Mikel Arteta and Mauricio Pochettino may not be linked by blood, but they formed a familial bond as players at Paris Saint-Germain.
The pair were on opposite sides of the Catalan rivalry between Espanyol and Barcelona when they arrived in the French capital on the same week in January 2001 but were stuffed into the same hotel room as the team’s new Spanish speakers.
Arteta, a decade younger than the former Espanyol captain, described Pochettino as “like a father” towards the end of his playing days.
“He really looked after me,” Arteta remembered. “I will always be grateful for what he did for me and I respect him for that.”
However, the Barcelona academy graduate didn’t follow every pearl of wisdom Pochettino laid next to the chocolate on his pillow.
“He said don’t go into coaching because it’s too hard,” Arteta laughed. Now a manager himself, Arteta viewed their relationship as fraternal rather than paternal.
“He took me under his arm and looked after me like a little brother,” the Gunners boss reflected ahead of his first managerial meeting with Pochettino.
Barely a month after Pochettino was sacked by Tottenham Hotspur at the end of 2019, Arteta was hired as Arsenal‘s head coach on the other side of north London. After taking over PSG with mixed success, Pochettino returned to the English capital in the summer of 2023 with Chelsea. More than two decades after ordering room service in Paris, the pair could finally pit their wits against one another from opposite dugouts.
Saturday’s meeting between Chelsea and Arsenal at Stamford Bridge will be the first time these two have met as managers.
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