1 Mike Arteta on the Manchester City bench alongside Pep Guardiola

Arsenal have been urged to move for Mikel Arteta as the eventual successor to Arsene Wenger.

The Frenchman signed a new two-year contract last summer to extend his 21-year stay in north London but, with the Gunners currently outside the Premier League’s top four, speculation about his future is sure to intensify once again if that situation continues in the second half of the season.

Numerous names have been linked with the job at the Emirates, including the likes of Diego Simeone, Thomas Tuchel and Massimo Allegri, but Tony Cascarino believes the answer could lie a lot closer to home.

And the man he thinks could step in as Wenger’s replacement is Manchester City coach Mikel Arteta, a former Arsenal player, of course.

Writing in The Times, Cascarino said: “If Arsenal have not considered Mikel Arteta as the best person to succeed Arsène Wenger, they should. They ought to take note of the kind of people who think Arteta is going to be a special manager. How about Pep Guardiola, who has known Arteta since he was a teenager in Barcelona’s youth teams? Months before Guardiola arrived at Manchester City he had identified Arteta as somebody he needed to have with him to help understand English football.

“Guardiola may have a large backroom staff, but he is very careful about who he allows to be part of it. And what about the judgment of Mauricio Pochettino? In his recent book, the Tottenham Hotspur manager writes of Arteta: “I am very fond of him and he will make an exceptional coach.”

“So the best manager in the world thinks Arteta is a talent, and another who ranks among the world’s top ten agrees. Are those recommendations enough for you, Arsenal?

“As important as all of that, of course, is the fact that Arteta knows Arsenal and understands what the fans — where the younger ones have only known Wenger as manager — expect from their team.

“You might say that Arteta is untested as a manager, but so was Guardiola when Barcelona appointed him. You might say that at 35 he is too young, and we need to know more about his personality, whether it is right for top-level management.

“So it’s true that he would be a maverick appointment. But Wenger was a maverick appointment when Arsenal hired him in 1996, Guardiola was a maverick appointment at Barcelona.

“And if Arsenal were to appoint Arteta, they might at least be able to think they were weakening City in some small way.”