Arsenal told Mikel Arteta could QUIT for dream job if he wins Premier League title this year

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Former Arsenal midfielder Emmanuel Petit is concerned Mikel Arteta could be tempted to leave the Gunners for Barcelona . However, he only expects the Spaniard to make the switch if he leads the London club to Premier League glory.

Arteta began his playing career at Barcelona, coming through the academy after joining at the age of 15. He played more than 40 league games with Barca's B team, where his team-mates included the likes of Carles Puyol, Victor Valdes and Thiago Motta, but never made an appearance for the senior side.

Petit also spent time at Barcelona as a player and believes Arteta might find a return hard to refuse. " Mikel Arteta could be tempted to come back to Spain, especially to a club he knew when he was very young," he told Snabbare .

"Honestly, with the work he’s doing, can you imagine if he wins something at the end of the season? He would probably say, ‘Okay, fair enough. For me, after almost seven years, I’ve done it with Arsenal . I think it’s time for me to see something else.’ I can understand that.

"But, in a way, I can also understand that if Barcelona knocks at your door, you will think, ‘Okay, listen, Barcelona is one of the greatest clubs in the world . I’ll be back in Spain, and the lifestyle is good for my family."

Petit suggested, however, that Arteta might want to sort out Barca's defence were he to move to Camp Nou. Under Hansi Flick, the Catalan side conceded 39 league goals last season and have let in 17 in 15 La Liga outings this term, though their attacking prowess still leaves them top of the table.

Arsenal under Arteta have scored fewer and also conceded fewer. They let in 34 last season despite a sluggish end to the campaign and have been even stingier this term, conceding just eight times in 20 games in all competitions.

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Arsenal host Brentford in the league on Wednesday night, and Arteta was asked before the game about what a busy week - featuring wins over Spurs and Bayern Munich and a draw at Chelsea - have taught him. "Well, starting from Spurs, I learned a lot as well about the international break again and what happened," he said. "For example, what happened with Gabi (injured centre-back Gabriel Magalhaes), and how can we correct that so that it never happens again, and we played a team game in a way that, again, we have to learn, and watching them, you always learn from it.

"Bayern Munich brought different qualities, players that you don't see weekly. But we needed the potential of it and obviously what they were doing and we took a lot from them.

"Then last weekend, the same amount of games that you have to play within a game and what happened at Stamford Bridge in that sense, it's enormous because I think it's the perception of what happened and actually what happened and why it happened. So it was a huge learning."

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