Arteta as a player

Seen some discussion on his merits as a player on social media of late, and the prevailing opinion of the wider footballing fandom seems to be that he was pretty decent, neat and tidy, a "Spanish Mark Noble" to quote but one. Am I completely misremembering him being very good? Obviously not Xavi or Iniesta level, not even David Silva or Fabregas level, but at his best I'd say he was arguably the main difference between us and most of the rest of the league. I remember him running the show consistently from a number of different positions - right, left, deep-lying playmaker, advanced playmaker. There was one game (last home game of the season, I think we beat Portsmouth 3-0 to qualify for Europe) where he was so good my dad said he reminded him of Alan Ball. Just wondering if others remember Arteta being as good as I do, or if it's more a product of me being born too late to see the mid-'80s side. He's probably the best I've seen bar Kanchelskis, level-ish with Baines and Lukaku. (Branthwaite's probably the one in the current team I could see reaching that level).