The dust is beginning to settle, following the appointment of former Manchester City Assistant Coach and ex-Arsenal captain, Mike Arteta as Arsenal's new head coach.
The appointment comes weeks after former manager, Unai Emery, a compatriot of Arteta was sacked from the position, following a run of poor results and attitude breakdown in the team.
The arrival of Arteta no doubt, was bound to raise a lot of eyebrows with various opinions flying about, such as, "If he was that good, why did Manchester City let him go easily?", "Being second to Pep Guardiola doesn't account for any experience, he's too inexperienced for this type of job", "Why would he leave City when he could just stay, enjoy success and perhaps, take over from Pep when the former Barcelona manager leaves?". The aforementioned are just a few of the numerous comments flying around.
The Spaniard is yet to take charge of any match at the Emirates as he was only able to make it in time to be in the stands in Arsenal's last outing against Everton at Goodison Park where they drew blank, alongside fellow new arrival, Carlo Ancelotti who is set to take over at the Blue side of Merseyside, the club where Arteta played the larger part of his footballing career.
Arteta has since taken charge of his first training session on Sunday with another session in quick succession on Monday and there have been news making the rounds that he has proposed that the team will train on Christmas day, ahead of their trip to the Vitality Stadium on Boxing Day to face Bournemouth.
My Opinion
I remember coming here to mention, after the sack of Unai Emery, that one of my preferred candidate for the vacant role was Mikel Arteta even though I wasn't so sure if he was the one we need or if he was very capable, I just had the gut feeling he could do the job.
While Arteta may not have the experience of Carlo Ancelotti or Pep Guardiola or even Frank Lampard (well, Lamps has been a manager at Derby County before the Chelsea job), I just feel a kind of positivity with him coming on board. Even before he started his managerial career, several people including Arsene Wenger and even his teammates have touted him to become a great manager due to the various skills he exuded.
Another thing that quite gives me a positive mind was watching his first interview. OMG, if you haven't listened, please, watch Arteta's first interview as Arsenal Coach He responded to every question he was asked like an egg head and a member of the intelligentsia. It gave me more hope of someone who knew what he was coming to do and seeing his face during the Everton game when Freddie Ljunberg made some substitutions, I could sense he understand the task at hand.
While it may be very premature to expect Arteta to challenge for the title at this stage, I have a very strong feeling he will be a success at Arsenal and giving that he was handed a three-and-a-half years contract, it shows the believe the management has in him.