When Sterling sparkled under Arteta at Man City

Last week saw two stars who teamed up in Manchester to great success reunite, and if Raheem Sterling and Mikel Arteta can recapture the magic from their original pairing, getting the band back together could be supersonic.

The pair first worked together at Manchester City at the start of 2015/16 season until December 2019 when Mikel swapped his assistant manager’s role for the top job at Emirates Stadium. It was a period where both their stars rose as City became the first side to earn 100 points in a campaign and won an EFL Cup, before Mikel left halfway through a season that ended with a historic domestic treble.

Key to that success was Raheem, whose talent was hitting new levels. Silverware followed Sterling during this time - he ended the 2018/19 campaign Mikel began at City by being named the Football Writer’s Player of the Year and the PFA Young Player of the Year, as he produced the best football of his career under Mikel’s tutelage.

And the numbers back that theory up. Thanks to our friends at Opta, we’ve analysed Raheem’s numbers before, during and since his time with Mikel, and there’s no doubting which period saw him at his most dynamic.

Interestingly, the England international has played roughly the same amount of games in each of those three stages of his career, but his time working with Mikel saw his output rise significantly. He recorded way more goals and assists during this golden period, leaving his minutes per goal involvement sitting at one every 117.6 minutes:

You can also see the increase in his end product following Mikel’s arrival in the summer of 2016, and led to him hitting a career-high 40 goal involvements by the end of 2018/19:

During the time they worked together, only four players in England’s top-flight recorded more goal involvements than Raheem, and to show his goalscoring instant has followed him throughout his career with and without Mikel, only the top three can boast more Premier League goals and assists since Raheem debuted in the competition for Liverpool back in March 2012:

When he makes his Gunners bow, Raheem will be one of only six players to have made an appearance in each of the last 14 Premier League seasons, alongside James Milner, Jonny Evans, Kyle Walker, Seamus Coleman and Danny Welbeck, but incredibly Raheem is at least four years younger than any of those.

Still aged only 29, he is in his prime, and continued to put up some decent figures in his two years at Chelsea despite the Blues enduring a difficult time on and off the pitch with a huge turnover of players and managers.

Only Cole Palmer and Nicolas Jackson netted more than Raheem’s 14 league goals during his at Stamford Bridge, and totalled more goal involvements than his 21. Raheem's 93 shots were only bettered by Palmer, while he boasted 130 more touches in the box than any other teammate as he continued to be a creative force in a struggling side.

It all shows that Raheem remains one of the league’s most potent attacking weapons, and if this season's stint with Mikel can rekindle anything like the numbers they achieved at Manchester City, some might say his loan capture could be an inspired piece of business.