EPL Manager of the Month nominees for December: Arteta, Guardiola, Emery, Farke

On January 8, the Premier League announced the four nominees for Premier League Manager of the Month for December 2025.

Mikel Arteta (Arsenal)

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Contending with injuries, a makeshift defence, and under extreme pressure, Arteta steered Arsenal through December and the Festive Fixtures in remarkable fashion. Though the Gunners lost to Aston Villa to a 90th-minute winner, Arteta ensured that potentially destabilising defeat, against a side pushing them for the top spot, did not derail their ambition to lift the Premier League trophy. Arsenal won five of their other six league matches, which included thrashing Villa at Emirates Stadium at the end of 2025. Some of the wins were tight – including against bottom side Wolverhampton Wanderers, Everton and Brighton & Hove Albion – but Arteta did enough to get his players over the line as Arsenal concluded the year with a healthy lead at the top of the table.

Unai Emery (Aston Villa)

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Considering Villa failed to win any of their opening five Premier League games of the season – drawing three and losing twice – it is a significant feat for Emery to have positioned Villa in the title race. Villa lost once in the entirety of December, to leaders Arsenal, a defeat that ended a phenomenal run of 11 straight wins in all competitions – five of which came in the last month of the year. And they did not have an easy set of fixtures, coming from behind to beat Chelsea at Stamford Bridge a week after downing Manchester United, and defeating Arsenal in the first of the pair’s two meetings.

Daniel Farke (Leeds United)

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Leeds entered December on the back of four successive defeats – and six losses in seven matches – with Farke desperate to turn things around but with a tricky month to navigate. But December was transformative. They went undefeated all month, including impressive wins against Chelsea (3-1) and Crystal Palace (4-1) alongside draws with Liverpool, Brentford and Sunderland. The form – propelled by the prolific goal-scoring of Dominic Calvert-Lewin – shifted Leeds away from the bottom three.

Pep Guardiola (Manchester City)

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A thunderous month for Guardiola and his Man City side has left title rivals Arsenal glancing over their shoulder. Five wins out of five, 16 goals scored and five goals conceded. And four of those came in a 5-4 win against Fulham, so they even kept three clean sheets in December. City’s untouchable form delivered three 3-0 wins in succession, including one against Crystal Palace that gave Guardiola his 150th Premier League victory, in 358 games, and contributed to an impressive goal difference of +11.