Arsenal have appointed their former captain Mikel Arteta as head coach on a three-and-a-half-year deal.

The 37-year-old won the FA Cup twice in a five-year career with the Gunners and succeeds fellow Spaniard Unai Emery, who was sacked in November, BBC reports.

It was gathered that Arteta had been working as a coach under Pep Guardiola at Manchester City, joining the club in 2016 after retiring as a player.

Arsenal legend Freddie Ljungberg had taken over as interim coach while the club looked for a new permanent head coach but recorded just one win during his five games in charge.

“This is a huge honor,” Arteta told the club website. “Arsenal is one of the biggest clubs in the world. We need to be competing for the top trophies in the game and that’s been made very clear to me in my discussions with (owner) Stan (Kroenke) and Josh Kroenke, and the senior people from the club.

“We all know there is a lot of work to be done to achieve that but I am confident we’ll do it. I’m realistic enough to know it won’t happen overnight but the current squad has plenty of talent and there is a great pipeline of young players coming through from the academy”, he added.

Arteta spent four seasons at Arsenal between 2011 and 2016, playing 150 times for the Gunners and winning two FA Cups. The 37-year-old, who was also made club captain by Arsene Wenger, takes over with Arsenal languishing in 10th in the Premier League after just one win since October 6. Its last league title came in 2003-2004 when the ‘Invincibles’ went unbeaten in the top division under Wenger.