Mikel Arteta's improvement of three Arsenal players proves he's 'next Pep Guardiola'

Controversial Arsenal fan Piers Morgan fully believes Mikel Arteta is the heir to Pep Guardiola's Premier League thrown.

The Manchester City manager has dominated England's top flight in recent years, winning five titles in seven seasons on these shores. Arteta has ran him close in two consecutive seasons, but, just like the season before, the Gunners could not live with their sky blue foes.

Nevertheless, Arteta's coaching ability and tactical skills have still shone through, despite not having any winners medals to show for the last two seasons. As well as building an impressive team at the Emirates Stadium, Arteta has also done something few people on planet earth have come close to doing – making the former Britain's Got Talent host admit he was wrong.

Morgan used to be a serial 'Arteta Out' poster on X in the Spaniard's early years in the Gunners hot seat. Now he is a passionate advocate of the ex-City assistant manager and his work.

Guardiola recently admitted he thinks next season could be his final one at the Etihad Stadium. Not only does Morgan highly rate Arteta, he thinks he will be the one to lead the way in the Premier League, should Guardiola leave City at the end of next season.

While speaking to William Hill's 'Up Front with Simon Jordan' podcast at the end of May, Morgan was asked about his previous criticism of Arteta.

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After laughing and admitting he was wrong, the controversial 59-year-old said: “I think Mikel Arteta is the natural successor in world football to become the next Pep Guardiola. I cannot speak any higher of everything about him.

“If next season is Guardiola’s last, then he’ll be determined to go out with five on the bounce and I think he’s now the best manager in history and has got a great claim for that. I always thought it was Sir Alex Ferguson, but I think Pep is just incredible.”

When asked what made him change his mind on the Arsenal boss, Morgan pointed to his work with Martin Odegaard, in addition to Declan Rice and Kai Havertz who joined last summer from West Ham and Chelsea respectively.

He added: “I always look at managers and think ‘Do they improve players?’ Sir Alex won his final season at United with a pretty ropey team, but he was able to make s*** players shine.

"This is where Arteta has been brilliant, when you look at players like Martin Odegaard, how he’s improved under him, Declan Rice is up another gear already from where he was.

“But I do think Arteta makes players play better, he improves them. Kai Havertz, classic example. Everyone at Arsenal for the first couple of months, he did a lot better than people thought.

"I don’t think he’s our main striker, but as a guy who proved people wrong this season, absolutely.”