Former Arsenal midfielder Ray Parlour has now encouraged Mikel Arteta to reach out to Arsene Wenger.
Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta is still on the hunt for his first Premier League title triumph. He took the Gunners close to glory last season, but the north London club ultimately fell agonisingly short.
This season, once again, the Spanish coach has led Arsenal into a title race. However, Liverpool are currently leading the way in the division, and reigning champions Manchester City are right in the thick of the race, too.
As such, if Arsenal are to be crowned champions at the end of this campaign, then they will need to pull off something pretty special. Arsenal must still believe that they can do exactly that. However, given the poor run of form that they endured around the New Year period, there really is no margin for effort left for Arsenal.
The Arsenal squad will have to show more staying power whilst under intense pressure this time around than they could last season.
One man who does know what it takes to guide a team over the line in a title race is Arsene Wenger. The iconic Frenchman won 3 Premier League crowns in his time at the helm for Arsenal. Included in these triumphs was the the 2003/04 title-winning Arsenal side who went through the entire league campaign without losing a match and were accordingly dubbed the ‘Invincibles’.
Ray Parlour was part of that Invincibles squad, and won three league titles over the course of his time on the books at the club.
Ray Parlour sends message to Mikel Arteta as Arsenal gear up for title charge
Watching Arteta’s side try to prepare for a glorious second half of the campaign, Parlour has now urged Arteta to seek advice on overseeing a successful run-in from Wenger. As quoted by the Daily Star, he said, “I’m sure if Mikel wanted to have a chat with Arsene Wenger then I’m sure he’d be up for it because he’s not that sort of man to turn him down. I’m sure if Mikel phoned him up, he’d help him as much as he could towards the end of the season. There’s a little bit of Arsene Wenger in Mikel Arteta. I’m sure there’s a little bit of Pep Guardiola too. You can see certain attributes in him.”
Arteta likely has already sought plenty of advice from Wenger, and Guardiola too, in the past. He wouldn’t be the only former Arsenal midfielder to have sought advice from the legendary boss, either. Cesc Fabregas has also taken lessons he learned from Wenger into his coaching career.
The truth is, though, that the odds are against Arsenal winning the Premier League title this season, given the form that Liverpool and Manchester City are in. However, Arteta has built a talented young squad at the Emirates Stadium, and he will firmly believe that their time at the top will come. There is plenty of quality in this team, with Parlour even believing that one of the current players would have been a star for the Invincibles, too.
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