Arteta's win percentage now better than Wenger's at Arsenal

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Mikel Arteta has overtaken Arsene Wenger for the best win percentage of any manager in Arsenal's history, a milestone that arrives just days after the club handed him a new contract running until the summer of 2030.

According to Arsenal Media, Arteta has won 60% of the 361 matches he has taken charge of since arriving at the club. That figure edges out Wenger, who won 57.2% of the 1,235 games he managed during his two decades at Arsenal.

The comparison is a notable one given the two men's history. Arteta played under Wenger for several seasons at Arsenal before moving into coaching, and he has often spoken about the influence the Frenchman had on his footballing education.

A career built on patience

Arteta's early days in the job were far from straightforward. He walked into the role as a rookie with no prior managerial experience, and there was widespread scepticism at the time about whether he was equipped for the challenge.

Seven years on, the trophy haul tells a different story. Arteta has delivered an FA Cup and a Premier League title, and has also led Arsenal to a Champions League final. The club's decision to commit to him long-term reflects confidence that those achievements are the foundation for more silverware rather than a peak.

Reaching Wenger's overall match total looks unlikely given the modern demands of the job and the shorter managerial cycles now common in the Premier League. Wenger's 1,235 games remain an outlier in English football, built over 22 uninterrupted years in the dugout. Arteta's 361 matches represent a much shorter sample, but the win rate still stands as a meaningful marker of consistency across his tenure so far.

What the new deal means

The timing of this statistic, emerging in the same week as confirmation of Arteta's extension, adds further context to the scale of the club's commitment. A deal through to 2030 gives him the runway to keep building on a squad that has already delivered major honours under his management.

For a club that went through a lengthy trophy drought before Arteta's arrival, the combination of a long-term contract and a historically strong win percentage points to a period of sustained stability in the dugout, something Arsenal has not always enjoyed in the years since Wenger's departure.

Attention now turns to whether Arteta can convert that consistency into further silverware over the coming seasons, with the Premier League and Champions League remaining the clearest measures of his continued progress at the club.