Mikel Arteta finally has an Anfield victory to his name as a manager after Arsenal beat Liverpool 1-0 on Sunday.

Despite the Spaniard being into his eighth season in charge of the Gunners, he had been yet to beat the Reds on their own patch until a referee-aided win allowed him to change that.

Arteta wants to give credit to Liverpool

You have to hand it to Arteta, he has certainly failed, failed and failed again, but has kept on plugging away at the chance to beat Liverpool at Anfield.

Having collected the Premier League title last season, the former Everton man appears to now see himself as the wise sage of the division, and gave his fellow Basque Andoni Iraola a pat on the head for his attempts on Sunday.

“I want to give credit to Liverpool as well,” Arteta said in his post-match press conference.

“The manner that they played, the way that they set up, to Andoni, because what they are doing, they are a top side. It’s very difficult, that’s why I think winning here deserves even more credit.”

With Liverpool no doubt feeling better about themselves following the words of such an esteemed manager, Arteta was told that his team had actually prevented the Reds from having a shot on target at Anfield for the first time in Premier League history.

“There were very little margins sometimes when they had the opportunity to shoot, and it’s a team that shoots a lot, so you have to be so good at blocking shots and preventing those spaces for them to get into there,” he said.

“It’s a commitment of every single player in every action consistently to deliver those kinds of stats and to do it against this team is something remarkable I would say.”

Somehow, Arteta’s self-congratulatory tone is somehow even worse than the defeat.