Arteta Signs New Deal As Arsenal Continue To Aim For Top Spot
Under manager Mikel Arteta, Arsenal have pushed the chase for top spot and the Premier League title close for the last couple of seasons and with the squad evolving in each transfer window, naturally, fans of the Gunners remain very hopeful that the 2024/25 domestic campaign will see us finally get over the line and lift the trophy once again.
Our 42 year old former Spanish international midfielder has again got off to a good start this season, and with the September international break coming to an end, we are sat in fourth place in the table after three games, with seven points on the board.
The club themselves are clearly pleased with the progress we are making under Arteta, and on Thursday afternoon our board confirmed that our gaffer had now signed a new three year deal with us, keeping him at the Emirates Stadium until at least the summer of 2027. For those who visit The Punters Page on a regular basis, you would have probably found good odds on this deal being done before the turn of the year, but maybe not quite this quickly.
Having joined us back in December 2019 from Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City side as Unai Emery’s replacement, he was set to be out of contract at the end of this campaign so this development will put all those potential concerns to bed.
Speaking after the deal was announced, Arteta spoke of his pride in working at the club, and he was very optimistic about what may lie ahead for us in the coming years as he knew his own ambitions as manager were being matched by the club behind the scenes.
Having led us to victory in the 2019/20 FA Cup Final to claim his first major trophy as a gaffer in his own right, was have obviously finished as runners up in the Premier League to Manchester City for the past two straight seasons, but maybe it will be third time lucky at this time of asking and we will take the title for the first time since 2003/04.
Club co-chairman Josh Kroenke described Arteta as a ‘dynamic and passionate’ manager in his own statement, adding that with a ‘deep’ understanding of our values, he has been working relentlessly in the search for success and he continues to firmly believe that he is the man to deliver just that.
Sporting director Edu also referenced the fact that our former skippers new contract would give us the stability that we needed to continue to move in a combined clear direction, given our longer term aims.
Of course, given the improvement we have seen under his charge so far, his new deal does not exactly come as a surprise to anybody, as it was always expected that we would be looking to tie him down for the foreseeable future as his contract neared a natural expiry, but with some rumour mill speculation linking him with both Paris Saint-Germain and Barcelona, getting the deal over the line this early removes that concern and leaves us all free to just focus on what happens on the pitch without the unnecessary noise that comes from the media.
Our whole set up is now designed to work in lockstep as we look towards reaching our overall aims this season, but with some eyebrows raised at the fact that we did not sign a recognised striker during the summer transfer window, we will have to see whether or not that proves to be an oversight as the season continues to progress.
