Arsenal: Mikel Arteta making the perfect first impression

Mikel Arteta has been the Arsenal head coach for a little under two weeks. In his first senior management role, he has made a near-perfect first impression.

No one really knew what to expect from Mikel Arteta. He may have arrived at Arsenal with a remarkable reputation after his work as an assistant coach under Pep Guardiola at Manchester City, but this is a 37-year-old who has never coached a team before and only retired from playing three-and-a-half years ago.

Find the latest episode of the Pain in the Arsenal Podcast here — After Everton, good luck Mikel Arteta

Now a little under two weeks into his tenure as head coach in north London, at least a little more is known about his coaching style, his approach to matches, how he will handle certain characters, and what he thinks about the players he has inherited, both positively and negatively.

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Arteta is making a first impression, and per all accounts of his work thus far, he is making an excellent. Just read how David Luiz speaks about his new head coach to Sky Sports after the Chelsea defeat:

"“For me, Arteta is going to be one of the best coaches in the world. I have had the opportunity to have many coaches during my career. He is intelligent, he was a player, he is clever. I think he’s going to be one of the best But I really trust in this philosophy, I really trust in the way he sees football. That’s why we could see Arsenal dominate the first half [of the 2-1 loss to Chelsea] with amazing football, with a lot of quality.”"

Few players in world football have worked with the calibre of coaches that Luiz has, from Jose Mourinho and Antonio Conte to Laurent Blanc and Unai Emery. If he believes that Arteta is ‘going to be one of the best coaches in the world’, he might be worth listening to.

And Luiz is not the only one to extol the virtues of his new head coach. Speaking with Arsenal.com earlier this week, 18-year-old left-winger-turned-left-back Bukayo Saka went into great detail about how Arteta has improved his game over the past two weeks:

"“He’s someone who understands the players, understands the club and all the ideas that he’s bringing in. He has a clear strategy of how he wants us to play and we’re just really excited to work with him. He’s teaching us little things that we didn’t know before and just bringing in his own strategies, his own ways of playing. We can see that it’s going to work, we’re just looking forward to doing it.”"

While one draw against an injury-ravaged Bournemouth who had lost six of their last seven games and a home defeat to Chelsea may not seem like the ideal to start to life as a senior manager, but it is quite clear that, behind the scenes, Arteta has made a very strong first impression.

Arsenal now have reason for hope. They have a manager who is improving the players, impressing those he is working with, and installing a philosophy and system that will bring success. Arteta is doing all you can ask for as he makes a near-perfect first impression.