Gündogan praises Arteta: They played really well against us, TOP 4 would be a great achievement

Manchester City midfielder Ilkay Gündogan has praised his former coach Mikel Arteta via Twitter. Among other things, he praised him for Arsenal’s two-week-old performance against a clearly first-place Manchester City side.

Arteta took up the assistant coach position at Manchester City after his playing career ended. He couldn’t have asked for a better first engagement, learning quickly alongside compatriot Pep Guardiola. He won two league titles, the Community Shield twice and the FA Cup once.

In December 2019, he was given the opportunity to lead Arsenal as head coach. He accepted the offer and the Gunners fans were delighted as Arteta had already been a player at the London club. They only saw one side of the card, thinking Arteta would be the second Guardiola and not realizing that this would be his first engagement as head coach.

He couldn’t save Arsenal’s botched season on the league stage, finishing only eighth, but he won over the fans by winning the FA Cup. The Gunners sensationally knocked out Manchester City in the semi-finals and took on the hated Chelsea in the final.

The following season, Arteta and co. did not fare well at all. Eighth place in the league, finishing in the semi-finals of the Europa League and when success didn’t come in the FA Cup, it was clear that Arsenal would not be playing European cups the following season.

“I had a good relationship with him and I was sad when he left us. He had a difficult start at Arsenal, but I always believed that sooner or later he would be more successful,” Gündogan thinks.

In the summer of 2021, Arteta brought in some young reinforcements, but the Arsenal fan community was not happy. The overpriced Ben White, the leaky and mediocre Aaron Ramsdale and the unknown Takehiro Tomiyasu and Nuno Tavares, for whom the club blew money, such opinions flew around social media.

Four months on, the situation is this. Arsenal, from sixth place, are two points behind fourth-placed West Ham with two games to spare, playing week in week out with an unbeatably young team.

Ramsdale may be the league’s best goalkeeper, White is asking for a national team call-up and even Tomiyasu and Tavares have not lost their way among the competition.

“I think finishing in the Top 4 would be a great achievement, they played really well against us,” Gündogan added.

Source: Twitter