Mikel Arteta appointed as the Arsenal head coach

Arsenal, the England football club, have appointed their former captain Mikel Arteta as the new head coach on a three-and-a-half-year deal.

Mikel Arteta appointed as the Arsenal head coach

Arteta had previously played for the club from 2011-2016. The 37-year-old won the FA Cup twice in a five-year career with the Gunners and succeeds fellow Spaniard Unai Emery, who was sacked in November.

Arteta had been working as a coach under Pep Guardiola at Manchester City, joining the club in 2016 after retiring as a player.

Arteta said, “This is a huge honour. Arsenal is one of the biggest clubs in the world. We need to be competing for the top trophies in the game. That’s been made very clear to me in my discussions with [owners] Stan and Josh Kroenke and the senior people from the club.”

He further added, “We all know there is a lot of work to be done to achieve that but I am confident we’ll do it. I’m realistic enough to know it won’t happen overnight but the current squad has plenty of talent and there is a great pipeline of young players coming through from the academy.”

He will take over as Gunners boss on Sunday, leaving Freddie Ljungberg in interim charge for the trip to Everton – another of Arteta’s former clubs – on Saturday (12:30 GMT kick-off).

Arsenal is 10th in the Premier League with 22 points, seven points adrift of fourth-placed Chelsea and a potential Champions League qualifying place.

Arsenal’s head of football Raul Sanllehi said the Premier League club met “several top-class candidates” before choosing Arteta as Emery’s replacement. He said, “Mikel stood out to every single one of us as the perfect person for us.”

Arteta’s coaching team has not yet been announced.

Before joining Arsenal, Arteta spent six years at Everton, making 209 appearances. The Toffees are without a permanent manager since Marco Silva was dismissed on 6 December and also showed interest in the Spaniard.

Earlier in his career, Arteta spent two years at Scottish Premiership side Rangers before joining Real Sociedad in 2004.