Jamie Carragher has been proved spot on with his two-year-old assessment of the similarities between Mikel Arteta and Jurgen Klopp.
The former England defender was speaking in December 2020 when he drew attention to the transformative impact the two managers had upon arriving at their respective clubs. Klopp took charge of a Liverpool side starved of success in October 2015 and led the Reds to the greatest honours in English, European and world football.
It took some years before improved performances translated to silverware, with the German enacting an overhaul of Liverpool's squad and style of play before the Premier League trophy was lifted at Anfield in 2020. Arteta, meanwhile, inherited a mess at Emirates Stadium in December 2019 and defied the odds to win the FA Cup in his first season.
However, the Spaniard still had plenty of work to do and found himself clinging on to his job in December 2020, when the Gunners sat a lowly 15th in the Premier League table. The club's hierarchy chose to stick by Arteta and backed him heavily over the next two summer transfer windows, while the manager showed little remorse as he offloaded players who lacked quality or dedication to his project.
Arsenal are reaping the rewards of their decision this season as they sit five points clear at the top of the table at the halfway stage. This will come as no surprise to Carragher, who drew parallels between Arteta and Klopp while the former was just one year into his first senior management role, having learned the trade as Pep Guardiola's assistant at Manchester City.
"Arteta has already demonstrated there is more to him than image," he told the Daily Telegraph. "His initial impact reminded me of Jurgen Klopp joining Liverpool in 2015. Although consistency was lacking, it came together against high-class teams. Arteta won his first major cup final despite being in charge of a squad needing surgery."
Crucially for Arsenal, Arteta was able to operate on his squad in subsequent transfer windows, offloading the likes of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Willian, Mesut Ozil and Matteo Guendouzi. Meanwhile, he signed Martin Odegaard, Gabriel Jesus and Oleksandr Zinchenko while bringing William Saliba and Gabriel Martinelli into the first-team fold to brilliant effect.
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Carragher stressed the importance of Arsenal finding "consistency" to dig their way of of trouble in the 2020/21 season. The Gunners recovered to finish eighth before narrowly missing out on a top-four spot last campaign following a late collapse.
This time round, Arsenal are showing no signs of letting up, winning four of their five league games since the return of domestic football after Christmas. Up next for the league leaders is a trip to Everton next Saturday, but first they will take on Manchester City in the FA Cup on Friday evening.
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