Arteta Praises David as Key to Club's Success

Mikel Arteta has stopped short of calling his goalkeeper the best signing of his reign – but made it crystal clear just how central he has become to the club’s rise.

Speaking before this weekend’s league fixture, the Spanish manager was asked outright if the keeper represented his smartest piece of business. Arteta refused to rank his own transfers, yet his answer underlined the scale of the impact.

“I don't know – he's been a tremendous signing, there is no question about that,” Arteta said. “Whether he is the best or not is just an opinion. It doesn't matter, we are so happy to have him. He has elevated the team to a different level and now we have to maintain that level.”

The message was blunt: labels are irrelevant, standards are not.

Arteta then moved from numbers and deals to character. What, he was asked, allowed David to ride out the early storms and grow into one of the side’s pillars?

“I think it's his mentality,” Arteta replied. “David has tremendous quality but he has overcome a lot of difficulties and challenges to reach this point. It wasn't easy at the beginning, he had to dig in and prove himself. Now, he has the right to be one of the best.”

From fighting to prove he belonged to earning the right “to be one of the best” – Arteta’s goalkeeper has turned a risky bet into a cornerstone of his project.