What Frank Lampard has said about Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta ahead of Chelsea managerial return
Former Chelsea manager and club legend Frank Lampard is close to being named interim manager until the end of the season. Julian Nagelsmann and Luis Enrique have emerged as frontrunners to replace Graham Potter as the next permanent manager at Stamford Bridge.
Lampard, who won three Premier League titles with Chelsea as a player before returning as manager in 2019, has been unemployed in football since he was fired from Everton at the beginning of the year. It appears likely that he will return to west London for the remainder of the 2022/23 season.
Later this month, Arsenal will host their London rivals at the Emirates Stadium, and Lampard is likely to be in the opposing dugout for that match. The Chelsea legend has previously praised Mikel Arteta, and the Arsenal manager has a strong record against Lampard’s teams, having won three of the five matches they have played against each other.
With Lampard’s return to Stamford Bridge inching closer, SportsDias examines everything he has said about Arteta and Arsenal in the past.
Lampard described Arteta as a “amazing coach” earlier this season and believes the Spaniard is a great role model for young Premier League managers. In October of last year, the former Everton manager stated: “We have great examples in the Premier League.”
“The coach who’s top, rightly lauded as an amazing coach – there’s been many a time when people have questioned whether he should be in his job. Other coaches…(where) people start to appreciate the job they do over time. As a general thing, I think that would be what I would look at.
“We all understand the jeopardy of the job we work in, and there are a lot of pluses to it, huge pluses. But as a coach in the modern day, you need time to work, circumstances to work.
“We’ve all got responsibilities, we’ve got to try to get results. But sometimes time isn’t afforded in the modern day.
“To go through the patches, to try to get growth, to try to get to where you want to, there’s always something in the road that catches you and moments and periods, and you have to give people time to do that.”
The former Everton manager also believes that investment in the squad is the primary reason for Arsenal’s rise to the top of the Premier League standings. In January of this year, Lampard stated, “There’s not a story out there if you look at the most high performing team in the Premier League this year in Arsenal for being top of the league.
“If you look at their journey over the last three years you see how typically a journey can look. It’s not an easy road and that one comes with huge investment which is part of their story.”
What Frank Lampard has said about Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta ahead of Chelsea managerial return
