Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta has insisted his conscience is clear after former club Manchester City were found guilty of breaking Premier League rules.
Arteta, who served as Pep Guardiola’s assistant at the Etihad Stadium for three years, was speaking for the first time since his one-time employers were found by an independent commission to have breached more than 100 financial regulations.
City have launched an appeal — with current manager Enzo Maresca insisting the under-fire club’s success has not been tainted — and, during a tense news conference at Arsenal’s London Colney headquarters, Arteta called for the “process to be respected.”
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Arteta, who largely refused to engage with questions surrounding the case, joined Arsenal from City in 2019. City have been accused of breaking the rules between 2009 and 2018.
Asked directly if his conscience was clear, Arteta replied: “Yes.”
It was put to Arteta that he was in a “unique” position, having worked as a senior figure at City.
“The process has been going for various years,” he said. “That process is still not finished. So, it is very difficult to express how I feel, because it is not resolved.
“When it is resolved I can talk with clarity and tell you exactly how I feel.”
Quizzed at to whether he was looking forward to a resolution, Arteta said: “We need to trust that the people in charge will resolve it in the timeframe that they believe is the best for everybody.”
Arteta was later probed as to whether the Premier League remains the best in the world despite City’s guilty verdict casting a huge shadow over the division. “100%,” he said.
Asked if the league had been “damaged” by City’s verdict, Arteta reverted to his stock line. “There is a process that is not resolved,” he said.
“It is ongoing and we can have a much clearer opinion once it’s been resolved.”
Arteta also elected against revealing if he had spoken to Guardiola since the crushing verdict was released a fortnight ago. “I prefer not to answer those questions,” he said.
And whether he felt his memories of his period at the Etihad Stadium how now been “tainted,” Arteta said: “Again, I understand the question and where they are coming from. There is a lot of noise around it. It is an ongoing process that has not been resolved yet.”
Arsenal are bidding to retain the league and will view City, who have won all five matches so far, as their closest challengers.
“I don’t know [if it will hand Arsenal an advantage],” he said. “That’s something that’s not in our hands.
“What we think about is us, about what we do and what we want to achieve. That’s it. The rest is something that we don’t control, we have never controlled it, and we don’t want to control it.”
Arsenal host Leeds at the Emirates Stadium on Saturday bidding to bounce back from their surprise 3-0 defeat against Brighton prior to the international break.
Arteta, who earlier this week signed a new four-year deal to remain as Arsenal manager until 2030, concluded: “The pain is still in the tummy and tomorrow we certainly have to play with that because it [the loss at Brighton] was a lesson for us.”
