Jurgen Klopp and Mikel Arteta will inevitably be compared now Arsenal have finally been crowned Premier League champions.
This is the defining moment of a six-year rebuild at the Emirates. Arsenal have ended a 22-year wait for the title, and they may yet add the Champions League too, if they can get past PSG in the final in Budapest.
But since the win, a number of Arsenal fans have already tried to put Arteta into the Klopp conversation. That is where things start to get silly. Winning one league title is a great achievement. It does not make Arteta Klopp’s equal.
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Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool vs Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal
The first difference between the two tenures is money apent.
Klopp built Liverpool into champions and European giants while working under a far tighter financial structure. His Liverpool net spend was £346 million, the lowest of the big six at that point.
Arteta, meanwhile, has been backed heavily in the market. Arsenal’s net spend since he arrived in December 2019 is £776 million. That does not diminish the coaching job, but it does show the edge Klopp has with regard to developing players.
Then there is the level of competition. Klopp was going up against Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City at their absolute peak.
Liverpool finished on 97 points in 2018/19 and still came second, with City one point better. They also finished second with 92 points in 2021/22, again losing out to City by a single point.
Arsenal have won the league with 82 points after 37 games, meaning they can finish on a maximum of 85. That is a brilliant season, but it is not the same kind of title race Klopp had to survive.
We also have to mention the European dominance Liverpool enjoyed under the German. Klopp’s Liverpool were consistently in contention, reaching three Champions League finals and winning one.
On a more subjective note, the quality of football Klopp’s teams played is on a different level to what we see from Arsenal on a weekly basis.
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Klopp did not just win trophies. He changed Liverpool’s identity, restored Anfield’s fear-factor and built a team that felt greater than the sum of its parts.
This is Arteta’s first senior job, and they are admittedly moving in a very positive direction, but it will take more than winning one title with a points tally in the mid-80s to make this a debate. If that were enough, Liverpool fans would be putting Arne Slot in the conversation too.
And nobody is doing that.
- READ MORE: The real reason Mikel Arteta rejected Alexander Isak this summer as Arsenal are crowned champions
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