Arsenal have confirmed former Gunner and Manchester City former assistant coach, Mikel Arteta as head coach on a three and half year-contract. 

The club made the announcement on their website Friday afternoon, along with Arteta’s stats as an Arsenal player. He takes over from interim coach, Freddie Ljungberg from Sunday, after the Arsenal match against Everton on Saturday afternoon.

“We’re delighted to announce Mikel Arteta is joining the club as our head coach on Sunday”, Arsenal said. Mikel’s coaching team will be announced as soon as possible. Mikel, former Arsenal captain, played for the club for five seasons from 2011 to 2016.

As a player, he made 150 appearances, scored 16 goals, won 2 FA Cups and had a passing accuracy of 91.5%. Mikel said: “This is a huge honour.

Arsenal is one of the biggest clubs in the world. We need to be competing for the top trophies in the game and that’s been made very clear to me in my discussions with Stan and Josh Kroenke, and the senior people from the club.“We all know there is a lot of work to be done to achieve that but I am confident we’ll do it. I’m realistic enough to know it won’t happen overnight but the current squad has plenty of talent and there is a great pipeline of young players coming through from the academy.” Josh Kroenke, speaking on behalf of the Arsenal board and our owners Kroenke Sports & Entertainment, said:

“We’re delighted to be bringing Mikel back to Arsenal. He knows our expectations and those of our fans around the world are high and we are confident he can play a lead role in taking the club back to the levels we all demand. “I also want to thank Freddie Ljungberg for skilfully guiding us through the last three weeks. He stepped up at short notice and has helped us through this difficult period with great professionalism.” 

Head of football Raul Sanllehi said: “We met several top-class candidates and Mikel stood out to every single one of us as the perfect person for us. Mikel understands Arsenal Football Club and what it means to our fans around the world. We look forward to him getting down to work and bringing the best out of our squad as we work to get our season back on track.

“I must also pay tribute to Freddie Ljungberg for his hard work and leadership. Together with Per Mertesacker, he has done a vital job for us in difficult circumstances. Freddie and Per are important parts of the Arsenal family and care deeply for this club.