Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta has been named the Barclays Premier League Manager of the Month for September 2021 after he guided his team to a run of three straight wins, keeping clean sheets in two of those matches.
After a terrible start to the season that saw Arsenal lose their first three games against Brentford, Chelsea, and Manchester City, the month of September saw a new lease of life breathed into the North London side as they picked up nine points from nine on offer.
Mikel Arteta led the Gunners to wins over Norwich City, Burnley and cross-city rivals Tottenham Hotspur, scoring five times and only conceding one goal over the three matches to lift them off the foot of the table to a more respectable 10th place. Arteta’s ability to identify and proffer solutions to the problems facing the squad was part of why he won the Manager of the Month title.
The Arsenal boss was happy to receive the award but gave a lot of credit to his backroom staff for the efforts they put into turning things around for the team.
It’s a great feeling; it means we went on a good run and won matches,” Arteta says. “But for me, it’s much more than that. It’s about the people involved, the people who work with me and how grateful I am to have them.
“The level of trust, implication and passion that they show working alongside me every day, that gives me the strength and then the belief in the players that they can do it, and that they are good enough to win matches and that we believe in them.”
Arteta’s Manager of the Month win was the first time an Arsenal manager picked up the award since Arsene Wenger did it six years ago. The 39-year-old Spaniard beat Aston Villa’s Dean Smith, Manchester City’s Pep Guardiola, Liverpool’s Jurgen Klopp and Brighton and Hove Albion’s Graham Potter to the award.
