A draw at Manchester United was Mikel Arteta’s 200th Premier League game in charge of Arsenal. How does his record compare to the competition’s all-time greats?
Arsenal’s 1-1 draw against Manchester United marked Mikel Arteta’s 200th top-flight game in charge.
After Declan Rice equalised Bruno Fernandes’ first-half free-kick, Arsenal were unable to find a winner at Old Trafford. Despite that, Arteta has the fifth-most victories of any manager in their first 200 games in the competition (118). The only four ahead of him are genuine all-time greats: Pep Guardiola (146), José Mourinho (137), Jürgen Klopp (127) and Sir Alex Ferguson (122).
Arteta has won eight more games than Arsène Wenger had at the same milestone (110), further underlining the impact he has had since taking charge in December 2019.
At 42 years and 348 days old, Arteta is the second-youngest manager in Premier League history to reach 200 matches, behind only Roberto Martínez.
Arsenal’s wait for a Premier League title under Arteta continues, and Liverpool have a 15-point lead over the Gunners having played a game more after the weekend, but the progress they’ve made as a club under his stewardship is undeniable, particularly in the previous two seasons when they challenged for the title and just came up short.
Speaking purely on a results basis, Arteta is on track to become Arsenal’s greatest Premier League manager, as the Spaniard’s win percentage (59%) is better than any of his predecessors.
He has the joint best points-per-game (1.96) average of among Arsenal managers in Premier League history as well, level with Wenger (1.96).
Yet, despite the individual records, winning trophies is what football’s ultimately about, and there is a sense that Arsenal should have more to show for their performances under Arteta. A solitary FA Cup win in 2019-20 remains their only piece of major silverware during his tenure.
Of course, they came agonisingly close in 2023-24 to the Premier League title and led the way for much of 2022-23, only to also be outdone by Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City juggernaut.
Guardiola has been a frequent thorn in Arteta’s side. Since Arteta’s first game in charge in December 2019, only the City boss has recorded more wins (140) and earned more points (390) in the Premier League.
Arteta has faced Guardiola more often than any other manager in the Premier League (11) and also lost to him on more occasions than anyone else (7). In fact, of managers he’s come up against more than twice, Arteta has the lowest win percentage (18%) and points-per-game figure (0.7) against Pep.
But despite that lack of trophies, Arsenal have a stability that Manchester United would crave for. Since Arteta has been at the helm, United have had three permanent managers in Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, Erik ten Hag and now Ruben Amorim, plus an interim spell under Ralf Rangnick.
Arteta’s individual record puts him in some elite company. Now, the challenge is to convert that into silverware.
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