Arsene Wenger is arguably Arsenal’s greatest ever manager but former defender Martin Keown admits he has seen traits of Wenger in current boss, Mikel Arteta.
Keown was a key figure for Wenger in the late 90s and early 2000s and helped the Frenchman to not only win trophies, but change the entire culture of the football club.
Of course, Arteta has the chance to do what Wenger never managed and bring home the Champions League trophy if Arsenal can beat PSG.
Indeed, while the debate will always rumble on over who is better out of Arteta and Wenger, former centre-back Keown believes there are similarities.
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Martin Keown compares Mikel Arteta’s man-management to Arsene Wenger’s
Things are different now to when Keown was part of Wenger’s group but there is no doubting that there are some similarities with the current squad.
There seems to be a burning passion to win and also look after one another on the field. And that comes from the manager.
In fact, according to Keown, Arteta has very much taken a play from Wenger’s book.
“When he came into the job, he had a lot of things to resolve. He cleaned out the squad. He changed the culture,” Keown said on HBO.
“With Wenger, you know, it was about a total belief. And I think I’ve seen him this season show incredible belief in his players, a lot of love.”
There have been some interesting cases of man-management from Arteta this season.
The situation with Viktor Gyokeres has been well managed, with the Swede being up and down in form but eventually becoming a consistent performer later in the season.
On the other side of things, we’ve seen how Arteta has kept Myles Lewis-Skelly at bay all season before unleashing him in recent weeks to tremendous effect.
Those are just two examples of the Spaniard having full belief in this crop of players.
Now, it’s simply about matching Wenger by getting the trophies won. If not, then the Frenchman will always have that extra bit of credibility.
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