How has Mikel Arteta instigated Arsenal’s recovery to cusp of top-four finish?

Arsenal are on the cusp of ending a five-year wait for Champions League football as their victory over Leeds solidified their place in the Premier League top four.

The Gunners will return to Europe’s elite competition if they win at Tottenham on Thursday night as Mikel Arteta continues to turn around a season that began in the worst possible way.

Arsenal were rock bottom of the Premier League, without a point or a goal, heading into the September international break but are now on the verge of a top-four finish.

Here, the PA news agency looks at just how Arteta has managed to instigate such a recovery.

One only has to look at the statistics among the current Arsenal squad to see just how big of a catalyst the trust in youth has been at the Emirates Stadium this season.

Bukayo Saka, Emile Smith Rowe and Eddie Nketiah lead the way – 12, 11 and nine goals respectively – with only Alexandre Lacazette providing more assists than Saka’s six.

The team is by far the youngest average age in the English top flight, with the likes of Gabriel Martinelli, Martin Odegaard, Gabriel Magalhaes and Takehiro Tomiyasu also impressing at different stages of the season.

As well as a young squad, Arteta also has one of the smallest in the Premier League and – when both Kieran Tierney and Thomas Partey were sidelined for the remainder of the season – concerns over the depth of resources.

Those worries have, so far, been eased by the form of the fringe players available to Arteta.

Rob Holding has come in for Ben White, who has missed the last two games with a hamstring issue, and done well.

Nketiah, too, has grasped his chance after replacing Lacazette as the first-choice striker but it is the form of Mohamed Elneny – having not kicked a ball