Arsene Wenger spent the hours building up to Arsenal's key clash with Leicester City lavishing praise on Mikel Arteta and his Gunners project and was handsomely rewarded.
Arteta's side cruised to a 2-0 victory over the Foxes and were the subject of huge praise from beyond the Emirates after showcasing a style of football reminiscent of the better times under Wenger.
Over the years, Arsenal fans became more and more disenchanted with how far away the club had got from the previous style of play Wenger implemented and it was something Arteta's predecessor Unai Emery never truly got to grips with during his stay.
It has been a while in coming but Arteta’s side definitely showed glimpses of the famed 'Wengerball' during their crucial win over Leicester with Martin Odegaard and Thomas Partey at the centre of all of the carefully-crafted moves Arsenal put together.
Speaking about Arteta’s influence on Arsenal and recapturing the club’s spirit, Wenger toldBEIN Sport: “It looks like it, yes, I think so, yes.
"We still have some way to go because we were dominating in England for some time.
“All the ingredients are there, the club has invested a lot of money for the time since we have built the stadium. The team is stable now with their results, his leadership looks to be accepted by the player and there is a connection between him and the team, so overall what you see from the outside is positive.”
The win against Leicester gave Arteta and his players a massive boost in the push for a Champions League place ahead of next season as Arsenal climbed back into the top-four places with three games in hand on three of the four teams below them in the chasing pack.
Gunners fans haven’t seen Champions League football at the Emirates since 2017, and with every year that has passed by, it has seemed as if Arsenal are slipping further and further away from being able to qualify. Until now.
After back-to-back eighth-placed finishes in the league, the inauspicious start to this season suggested Arsenal may have to settle for something similar. Having lost their opening three Premier League matches, conceded nine goals, and not scored a single goal in the process, the writing appeared to be on the wall but the recovery has been marked and Arteta has done it in style.
Arteta has taken the club in a completely different direction and instead of trying to achieve the initial target of a top-six finish, the Gunners are now hot favourites for a place in Europe's elite competition.
This is proof of the process the Spaniard has spoken about on countless occasions finally succeeding and Arteta is spearheading the attempt to bring back the days under Wenger when qualifying for the Champions League was automatic.
The Leicester win featured plenty of fluid attacking football and a flurry of passes and was further evidence of how far this team has progressed on Arteta's watch. The greatest compliment you can give him is this was a performance that could have sat alongside the kind Wenger was so notorious for.
Arteta’s comments at the Wenger 'Invincible' film premiere in November highlighted how the Spaniard is trying to emulate his former manager when discussing the Frenchman returning in some capacity.
“I would like to recover a lot of things that he did and I would like him to be more present at the club," Arteta said.
"I think the players would love him, they will benefit, they will be inspired to have him around and I think for the club it would be a huge boost.”
Wenger’s praise for Arteta before the Leicester game prompted the perfect response from the Spaniard and if this trend continues, that Champions League dream may soon become a reality.
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