Mikel Arteta sets new Arsenal record after win over Chelsea

Mikel Arteta marked his 150th game as Arsenal boss with victory over Chelsea and is now the club’s most successful manager after that many games.The win over Chelsea was Arteta’s 87th as Gunners boss, with 60 of those coming in Premier League games.With 17 draws and 32 losses in the league, he has taken 197 points from 109 games or 1.8 points per game, steadily improving the club’s league position from a low starting point.Taking over midway through the 2019-20 season, with the club lying 11th ahead of his first game in charge on Boxing Day against Bournemouth, he led them to eighth and then repeated that finishing position in his first full season in charge.Last season’s fifth-placed finish was an improvement, though late-season defeats to Tottenham and Newcastle cost them Champions League qualification as they finished two points behind fifth-placed arch-rivals Spurs.This season, though, Arteta’s side have won 11 games out of 13 to lead the Premier League, two points ahead of Manchester City and seven clear of a chasing pack headed by big-spending Newcastle.They match the Magpies for the best defensive record with only 11 goals conceded, albeit in 13 games to Newcastle’s 14, while the 31 they have scored trails only City’s 39.Arteta also led the Gunners to an FA Cup win in the season he took over from Unai Emery, though he suffered early exits to Southampton and Nottingham Forest in the two subsequent seasons.He has won seven games out of nine in that competition and five of nine in the League Cup, with a Community Shield win on penalties over Liverpool in his other game domestically.In Europe he has only been able to test himself in the Europa League, winning 15 games out of 22 including a run to the semi-finals in 2020-21, when they lost 2-1 on aggregate to Emery’s eventual champions Villarreal.Arteta continues a strong recent record of Arsenal managers, with George Graham holding the previous record of 82 and Arsene Wenger one behind.The pair are the last two men to reach 150 games in charge of the Gunners as Emery and Bruce Rioch fell well short of that mark.Graham had 35 draws and 33 losses to go along with his 82 wins, with his side scoring 245 goals in those 150 games and conceding less than one per match, 134.Along the way they won the 1986-87 League Cup and were soon to win the 1988-89 league title, dramatically clinched five games later on the final day of the season at Liverpool.Wenger’s first 150 games brought 81 wins, 42 draws and 27 losses, with 236 goals scored and an even more impressive defensive record than Graham, with only 123 conceded.That brought them a league and cup double in 1997-98, Wenger’s second season in charge, having taken over early in 1996-97, as well as winning what was then known as the Charity Shield twice.