In his first ever job as manager Mikel Arteta has caused a differing opinions amongst fans about whether he is the man to take Arsenal back to the glory days of the Invincibles or whether they need a new experienced manager with a proven record of managing successful teams.
In his first six months in charge Arteta took over a team that was 10th and was on a nine game winless run. He managed to take control of the winless run around by defeating Manchester United 2-0 at the Emirates Stadium and Arsenal drew against Chelsea despite playing with ten men for over seventy minutes showing the resolve of Mikel Arteta’s new team.
After the season was suspended following the COVID-19 Pandemic, Arsenal returned to action against Manchester City where they lost 3-0 and a week later in injury time they suffered defeat to Brighton. However, Arsenal fans can be happy with some of the results with the most memorable being Arsenal beating the Champions Liverpool. The league campaign was disappointing for Arsenal with the team finishing a respectable 8th but that isn’t down to Mikel Arteta as the club was in a poor run of form before he took over.
Whilst Arsenal were battling in the Premier League they reached the final of the FA Cup beating Sheffield United, Manchester City and Leeds United along the way. Arsenal managed to hold onto a 2-1 lead and lifted the FA Cup in an empty Wembley Stadium. Within a few months in his new job Mikel Arteta had won two trophies in a month after the Gunners added the Community Shield to the silverware collection at Arsenal by beating Liverpool on penalties.
During the summer of 2020 Mikel Arteta was given £100 million to buy new players at Arsenal. Within a few weeks Arteta had bought Thomas Partey, Cédric Soares, Pablo Mari and Gabriel Magalhães to the Gunners list of players. The season started well for Arsenal as they won their opening two fixtures against Fulham and West Ham before losing at Anfield to Liverpool. That didn’t put Arsenal down off as they beat Manchester United at Old Trafford for the first time in fifteen years. Clearly a revolution was taking place at Arsenal with many fans believing that the Gunners would finish 2nd or 3rd in the Premier League.
After the win against Manchester United, Arsenal went on a seven game winless run in the Premier League where they lost to Aston Villa, Burnley, Wolves and North London rivals Tottenham. Across Social Media fans were disgruntled and on Twitter hashtag Arteta out were trending across the world. Arsenal had dropped from 4th to 15th in the Premier League where they were only five points away from being involved in a relegation battle. Rumours were leaked that the players had stopped playing for the manager and were waiting for the manager to be sacked.
Fortunately, Arteta managed to turn the slump in form around by beating Chelsea, West Brom, Brighton, Southampton and Newcastle across the space of a month. What Arteta has said in his press conferences is that “Arsenal need time to rebuild and that I am leading a project at Arsenal where we can challenge for all the trophies on offer but at the moment we need to win more games to challenge for a European spot.”
Fans have said “Arteta took over midseason when we were so poor, winning a trophy spared him a bit of time and that his tactics and style of play isn’t as attractive as previous Arsenal managers. A second Arsenal fan said “The board need to back Arteta by giving him the funds to buy players, we need a major overhaul of players, some players aren’t good enough to play for the club but the use of youth players has been brilliant they have outshone the senior players.”
My Opinion
Arteta is the right man to manage Arsenal and make them return to the Champions League.
The board have to back Arteta with the funds to buy players. Since Neymar moved to PSG for £222 million, players values have soared you have to pay 30% extra than you may have done before. The board have given Arteta £100 million which is enough to buy two quality players into the club.
A major overhaul is needed; players who aren’t good enough need to be moved on rather than kept at the club where they won’t feature at all throughout the season. Players like Mustafi, Ozil and Sokratis have all been moved on as they have barely featured for Arsenal this season and they are the clubs highest paid players. Arteta has used the youth players fantastically with Saka, Smith-Rowe and new signing Gabriel impressing in recent months.
As a result of this players such as Pepe the club’s most expensive signing and Willian have seen themselves being dropped to the bench. It is clear that Arteta has a plan to build a team around the young players who have impressed in recent months and having a blend of experience to compliment them makes Arsenal a contender of finishing in the top 4 of the Premier League.
Fans must be patient about the results and the truth is that Arteta needs time and the money in order for Arsenal to return back to the glory days where they were challenging for every major trophy.