Arsene Wenger is happy with the job Mikel Arteta is doing as Arsenal manager but insists he must find the correct balance between defence and attack.
Arteta took over from Wenger’s successor, Unai Emery, in December and has slow begun to turn around the fortunes of the north London club.
The Spaniard convinced Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang to sign a new deal and given a new lease of life to the likes of Granit Xhaka and Shkodran Mustafi, whose futures looked uncertain prior to his arrival.
On the pitch, the Gunners look more assured at the back, boasting the second best defensive record in the Premier League this season behind Aston Villa. However, they have struggled to create the necessary chances in order to break teams down consistently.
In an interview with Canal Plus, Arsenal’s iconic former manager Wenger admitted that when he left the Emirates in 2018, he no longer knew who was running things behind the scenes, and while that situation has improved, on the pitch, Arteta needs to address the balance of the team.
‘What I see is that the club have started to reinvest a lot, and things started off badly,’ the Frenchman said.
‘There was disunity. We no longer knew who was in charge and that’s never good. Now they’ve created a unit, and now it’s about making good technical decisions.
‘You have to find some form of stability and balance. That will be the job of [Mikel] Arteta, who must find the balance between defending and attacking.
When asked if the club sought his advice on hiring Arteta, Wenger said: ‘No. When you leave a club, at the beginning you have to cut completely, but, he called me and I wished him luck.’
