Arteta guaranteed four chances to improve incredible career record with ‘best team’ weapons

Mikel Arteta is guaranteed to face the few remaining managers and clubs he has yet to beat with Arsenal. Can’t Barca just appoint Chris Coleman?

Diego Simeone called Arsenal “the best team to face this season”, though. Mikel Arteta was guilty of the culpable offense of conceding a single shot on target in a crushing 4-0 victory.

Atletico beat Real Madrid 5-2 and lost to a last-minute Liverpool winner at Anfield in 2025/26 but were swept away at the Emirates.

There are weapons Top of the Premier League And one of only three clubs with a perfect Champions League record after three games – although Bayern Munich, Real Madrid and, of course, the Gunners could be joined by Inter and Paris Saint-Germain if they win their next matches.

Arteta could keep a close eye on one or two of these teams as they are among the precious few he has yet to beat as Arsenal manager.

Atletico and Simeone claim their latest scalp in their first meeting, with managers and clubs here Arteta has yet to add to his infinity gauntlet.

Read more: Arsenal go through Liverpool, Real Madrid as Simeone names best Gunners team he has faced

Managers Mikel Arteta never lost

Ern Slott

Arsenal 2-2 Liverpool, October 2024, Premier League
Liverpool 2-2 Arsenal, May 2025, Premier League
Liverpool 1-0 Arsenal, August 2025, Premier League

A real Premier League final should get the monkey Arteta off his back The rapidly balding reigning champion. It is hugely embarrassing for the Gunners that in the slot’s three games against Liverpool, they have conceded a ridiculous five goals.

That defeat at Anfield still stings a bit But it shows their title credentials may not really rest on winning at Anfield. Arteta will still be happy to avenge that loss come January.

Fabian Herzeler

Arsenal 1-1 Brighton, August 2024, Premier League
Brighton 1-1 Arsenal, January 2025, Premier League

Arteta has beaten every club he has faced in the Premier League, but not every manager. And the failure to properly finish one on Horzeler still has to be graded After last season’s Declan Rice nonsense.

Gian Piero Gasperini

Atalanta 0-0 Arsenal, September 2024, Champions League

A David Raya double save game is literally impossible to forget. Gasparini realized “With arms I thought they would settle for a draw”which doesn’t sound like them at all.

Robin sale

Arsenal 3-3 Southampton, April 2023, Premier League

Just a very funny match He confirmed that the surprise title happened a little too soon. Sales has since been sacked by Hull and Sheffield United and is currently in charge of Real Zaragoza, who are bottom of the Spanish second division, so the Gunners may not be able to right that wrong particularly soon.

Simone Inzaghi

Inter 1-0 Arsenal, November 2024, Champions League

A real, pertinent omission, and one that cannot be addressed when the Gunners visit the San Siro in January as Inzaghi, who Taught Arteta a lesson In the league stage of last season’s Champions League, he packed his bags for Saudi Arabia in the summer.

Michael Carrick

Manchester United 3-2 Arsenal, December 2021, Premier League

Are the roads worth the three-sport maintenance manager stunt? Carrick was sacked by Middlesbrough in the summer but is now in what appears to be a halcyon period for Manchester United between the reigns of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and Ralf Rijkaan. He signed in a 3-2 victory over Arsenal at Old Trafford.

Rafael Benitez

Everton 2-1 Arsenal, December 2021, Premier League

It threatened to be the darkest of winters for Arsenal, after Manchester United were beaten by an Everton side that would sack Benitez 41 days later. But they steadied with four straight wins ahead of the Champions League qualification bottle.

Benitez’s only jobs since have been with Celta Vigo and Panathinaikos, not quite in Arsenal’s orbit.

Clubs Mikel Arteta has never beaten

Bayern Munich

Arsenal 2-2 Bayern Munich, April 2024, Champions League Quarter Final Final Final
Bayern Munich 1-0 Arsenal, April 2024, Champions League Quarter Final Second Leg

It was a tie that showed just how close Arsenal were to competing against the continent’s best, while simultaneously indicating the fine margin they still had to engineer to their advantage.

Both sides have developed and improved since then, as should be evident when Vincent Kompany, Harry Kane and friends visit the Emirates in November in League Phase action.

Villarreal

Villarreal 2-1 Arsenal, April 2021, Europa League semi-final first leg
Arsenal 0-0 Villarreal, May 2021, Europa League semi-final second leg

No one has ever beaten Unai Emery in the Europa League.

Inter

Inter 1-0 Arsenal, November 2024, Champions League

A reminder of a starting XI that dominated possession, they failed to score from 13 shots and were beaten after conceding the only shot on target they faced: Rea. White, Saliba, Gabriel, Wood; Hortz, Party, Merino; Sacca, Trossard, Martinelli.

An awful lot has changed in less than a year.

Atlanta

Atalanta 0-0 Arsenal, September 2024, Champions League

On this side, Gabriel was in front of Jesus! With the real Sterling of Jorginho and Raheem coming off the bench!

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The best managers Mikel Arteta has never faced

Simeone was the 91st different manager Arteta has faced, and he has beaten the 84th.

Empires still have to conquer Arta to complete their personal set, but what about the best managers they’ve already faced?

Ranking every manager with at least 100 Premier League matches in charge according to their career points-per-game record—and excluding your Fergusons, Wengers and others who essentially or formally retired before Arta took charge in December 2019—is ranked in the top 50 so far.

Here, they are ranked by game, with their position, as well as their jobs while Arteta has been Arsenal manager, in brackets:

Roberto Mancini (4, Italy and Saudi Arabia)
Manuel Pellegrini (12, Real Bets)
Ronald Koeman (22, Netherlands, Barcelona and Netherlands)
Mark Hughes (40, Bradford and Carlisle)
Ellen Purdue (48, Ado Den Haag, CSKA Sophia and Iris)
Chris Coleman (50, Atroumatos, El Limassol, Oh Levine and Asteras Tripolis)

Ranking every manager in charge of at least 50 Champions League matches according to their career points-per-game record—and you rule out Heynckes, Van Gaals and others who essentially or officially retired before Arta took charge in December 2019—is still nine.

Here, they are ranked by game, with their position, as well as their jobs while Arteta has been Arsenal manager, in brackets:

Zinedine Zidane (4, Real Madrid)
Hector Copper (20, Doctor Congo and Syria)
Massimiliano Allegri (26, Juventus and AC Milan)
Guise Hudnik (30, Curacao)
Manuel Pellegrini (31, Real Bets)
Luciano Spalletti (32, Naples, Italy)
Roberto Mancini (33, Italy and Saudi Arabia)
Ronald Koeman (36, Netherlands, Barcelona and Netherlands)
Murcia Lucescu (38, Dynamo Kyiv and Romania)
Fatih Terim (40, Galatasaray, Panathinaikos and Al-Shabaab)

The best clubs Mikel Arteta has never faced

Using UEFA’s ten season club coefficient rankings, it is possible to identify the best teams Arteta’s arsenal have faced. They are:

Barcelona (5)
Borussia Dortmund (10)
Juventus (12)
Roma (13)
Bayer Leverkusen (16)
Ajax (20)

They could still face Barcelona, ​​Borussia Dortmund, Juventus, Bayer Leverkusen or Ajax in the knockout stages of the Champions League.

So to complete the trophies and all the nonsense: football, Arteta needs to beat Arne Slott before the turn of the year and hopefully appoint Alan Pardew.

Read next: Mikel Arteta is just third in the Premier League manager rankings for 25/26