Arsenal has roped in Mikel Arteta as its new manager, the Premier League club announced on Friday.
Arteta returns to Arsenal where he spent five seasons as a player before his retirement in 2016. He won two FA Cups during his time at the North London club.
He then went on to become Pep Guardiola's assistant coach at Manchester City. The Spaniard was also linked with the managerless Everton, another former club of his.
Arsenal sacked Unai Emery on November 29 with Freddie Ljunberg stepping into the role of a care-taker boss. The club has won just once in the last five matches across competitions and is placed 10th in the Premier League table.
“We're delighted to announce Mikel Arteta is joining the club as our head coach on Sunday,” read an Arsenal statement.
“Mikel, a former club captain, played for us for five seasons from 2011 to 2016 and has signed a three-and-a-half year contract.”
City was said to be unhappy with the manner of Arsenal's approach, but Guardiola made it clear he would not stand in Arteta's way.
Former Arsenal captain Patrick Vieira had also been linked with the post, while Brendan Rodgers effectively ruled himself out of the running by signing a lucrative new five-and-a-half-year deal with high-flying Leicester City.
This is a huge honour," said Arteta. "Arsenal is one of the biggest clubs in the world. We need to be competing for the top trophies in the game and that's been made very clear to me in my discussions with Stan and Josh Kroenke, and the senior people from the club.
"We all know there is a lot of work to be done to achieve that but I am confident we'll do it. I'm realistic enough to know it won't happen overnight but the current squad has plenty of talent and there is a great pipeline of young players coming through from the academy."
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