Of all the criticism thrown at Mikel Arteta in the wake of Arsenal’s disastrous defeat at Tottenham in May, none can have stung quite so much as that dished out by his opposite number.
“Arteta is a really good coach...” Antonio Conte began, in a tone that made clear that the mother of all ‘buts’ was coming. What followed, directed at the Premier League’s youngest manager, was the kind of dinner-table reality check usually reserved for cock-sure teenagers.
