Arteta impressed by Iraola’s Bournemouth

Two old teammates go head-to-head in the dugouts this weekend as we host Andoni Iraola’s Bournemouth at Emirates Stadium on Saturday.

Arteta and Iraola’s connection goes way back to 1991, when the pair began their youth careers in San Sebastián at Antiguoko.

Our manager stayed there until 1997 when he was snapped up by Barcelona, while Iraola would move on in 1999 to Athletic Bilbao.

Asked in Friday’s pre-Bournemouth press conference what Iraola was like as a teammate when they played together, Arteta recalled: “He was super talented, very skilful. He used to play as a winger, a winger coming inside. Really a smart player, probably none of us thought we were going to be in the position we are in today in the Premier League. 

“But I’m really happy for him, I think he's doing an extraordinary job. I think he has changed a lot of things at the club as well, the atmosphere, the belief, the players that he's recruited, the way they play, really impressive.”

With Bournemouth now tenth in the Premier League on 50 points from 34 games, the Cherries are on track to eclipse their best ever topflight finish in 2016/17, when Eddie Howe took them to ninth with 46 points.

So what’s the ceiling, and can the south coast side harbour ambitions of Champions League football in seasons to come?

“I imagine, I think in the Premier League every club that is in this position, they have the opportunity to do it,” Arteta said. “Now they have the consistency in the league, they have very, very good players. When you look at the players and the set-up that they have, it's really impressive.

“In terms of intensity and how they approach every duel, in the way of playing they are a bit different to PSG. They want to achieve things that are very similar in certain ways so it's not about practicing them, it's just to be very efficient and very good in what we have to do against them in order to play the way that we want.”