by Virgil van Dijk before Mikel Merino's header gave the north London side the lead. But Mohamed Salah struck late on to deny them all three points.
Sky Sports pundit Roy Keane claimed Arsenal lacked the mentality of a top team to see out the win, while Carragher placed the blame on Arteta rather than the players. The ex-Liverpool captain believes Arteta is gradually distancing himself from being 'Guardiola 2.0' and becoming a manager like Mourinho.
“Because Mikel Arteta worked with Pep Guardiola, we’re almost thinking this a Pep Guardiola disciple,” Carragher told Sky Sports.
“If you look at the two most successful managers of the last 10 or 15 years, you’ve got Pep Guardiola here with a certain style of football, and you’ve got Jose Mourinho, almost equally as successful at the other end.
“Mikel Arteta is slowly morphing into a Jose Mourinho type of manager and nobody really thought that would happen. I just think it’s really interesting how he’s got there.”
Such a comment could be interpreted as a back-handed compliment, given the Portuguese's history working in the Premier League. While he won three Premier League titles across two stints with Chelsea, Mourinho's subsequent reigns at Manchester United and Tottenham were less successful.
Arteta may well disagree with Carragher after revealing his disappointment that his side did not play brave football in the second half of their draw.
"We deserved to win the game. We were the better team. Learnings from both goals, second one is a transition moment we have to end up in final third. You cannot give that away," Arteta said.
"We were clear in what we had to do and the execution, determination and aggression with and without the ball was really good. A few moments where we should've put the ball in the net. In the first phase we needed more courage to play. We created big opportunities."
Either way, Arteta may not care about such labels or how he wins - as long as it means joining Guardiola and Mourinho in the Premier League winners' circle.
