What is Arteta’s biggest Arsenal success so far?

Mikel Arteta celebrates two years of managing Arsenal Football Club and to call his tenure tumultuous would be an understatement. There have been soaring highs and sweeping lows.

The manager been the beneficiary of circumstance. No doubt. Most in the world would have had their bags packed and been moved on had they have gone through the run of Premier League results he faced at the tail end of the previous calendar year.

He was spared the sack when the situation was barely manageable for the best in the business, having had to deal with the plethora of on and off-field issues he has been through in his first year on the job. There weren’t many around to replace him, either. Nonetheless, he struggled, and has struggled in spells since with puzzling decisions that still leave deep scars.

But this is the moment to herald his time at the club. It’s Christmas, and a landmark moment for him.

Mikel Arteta’s biggest Arsenal success in the two years he’s been the manager is building a squad of young players fans are united behind

So, instead, what has been his finest achievement? Immediately attentions are drawn to that FA Cup win. Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang will rightly be mentioned as the crucial cog on that trophy success, but Arteta found a way to set his team up that squeezed the best out of what he had.

However, his crowning glory, if you like, is what the supporters tune in every week to see. They don’t pay the admission price or wake up at 3AM to see the man in charge, they come to watch the team. This team. Arteta’s team.

Overseeing an unprecedented turnover of players throughout his two years, rarely in most fans’ lifetimes will they have been this emotionally attached to a group of players. Out with the old, in with the new. Some will point to the fact that Bukayo Saka, Emile Smith Rowe and Gabriel Martinelli were all here before he arrived, but it’s the collective that has everyone fully invested in this project.

It’s not project Arteta, it’s project youth.

The squad building has been exceptional, even if it started all wrong: Willian and Cedric Soares aren’t easily forgotten about.

There has been a shift since, though; a transparent approach centred on exciting young talent who will improve and develop as a unit. And develop they have. All of the youngsters in this team have come on leaps and bounds under the manager’s tutelage.

Questions have been asked over Gabriel Martinelli’s handling, and look at him now. Smith Rowe was brought in a year ago and has been transformed into an England international. Gabriel was signed with a two-year plan in mind and he’s the best defender at the club now.

Whether Arteta stays the course or not, the team he has assembled has united fans in a way the squads of years gone by haven’t. There are still many mountains to climb, and Arteta may not even be around to climb them, but there is unwavering faith that this group of Arsenal players can scale them and stick their flags on top.

That, is his greatest success.