Arguments for and against Mikel Arteta’s stay at Arsenal
Arsenal have hit rock-bottom. There is no other way to explain the club’s decline in recent years.
Mikel Arteta was brought in at the end of 2019 to arrest that smooth slide down the Premier League charts. However, the Spaniard now oversees a team who are further down when they were when Arteta took over.
In this article we will put forward five arguments for and against on whether Mikel Arteta should carry on as the Arsenal manager.
For:
- In his 18 months, Arsenal have already won two trophies in FA Cup and Community Shield.
- He has made the Gunners’ defense more robust (only two teams have conceded less than Arsenal this season in the Premier League).
- Convincing several first team players such as Pierre Emerick Aubameyang, Folarin Balogun, Bukayo Saka and Gabriel Martinelli to extend their contracts at the Emirates Stadium.
- Making “huge calls” to dismiss popular first-team players from the squad such as Matteo Guendouzi, Sead Kolasinac, Mesut Ozil and Shkodran Mustafi.
- Better record against the Big Six.
Against:
- No clear gameplan.
- “Non-negotiables” which seem a bit biased towards the more experienced players in the team.
- Few players “flourishing” under the Spaniard’s tenure.
- Resistance to change when the initial gameplan goes wrong (late substitutions are a testament).
- A static rather than a dynamic attacking force which the Arsenal faithful were used to witnessing under Arsene Wenger and Unai Emery’s first season.
It is your call whether you want Arteta to leave Arsenal this summer or whether you want him to be the part of the process. Whatever is your opinion on that, the Arsenal board look confident that Mikel Arteta is the right person to take the club forward.
It is worth pointing out that people who recruit players for Arsenal deserve some blame for their current state. Countless mistakes have been allowed to be happen behind the scenes.
Signing Nicolas Pepe for a record fee, when his transfer value, a year before, was less than half of what the Gunners paid in 2019. Extending the contracts of Mesut Ozil and signing a 32-year-old Willian.
You can point the fingers at the owners for not putting in the right people at the right places, you can blame the manager, for not making the most out of their current squad.
My personal conviction is that it is more of a case of former rather than the latter.
Give Arteta six more months after a summer overhaul and if things don’t change, I am sure that not even Arteta would have any problem if he is sacked with the team still lying around mid-table.