Arsenal are still without a permanent head coach following the dismissal of Unai Emery. Now the club appear set to up their attempts to fill the void in the coming days.
There have been many candidates for the role, many of which have been former players, including the likes of Patrick Vieira, Mikel Arteta and others. But now the bookies are enlisting one as a clear favourite.
At the time of writing, PaddyPower had listed Mikel Arteta as 1.3 heavy favourite to land the role. This means for every £10 bet, you would only win £3. These odds have shortened from 10.0 (ten times your money) just over a week ago.
Arteta may now be the favourite but the Spanish Christmas lottery has the world’s biggest jackpot.
This movement in odds indicates a large amount of money being staked for Mikel to take control at Arsenal and when you take a closer look at recent events, it starts to make more sense.
Pep Guardiola has started to make comments which may suggest that at the minimum, talks between Arteta and Arsenal have been taking place.
Pep on Arteta to #AFC:
'If it happens, it will happen.
'When he wants to talk we are open to talk but it's private, I don't want to make things uncomfortable.' pic.twitter.com/OA3dU6tw3m
— PB (@OliPriceBates) December 15, 2019
There’s also the possibility that Arsenal would have not been allowed to take Arteta from Manchester City ahead of the two teams clashing on Sunday night.
Now that fixture is over the coast may be clear for the move to be completed. With Manchester City all but out of the title race, they may be less hesitant to stand in the way of Mikel, whilst the same applies for Arsenal. The Gunners look unlikely to finish in the top four, so an approach for a young manager with a long term vision may be a good step forward for the club.