Kieran Tierney has heaped praise on Arteta for helping him learn and remains positive Arsenal are on the right track under the Spaniard.
The left-back made his first appearance for the Gunners in six months against City after recovering from his arm injury.
Looking back at his injury nightmare, Tierney is “grateful” that the Arsenal boss trusted him to return in such a high-profile fixture.
“He’s been brilliant,” Tierney told Sky Sports . “Obviously I was injured when he first came in and that was so unfortunate because you want to impress the new manager and get off to a good start. But even then, he was good with me. He watched me from afar and asked for updates on how I was doing.
“It’s been an absolute joy to train with him. I feel as if I’m learning every single day and I was grateful for the opportunity he gave me against Manchester City.
“It was my first game in so long and a big game for the club, so for him to trust me was brilliant.”
Arsenal have now suffered back to back losses since the Premier League restart but Tierney insists the players are still fully invested in Arteta’s vision.
“Every day in training you know you’re going there to work.
“There are times for a laugh and a joke – Mikel loves that as well – but when we’re working, we’re working. It’s a lot of tactical stuff as well, and that’s going to help us all get an understanding of how he wants us to play.
“I’ve said before, something like that is not going to just work straight away, it’s going to be a process, but there is light at the end of the tunnel and we need to stay focused on that. There are going to be bad results and bad games, but as a team we need to keep the confidence, stick together and kick on again.” Tierney added.
“All the players are hurting, it’s a tough time for everyone at the club, but there are going to be better days ahead.”
Tierney is in line to feature as Arsenal look to get back to winning ways in their clash against Southampton on Thursday.
