Ange Postecoglou appointment hands Arsenal Premier League title boost amid Mikel Arteta record

Mikel Arteta and Ange Postecoglou set to meet again as Arsenal host Nottingham Forest (Image: David Price/Arsenal FC via Getty Images)

Ange Postecoglou is set to become Nottingham Forest’s new head coach . Following Nuno Espirito Santo's departure, the Australian, whose Tottenham exit shocked much of the sport after a trophy-winning campaign in 2024/25, is set to take over.

His first match in charge takes him back to the Emirates Stadium to face his former side Tottenham Hotspur’s bitter rivals Arsenal. It will reignite a short-lived rivalry between Mikel Arteta and the 60-year-old, but this time with a very different side.

Postecoglou was famed for his loyalty to a style which would either bring great attacking reward or, often, defensive vulnerability. While he won the Europa League with Spurs , he finished the league season in 17th place with 22 defeats.

From an Arsenal perspective, Arteta’s record against him has been very good. He is unbeaten in all four meetings, winning three, scoring eight, and conceding five.

Each victory was only separated by a single goal; however, the Gunners were the dominant side in all four matches but characteristically lacked the cutting-edge and clinical finishing to take advantage of their dominance. Now with Forest, Postecoglou leads a side with a horrendous record at the Emirates Stadium.

The last four meetings between the sides in north London have all ended in an Arsenal win, and they have scored 15 goals across the four matches. However, away from home, the script is flipped entirely, and the Gunners have just one win from the last five trips to the City Ground.

Thankfully for Arteta, therefore, this first meeting is indeed in his own stadium, fresh off the last match in N5, where they put five goals past Leeds United. While off the back of a painful one-goal defeat to Liverpool, they were hard done by to lose and will continue to fight toward their goal of winning the title and this change of coach will bring something of a boost to those chances in the short term.

Postecoglou will not have had long to implement his ideas, and the change will cause quite some upheaval. In the modern game, a new manager bounce is more folklore than reality.

Yet Arteta will need to be aware of the potential threat, and it does indeed throw out much of the preparation that was being done ahead of the clash. Instead, it focuses on some of the weaknesses of individuals, perhaps more so than the system.