Arsenal fans will be astonished by the Pep Guardiola record Mikel Arteta is set to break

As Arsenal fans, this week's Premier League triumph makes us so happy for so many reasons. We're obviously delighted for ourselves, but also for every Arsenal fan that we know, either in real life or via the online universe. We're delighted for the players, especially those who've been on this ride with us from the very start. Bukayo Saka, Gabriel Martinelli, William Saliba, Benjamin White, Declan Rice, Martin Ødegaard, Leandro Trossard and many, many more. We could be here all day.

Most of all though, we should all be over the moon for Mikel Arteta, whose tenure at the club has been underlined by this jaw-dropping statistics. More on that in just a second. Arsenal was a complete mess when he arrived in December 2019. Fans were disconnected from their club, while the team was frankly miles away from anything resembling greatness. To turn that all around as a rookie manager is a remarkable feat. The 150,000 of us who congregated outside Emirates Stadium on Tuesday night did so to celebrate what Arteta has worked so hard to build.

So now, by Monday morning, Arteta will become the longest-serving manager in England's top-four tiers. This comes after the current leader Pep Guardiola officially confirmed that he will depart Manchester City following their game against Aston Villa on Sunday.

The other caveat is that Simon Weaver has been Harrogate Town manager since 2009, but the Sulphurites were relegated to the National League earlier this month, ending their six-year stay in the EFL. So, who else comes close to Arteta's six-and-a-half year tenure at Arsenal?

Longest serving managers in England's top four tiers

Of the 92 top clubs in England, only nine appointed their current manager during or before 2021. Of these, only four will be Premier League outfits next season, one of which is Marco Silva, who is widely expected to wave goodbye to Fulham this weekend, set to take over at Benfica.

In the Premier League, Arteta has been in situ almost two years longer than Eddie Howe and Kieran McKenna have held their respective positions. Beyond them, the next longest-serving top division boss is, remarkably, Unai Emery, arriving at Aston Villa shortly before the World Cup in Qatar.

Arteta's time at Arsenal is a triumph of persistence, patience, perseverance and conviction from the hierarchy that they had identified and hired the right man. As supporters, we don't like to give the Kroenkes credit for anything, but they deserve their dues for the decisions they've made in recent times. Going forward, in a Guardiola-free landscape, everything is there for Arsenal to dominate, at least that's the hope.

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