Wayne Rooney Claims Arsenal Have THIRD-Best Manager in Premier League Title Race

Wayne Rooney has named two Premier League managers he believes are better than Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta.

Arsenal currently top the Premier League table after 16 rounds of fixtures. Arteta’s Gunners have 36 points, with Manchester City their closest challenger on 34 points. Just one point behind City sit surprise title contenders Aston Villa.

Premier League title race as it stands

Team	MP	W	D	L	GD	Pts
1. Arsenal	16	11	3	2	20	36
2. Manchester City	16	11	1	4	22	34
3. Aston Villa	16	10	3	3	8	33

While Arsenal have the most points at this stage, Rooney believes that both of their main title rivals have better managers.

Villa are currently managed by Unai Emery, who is the man Arteta replaced in the Arsenal hot seat back in December 2019. Manchester City, meanwhile, are managed by six-time Premier League winner Pep Guardiola.

Emery won 43 of his 78 games in charge of the Gunners, drawing 16 and losing 19. That gave him a win percentage of 55.13%, which is lower than Arteta’s current record of 59.87% after 314 matches.

However, Rooney believes that Emery inherited the Arsenal job in very challenging circumstances, having arrived directly following the departure of long-serving club legend Arsene Wenger.

Wayne Rooney suggests Unai Emery is a better manager than Mikel Arteta

Speaking on his BBC podcast, Rooney said: “Unai Emery was the first one to come in after Arsene Wenger, and we saw with David Moyes and Sir Alex [Ferguson at Manchester United] how difficult that can be.

“That’s huge pressure. That was a difficult one, but the Arsenal job isn’t a true reflection of him.

“In my opinion he’s probably the second-best manager in the Premier League when you look at what he’s doing. You can’t judge Emery on what happened at Arsenal.”

Although he appears to rate Emery and Guardiola ahead of Arteta, Rooney did also acknowledge that the current Gunners boss was “doing a fantastic job as well”. Arteta recently set Arsenal a Premier League points target of more than 90, which he believes will be needed to improve on three consecutive finishes of second.

How Rooney compares to Arteta, Emery and Guardiola

Manager	Clubs managed	W	D	L	Win %
Pep Guardiola	Barcelona B, Barcelona, Bayern Munich and Manchester City	721	156	130	71.6%
Mikel Arteta	Arsenal	188	58	68	59.87%
Unai Emery	Lorca Deportiva, Almeria, Valencia, Spartak Moscow, Sevilla, PSG, Arsenal, Villarreal and Aston Villa	91	29	43	55.83%
Wayne Rooney	Derby County, D.C. United, Birmingham City and Plymouth Argyle	45	46	87	25.28%

Rooney may rate Arteta lower than Emery in the current Premier League manager rankings, but he would likely love to be able to swap places with either of them.

The former Manchester United star is currently on a break from management after being sacked by Plymouth Argyle on New Year’s Eve in 2024.

Plymouth were the fourth club Rooney has managed. His career win rate currently stands at just 25.28% after 178 games in charge of Derby County, D.C. United, Birmingham City and Plymouth.

That means Rooney’s win percentage is around 2.4 times lower than Arteta’s — although it is worth noting that Rooney has generally worked with teams expected to be battling at the bottom end of their respective league tables.