It says a lot about Mikel Arteta that there are people with knowledge of Arsenal’s new manager who are asking whether his final round of talks about replacing Unai Emery could be described more accurately as a case of him interviewing the club, rather than the other way around.



Arteta had his own questions for the board, just as he did in 2018 when he was interviewed about the possibility of succeeding Arsene Wenger, and again two years earlier when he was mulling over three different offers to kickstart his coaching career.



One was from Wenger to take charge of Arsenal’s academy, another was to link up with Mauricio Pochettino at Tottenham Hotspur and the third was to join Pep Guardiola’s backroom staff at Manchester City.



Then, like at City now, there was a great deal of soul-searching and due diligence before Arteta decided it was time to leave Arsenal. Not because he disliked what they were proposing, more that he found it too hard to...