How Mikel Arteta was already managing Arsenal while still playing for Arsene Wenger

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Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain says Mikel Arteta essentially acted as Arsenal boss while still playing under Arsene Wenger . The Spaniard was named Gunners manager in 2019.

Oxlade-Chamberlain first arrived at the Emirates in 2011 having shown promise at Southampton and spent six seasons with Wenger as his head coach. He later left for Liverpool and currently plays for Celtic.

The 32-year-old was team-mates with Arteta for five seasons, long before he was handed the reins at Arsenal . Arteta currently has his side in pole position for the Premier League title after valiant efforts in recent campaigns.

But even before Arteta's coaching journey began, Oxlade-Chamberlain has revealed he demonstrated the authority of a manager when he played under Wenger.

Asked on In The Mixer , brought to you by Sky Bet, if Arteta was tactically ahead of Wenger even as a player, Oxlade-Chamberlain said: "Yeah, probably.

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"I think now you can see it and obviously I've just trained with those boys before I went to Celtic for three months and some of the stuff I was seeing and learning was an eye-opener.

"For me, it's what we always imagined that Pep [Guardiola] team [at Man City] was operating on, because even at Liverpool, we were maybe a bit simpler and our philosophies were different.

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"But I can kind of see that stuff that Mikel's doing, every detail is crazy and as a player he probably took more pride in that than the average player while still playing.

"He started analysis meetings for us because you know, Arsene comes from a different generation. It was all about us and if we take care of what we're meant to take care of, we should win.

"When it got to the point where you're playing in a big game Mikel was like, 'Boss, we want to know what they're doing from a corner.' We didn't really do that.

"So Mikel sort of forced that in as a player. We started watching the opposition more because before we'd just see it on the paper on the board and the boss would just start drawing lines.

"When you think about that, the detail that goes into it now is way more. Mikel was already starting to do that and we're talking 12, 13 years ago."