Arteta’s Incompetence means Arsenal miss out on Top Four
Hello wonderful family, what a sad end (thank goodness!) to a rollercoaster season. I sincerely commend every single one of us and all true Arsenal fans for what we have endured this season, please make sure you rest and look after yourselves, do not allow Arsenal to drain you as we head into the transfer window because we have suffered enough.
Firstly, some may not be aware, but I am a strong supporter of Arteta and an avid believer in his project- he has won me over with his sheer courage and the ability to communicate his ideas brilliantly. I said courage because if you are not strong, you won’t want to get involved with Arsenal UNDER KROENKE and in the mess we found ourselves.
I have always defended Arteta on this fine platform. I couldn’t continue with that because a lot of people are so negative, biased, and do not analyse things objectively. That said, being an Arteta fan does not mean I can’t criticize him if I think he is wrong. The likes of Pep, Klopp, and Tuchel (some Chelsea fans even wanted him out at some point) get criticized so who is Arteta to be different.
Truth be told, at the beginning of the season, no one predicted or expected Arsenal to finish in the top 4 for different reasons. For some, the players we signed are not good enough, for some, Arteta is not good enough, and for some, the teams competing for top 4 are better than us in every department. Do you want to know my thoughts? It is the last option because any normal person would expect City, Pool, Chelsea, and United to be in the top 4. The FIRST THREE teams are guaranteed while 4 other teams fight to the 4th spot especially when you consider the summer arrivals at United. To make matters worse, we lost our first 3 games and again most people would not even fancy us to finish in the Europa League spot, but things changed as the season went on.
There are two arguments I would never agree with; I have heard people say, “but we did not expect to finish in the top 4” and “Arteta should finish in the top 4 because he spent a lot of money”. I think these two arguments are stupid.
Let us begin with the first one, we might not have expected to compete or finish in the top 4 but the reality of the season means we should finish in the top 4. I believe I don’t need to explain this, so I won’t bother with that.
There is no one in the entire universe that expected Leicester to win the Premier League when they did, but then the reality of the season means that they have a chance to win it and they went all out, believed, and won it! Even West Ham tried to compete for the Top 4 this season so why not us when the chance presented itself?
I won’t be tempted to go into other areas where Arteta has failed this season as this article would become too long, but I keep asking myself these questions; “Why did Arteta opt for Lokonga ahead of Elneny when Partey got injured?” “Why did it take Arteta 3 straight losses before correcting this decision?” “Why did he go all out against Tottenham when we only needed a draw?” These three stupid decisions ultimately cost us the top 4.
How can Elneny who is vastly more experienced in this league be behind Lokonga in the pecking order, how is that fair? Arteta, against Brighton, still moved Xhaka, our only available technical security in midfield to left-back. As soon as we lost Partey and Tierney, you expect a smart manager to change to a back three to better utilize the attacking potential of Tavarez and also shore up the defence as we are now conceding in every match. Arteta had to wait until we dropped NINE points before bringing in Elneny, at a time when we had the chance to go third, PAIN!
There is just no way you can justify these decisions.
Having said that, the opinion that Arteta should finish in the top 4 because he spent a lot does not make sense. Look at it this way, Newcastle is now the richest club in the league. Let’s assume there is no FFP, and they go out and sign all the best players in the world, would you fancy them to win the league next season? They can’t buy the cohesion, team spirit, and stability of the other teams in one window, team building is not as straightforward as just buying players anyhow, just ask United.
Because we spent more in the summer does not mean we now have the same quality as the other teams above us, as we spend, the other teams would further strengthen their teams and we will continue to play catch up. Even if we made the top 4 this season and signed good players in the summer, I still wouldn’t fancy us for the top 4 next season. In my opinion, only the two crazy teams in Liverpool and City (Liverpool only lost 2 games, while City lost three) are guaranteed to make the Top 4, it will keep changing from 3rd to 6th every season and we will regularly miss on Top 4, the earlier we accept that, the better for us.
I still support Arteta, but he has to speed up his learning, he still has a long way to go and a lot of money to spend before he can take us to the top. Looking at the mistakes he made at the tail end of the season, I don’t think he is even ready for the UCL. The club’s ambition was Europa, so even though we had a chance to finish in the top 4 and speed up the project, it did not matter to them, which is a pity.
Given how the season has panned out, he might have done well to his bosses but to me, Arteta has not done well, and next season has to be the make-or-break season for him IF ARSENAL HAVE ANY AMBITION.
The season is over now, and we go again in the Europa League, (maybe we can win it now that Emery’s Villareal is playing in the Conference league) let us hope we have an amazing summer!
What do you think?
Goonerboy.
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