Mikel Arteta reveals Leeds United discussion and hails Whites man after award

Arteta’s league leaders hold an eight-point advantage over Manchester City at the top of the pile and are long odds-on favourites to record a 23rd victory of the Premier League season in Saturday’s showdown at home to relegation-battling Leeds.

Arteta, though, fresh from receiving the March manager of the month award, has fired a warning to his Gunners side over what will be needed to beat a Whites team he has been impressed with under a new head coach whom Arteta has showered with praise.

Saturday’s clash at The Emirates will mark new Whites head coach Gracia’s sixth game in charge of Leeds but Gracia’s Spanish compatriot Arteta knew of the Whites boss as a player in Spain and has been highly impressed with his impact as a coach.

"They have been really good,” said Arteta at his pre-match press conference, assessing Leeds under Gracia as quoted by arsenalfc.com

"I know him as a player as he used to play in my hometown really well when I was a coach. He is a really good coach, really dedicated, thoughtful and very clear in his ideas of how he wants his team to play.

"He can vary as well, as he has done at many clubs with his way of playing and formations, so he is very adaptable. He’s coached so many teams already so that shows the quality that he has, and I think so far he has done really well.

"They (Leeds) have a very clear DNA, how they behave, the character, the passion and energy that they play with. They’ve been doing it for a long, long time and now with a new manager as well with some new ideas, some players that have been injured that they have had some issues with they are back, so they are a very dangerous team. We have discussed openly and very clearly about what we are going to expect tomorrow, and we have to be really good to beat them.”

Pressed on whether it was harder to play against a team scrapping against relegation, Arteta reasoned: “They want the points as much as we want them. Hopefully we want them more than them and we can show that on Saturday, but obviously it’s a team that has its needs. They are playing at a really good level and they got a really good result in their last one, and like we have always done, we have to earn the right to win the game.”