Thomas Frank believes Mikel Arteta has turned Arsenal into real Premier League title contenders this season.
Brentford boss Frank insists Arteta’s Arsenal have already overtaken the likes of Liverpool, Chelsea and Tottenham within the Premier League stakes.
The Bees’ Danish supervisor charges the Gunners because the English top-flight’s second-best outfit behind Manchester City – however nonetheless provides the Emirates Stadium facet an opportunity of league glory this time period.
Brentford opened their maiden Premier League marketing campaign with a 2-0 house win in opposition to Arsenal final season, and the Bees host the Gunners in west London once more this Sunday.
But Frank admitted he considers this second-season match-up a far harder prospect, and primarily due to Arsenal’s speedy progress underneath Arteta.
“In spells they’ve been the best performing team over the first six games,” stated Frank.
“I feel they’ve been exceptional, particularly the depth.
“I’ve watched a lot of their games, but their first game, the Friday night opening game against Crystal Palace, I was thinking ‘what? This is another level’.
“For the first 20 minutes Crystal Palace didn’t touch the ball, and I thought ‘they can win the Premier League’.
“Now, after City, they are the best performing team in the league.”
Former Arsenal midfielder Arteta left his assistant position at Manchester City to take the Gunners’ managerial helm in December 2019.
Arsenal completed fifth final time period amid a turbulent marketing campaign punctuated by off-field change, because the north London facet revamped their administrative construction in large assist for Arteta.
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang was stripped of the captaincy earlier than the Gabon striker departed for Barcelona in February.
Arteta’s left-field concepts highlighted within the fly-on-the-wall Amazon collection have generated at occasions quizzical reactions, however the Gunners have conjured 5 wins and only one loss of their opening six league encounters this time period.
And Frank insisted Arteta deserves nothing however reward for a wide-ranging Gunners transformation.
“Their players are growing, they’ve got the right players in,” stated Frank.
“Mikel Arteta and his coaching staff have proved they have done well.
“And the board behind him, they are consistent in the way that they work.
“They are building a team that’s young, very exciting, and that has key players in good positions. So he’s done a top job.
“He’s completed a transition from the former manager, he’s created his own culture, and he’s got rid of some players and brought in his own.
“I look at a team, are they good or bad, are they structured, are they playing with the intensity and personality – and I 100 per cent see that.
“I can see Arteta in that team, from my view of him as a person, I see him in the team.
“And that’s how I judge him, instead of a few clips from an Amazon episode, and I think that’s the biggest praise from a coach to another coach, when you look and say ‘you know what? They look good’.
“There’s a thousand ways to communicate, and that’s an art.
“And that’s an art that I constantly try to study, and to try to be improving. But in general I think he’s done very well.”
Source: www.unbiased.co.uk