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Football London
Football London
Sport
Paul Clarke

Pep Guardiola and Mauricio Pochettino back Mikel Arteta ahead of Arsenal talks with Josh Kroenke

Arsenal and Man City assistant Mikel Arteta are in talks about the vacant permanent manager role at the Gunners and the Spaniard has many admirers.

Whilst Arsenal great Paul Merson might have questioned the idea of his old club targeting Arteta due his 'lack of experience' in management, this is not an opinion shared by those that matter.

Guardiola is one of the biggest advocates of Arteta and when the former Barcelona and Bayern Munich boss speaks, people listen.

The Man City manager has given his backing to Arteta on taking over at Arsenal and one of his bits of analysis of the 37-year-old should be of particular interest to fans of the Gunners.

James Benge slams Arsenal hierarchy as Gunners lose against Man City

When it comes to Raheem Sterling's fantastic goal-scoring start to this season, Guardiola had some words of praise for Arteta last month.

"I think Raheem is enjoying scoring goals," Guardiola said, per the Independent. "He’s not scared, he’s not afraid to take a risk.

"And now he’s seeing how fun, how good it is to score goals. Now he’s more focused on that.

"Mikel Arteta is working many, many hours and days after training specifically about the last action on the pitch – that control in the last moment to make the right movement in the final three or four metres.

"Raheem has wanted to stay there on the training pitch, to improve, to practise, to shoot at the goalkeepers. It’s part of the mentality he needs."

It's not only Guardiola who thinks Arteta has the expertise and intelligence to influence players and be a successful manager. Former Tottenham boss Pochettino, who has been linked with joining Arsenal since Unai Emery was sacked last month, has also previously hailed Arteta.

"He was very young when I played with him at Paris Saint-Germain, he was 17 years old when he arrived and he was brilliant," Pochettino told Sky Sports in February.

"He was brilliant not only because of his talent but his maturity on the pitch, to be a leader, his knowledge about football surprised me as he was a young player who had a capacity to talk in the same level as a 30-year-old player.

"For me, he’s going to be one of the best coaches when he decides to be a coach. He has the capacity to be one of the greatest coaches in football, for sure.

"Yes of course, he’s going to be [a top manager]. He’s top, a top personality, character. I think he has the qualities to be one of the best."

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