Jurgen Klopp's exit and Pep Guardiola doubts leave Arsenal primed to finally end title drought

Here is some free advice for Arsenal: get Mikel Arteta tied to a new contract at the earliest opportunity.

Strike while the iron is hot. Liverpool are entering a period of uncertainty when Jurgen Klopp leaves at the end of the season, and there are persistent rumours that Pep Guardiola will soon feel his work is done at Manchester City. Who knows how Guardiola will react if City are heavily punished after the Premier League hearing for alleged spending breaches.

What a message it would send if Arteta was committed to the Emirates for another four years, vowing to reap the rewards of the foundations he has laid.

At the start of next season, Liverpool will be fighting to maintain stability and the questions to Guardiola will continue until he confirms his intentions beyond the last year of his deal in the summer of 2025. Who will be better placed than Arsenal and Arteta in the post-Klopp and Guardiola Premier League era? Manchester United are only just beginning their revolution, and we have seen how much work is still to be done at Chelsea over the course of this campaign.

Maybe there will be a seamless transition at City and Liverpool after Klopp and Guardiola have gone. More likely is the prospect of them falling back into the pack.

There is no getting away from the importance of Sunday’s meeting between Liverpool and Arsenal for the 2024 title race.

But the future must always be considered as much as the here and now.

I have no doubt there will be much fretting in North London if Arsenal don’t beat Liverpool this weekend, or if they are unable to keep up with City as the champions relentlessly find their usual top gear in the title run-in.

Whatever the outcome, my message to Arsenal supporters is do not panic. The team still has a chance this season, and will be in the hunt in the next and the one beyond by keeping their squad and coaching staff intact. Patience is one of the most difficult qualities to master in football - especially when it felt like Arsenal were just one step away coming into this campaign - but it pays to view the bigger picture in this case. If Arsenal lost Arteta in 2025 - when his current deal runs out - it would feel like they are squandering a massive opportunity which they have been building towards, albeit everyone naturally craves the title sooner rather than later.

There is no substitute for continuity, which is what Liverpool will be seeking in those they consider to replace Klopp. That seamless transition is notoriously difficult to execute, especially when the backroom staff are going with the manager. When players are embracing a successful formula, they like their routines to be familiar.

Arsenal’s advantage heading into the summer is they have a young squad which is still evolving. Whenever we make judgements about a team’s performances over the last five years, we have to emphasise how unprecedented the standards of the title winners have been. When going against City last season, and Liverpool and City this time, Arteta is up against two of the best coaches in Premier League history. He is not at their level yet, but everything he has done so far suggests he is capable of leading a team to the biggest trophies, including the Premier League title.

It is inevitable the ridiculous standards at the top will drop once Klopp and Guardiola are gone, no matter how good their replacements are.

Arsenal have been trying to follow a similar path to Klopp’s Liverpool for the last few seasons.

There is some irony that as the teams prepare to meet on Sunday, we may soon be in a world in which Liverpool are closely scrutinising what Arsenal did as they consider the credentials of Klopp’s successor.

Arteta’s work in his first managerial post will be informative for Fenway Sports Group as they hear the arguments for and against frontrunner Xabi Alonso.

Arteta was a gamble when he stepped up in 2019 and embarked on a challenging rebuilding job.

That was a topic of conversation from day one, with Arsenal’s head of football at that time, Raul Sanllehi, quizzed on whether it was right to ignore more experienced coaches.

“It depends how you define experience,” Sanllehi said.

“Definitely there is a risk but it’s not from the experience side. You never know the whole thing until you try it.”

Arsenal had done enough due diligence to realise Arteta was a top manager in the making.

Whether they win the title under him or not, no-one will doubt he has been a great appointment.

Although Alonso is already a head coach with Bayer Leverkusen, there have been similar suggestions that it is ‘too early’ for him to be elevated to a club of Liverpool’s stature, or there is a danger of FSG following the trend of clubs making a romantic rather than logical appointment.

Arteta has shown the benefits of turning to a studious, intelligent and forward-thinking young coach with an emotional attachment to the club. The comparison also feels particularly relevant in this instance given Arteta and Alonso are boyhood friends, born in the same town of San Sebastian, receiving the same football education in their early years, and benefiting from the wisdom of some of the greatest minds later.

Just as Arteta was mentored by Guardiola, Alonso has played under three of the most successful coaches of all-time - Guardiola, Mourinho and Carlo Ancelotti.

There is no other manager flourishing in world football educated by those three professors.

There are some players you intuitively know will become leaders.

Xabi comes into that category and he felt like he would become a coach when we were teammates. At his peak, he didn’t just play the game. He read it. The biggest compliment to Xabi is that if Liverpool do not take him, you could well imagine him to be under discussion by Bayern Munich and Real Madrid.

There are a lot of big clubs who will be soon looking for the next big thing in management.

It would be bizarre if the Arsenal job was vacant in the near future, though. Arteta’s strong reaction to being linked with the Barcelona job - a huge compliment in usual circumstances - underlined he is a coach who recognises his team has not yet reached its ceiling.

Arsenal and Arteta have put in the hard yards to reach a point where they are ready to pounce if City and Liverpool slip-up.

That might happen on Sunday. It may happen when Klopp goes in a few months. Or it may happen if Guardiola leaves in 2025. If not, Arsenal should act now to ensure they and Arteta are primed to respond if it finally happens in 2026.