He was hit & miss for a while at Arsenal. He started last season with back to back losses, and they failed to gain entry into any European competition under him for the first time in something like 25 years. But the board stuck with him, and now they're sitting pretty at the top of the EPL.
Different horses for different courses, you could probably compare Arteta's playing career with Robson's - a lot of challenges, a lot of success, had to endure time at the bigot-brothers, and ended up managing the last team he'd played for.