Mikel Arteta excited to do battle with Antonio Conte at Tottenham
By Tom Gott
Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta believes the Premier League is now stronger thanks to the arrival of Antonio Conte at Tottenham.
A multi-time title winner with Juventus, Chelsea and Inter, Conte joined Tottenham earlier this week as a replacement for Nuno Espirito Santo, who left Spurs in ninth in the Premier League after ten games in charge.
The excitement at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium is palpable, and Arteta confessed that he is looking forward to testing his skills against one of the game's finest managers.
"We know that he has a really successful past in the last two places that he’s been and we’ll see what he does here," Arteta said (via football.london).
"I think it’s going to be [harder] for any team that is fighting for the top positions. There is still so many games to go and a lot of things are going to happen. You see games, performances and how things vary from one half to the other or moments in the game. That tells you the quality that there is in terms of players and managers as well.
"I’m really happy to be where I am, enjoying this incredible league, the set up, the atmosphere, the passion and everybody back to normality. It’s probably the most competitive season the Premier League has ever had."
Conte joins the likes of Jurgen Klopp, Thomas Tuchel and Pep Guardiola as one of the game's most decorated managers, and Arteta admitted the quality of the staff in the Premier League helps make the English game the best around.
"I can think of many, many more who are at top clubs who are world leading managers," he continued. "But I think it’s really positive for our league because it raises the level, because he has new ideas and because it makes the competition even harder.
"But as well we have to bare in mind that we have some really good examples with Neil Warnock, with David [Moyes] and what they’ve done in the game. For example Neil beat the most games in history, David doing 1,000 games. We cannot lose that because it’s very related to the history of this league and they’ve done so much in this game for us as well."