Mikel Arteta has a played a huge role in Manchester City’s success this season, and is showing what Arsenal are missing out on.

When the opportunity to work under Pep Guardiola came about, Mikel Arteta had no doubt about the decision he had to make.

The Spaniard had just closed his playing career with a goal on the final day of the 2015/16 season and was set to take his first steps into coaching. Arsenal had offered him a role in their youth set-up, while Mauricio Pochettino at Tottenham was also interested in bringing him on board.

In the end, he chose Manchester City, and in July 2016 he was confirmed as a new member of Guardiola’s backroom team.

Initially, Guardiola’s interest in Arteta was based on his Premier League experience and ability to speak English and Spanish. After his first season in the Premier League, the City manager acknowledged the need to learn more about the English game and where his side could find an advantage.

As a result, Arteta’s role grew from coach to joint-assistant manager. He’s been called the ideal foil to Guardiola, someone who can provide frank advice on tactics and team selection while also serving as a link between the players and the management.

At 35, Arteta can comfortably occupy both spaces.

In additional to all that, Arteta has worked one-on-one with Raheem Sterling to improve the winger’s end product in the final third. The results have been spectacular: Sterling has scored 13 goals already this season, with four of them coming in the 90th minute to win City games.

Seeing this, it’s hard not to lament the fact that he did not take up a role at Arsenal.

Arteta is a talented coach who knows Arsenal inside-out, having spent five seasons there.

He was one of the most respected figures in the squad. While few could begrudge him leaving for the chance to learn under Guardiola, one has to question if learning under Arsene Wenger is all that appealing for prospective coaches anymore, and whether a role as a youth coach was a suitable enough offer.

Arteta isn’t the first former Arsenal player not to be offered a position in Wenger’s coaching team. Patrick Vieira was allowed to join Manchester City without much resistance, while Freddie Ljungberg and Thierry Henry had brief stints coaching in the youth set-up before moving on to become assistant managers at Wolfsburg and Belgium respectively.

Wenger has relied on a core group of coaches for several years and has proven reluctant to let anyone young or new into that set-up. That Jens Lehmann ended up as a first team coach at the club was something of a minor miracle.

Wenger’s reluctance to introduce new blood could come back to bite him.

His former players are not getting their education from him, but from other managers. By not providing opportunities to player-turned-coaches, he is actively encouraging them to learn else where.

As a result, Arsenal will not be able to benefit from the work of the likes of Vieira, who did well with City’s youth teams before becoming manager of New York City FC in MLS, and Arteta, who is also thriving in the City set-up.

Those former players well return to Arsenal someday, but for now, the club is missing out on talent it has let go far too willingly.