YET ANOTHER MORIBUND SEASON by Louis Obande
Scrolling casually through my twitter feed of recent, I begin to observe less and less posts by Arsenal fan handles who would usually flood my timeline with Arsenal related discussions. Since our humiliation at St James Park, Arsenal fans have reclined shamefaced (again) with deep-seated-disappointment into obscurity, uncertain on what direction their dear club is headed. Recent results are only reminiscent of a lingering conundrum that has bedevilled the club for quite some time now, the conundrum of the ‘near-success-syndrome’.
When Arsenal are put to the test, when push comes to shove, we always seem to *buckle under pressure* crumbling under the “weight of expectation”, bringing much pleasure to our detractors I might add. This could be why players become disillusioned and decide to jump ship, Chamberlain, Sanchez and most recently Aubameyang are but a few examples. History is rife with evidence, but to cite a few instances; the Europa final against Chelsea comes to mind’, the tie against Villarreal and our former coach in the Europa League, and of course at Newcastle who only a match prior, conceded 5 unreplied goals against a Man City side.
I did not mention our second leg against Tottenham because it was clear “the establishment” was vested against Arsenal, but that’s another topic for another day. All of these situations painfully remind me troy Deeney’s rather infamous statement targeted at Arsenal; the aptly put “they-lack-the-cojones” remark and the plausibility of that statement. Arsenal, on numerous occasions, have had the opportunity to banish its demons, but our “dear wizards” never seem capable of casting the right spells at the right time, whilst’ inflicting disharmony and disenchantment on the Arsenal fanbase.
Are we making any progress? it depends on who you ask? The shareholders and board members at Arsenal are smiling to the bank (presumably), so a ‘yes’ answer would easily suffice from that lot. A section of the fanbase in support of Arteta would also give a yes answer. But if you have been a fan long enough, if you’ve witnessed the glory days of the unbeaten run, and premier league trophies under Arsene, and you compare and contrast, your answer is quite likely to be the opposite.
In my opinion, we are stagnant at best, stuck in a gorge between being a “formidable” side feared in the premier league and a wannabe “average” club with the (class) of a mid-table-side. At the moment, Arsenal isn’t feared or respected by any Premier League team. All the teams fancy their chances against Arsenal, unlike teams like City, Liverpool and Chelsea, we just don’t command any sort of respect, and this is worrisome.
At times, I wonder what our board meetings are all about, what issues are discussed and what resolutions are made? But back to the status quo and “all things being equal”, we play in the Europa league next season. Let’s track back to the beginning of this season, many pundits could not envision Arsenal being able to secure a slot in any European competition, but successive results emboldened the fanbase. Though I wasn’t a fan of Arteta, our early successes encouraged me to give him the benefit of a doubt, but building on his successes has always been Arteta’s Achilles heel. Case in point, when Arsenal won the Community Shield against Liverpool, we (Arsenal fans) thought we were onto something. The FA Cup success against Chelsea was sweet revenge and the highlight of Arteta’s managerial career at Arsenal, but like I mentioned, Arteta hasn’t been able to build on these successes which is a “red flag” for me. Still on that point, after we lost three (3) in a row and bounced back against Chelsea, Man Utd and West Ham, fans again started “trusting in the process” but his ability to lead this side will always be called to question, despite the club “hurriedly” giving him another contract. I must say, that action was timely, because without it, surely the #ArtetaOut hashtag would have trended massively within social media space inadvertently putting pressure on the Arsenal Board. Yet, I can’t help but wonder whether the Management made that decision in haste. It seems Arsenal has this ‘culture’ of placing individuals over the club and we risk another Wenger-esque situation where fans filled with apathy relinquished season tickets and abandoned the Emirates Stadium in his last year at the club.
To put things into retrospect, because we had the UEFA Champions League in sight, the Europa league now looks rather; (for lack of a better adjective) *distasteful* for “some of us”, but a section of the arsenal fanbase would beg to differ. They would argue that Europa League is progress because we previously did not think we could reach the competition.
My question here is, how likely are we to win the competition? If we had secured Champions League this season (still possible “technically”, but less than likely), getting quality players would have been easier and affordable (in a matter of speaking), but alas! Arsenal would now struggle to attract any quality signings in the forthcoming transfer window.
Let’s now delve into our last transfer activity. Arsenal expended 150m, the most of any Premier League side at the time, and brought in five (5) players namely, Tomiyasu, White, Lokonga, Tavares and of course Ramsdale who is easily the best of the lot. Of the other Four, to be quite candid, we haven’t gotten much, yes’ Tomiyasu is a fans favourite but injuries have hampered him delivering his best when needed, giving opportunity to Soares whom, in my opinion, has covered well in Tomi’s stead. But the same cannot be said of the left side of our defensive wing’ where Tavares has indeed struggled to fill in Tierney’s shoes. Arsenal could have secured the UCL by now if we had won two of our three-streak-loss to Crystal Palace-Brighton-Southampton.
If memory serves me right, we lost Partey to injury in our hard fought 0-1 win against Villa and his replacement after that was much debated. In the end, Arteta (settled for) inexperience over experience by going with Lokonga over Elneny. The result of that decision was a three-streak loss, and for me, that was where we lost the stream for champions league participation. So, I am quite perplexed as to why Arsenal (hurriedly) offered Arteta a new contract immediately after those losses, there’s obviously a bigger problem here at Arsenal.
I remember Liverpool’s pre-Klopp days, specifically when Kenny Dalglish was in charge, they had an abysmal season that year but won the Carling Cup, that didn’t prevent his sack by the Fenway Sports Group. Liverpool continued to hire and fire till they got Klopp. Now we barely remember their struggle days, their ¡ no-nonsense American owners aligned their own interests with that of the Liverpool fanbase and even when the going was tough for them, the fans stood firmly with the club because they could see the Management were putting in effort. That cannot be said of the Arsenal’ where the fans have (always) been at loggerheads with decisions of both manager and Management.
To conclude, that loss against Newcastle was evidence of a much deeper problem with Arteta’s managerial ability. When one chip is (out) of Arteta’s carefully curated first team, the whole team crumbles, he doesn’t seem to have a bench he trusts and lacks the ability to adequately rotate his squad, and who is to blame for this? not Kroenke, because Kroenke has played his part in providing the funds. Arteta was adequately backed but his choice of recruited players have led the team to the precipice of another rather moribund season. I was less than impressed with the five-player acquisition and I stand to be corrected but only Ramsdale has lived up to the billing,
White has been Ok, but Saliba could easily have played that role, his stint at Marseille proves that point and would have saved the club 50 million quid if he was recalled. So, I am less confident that things will change, I don’t think Arteta can win next year’s Europa league (that remains to be seen), and he is sure to struggle for a Champions league place because the likes of Ten Hag and Conte (whom I earnestly wished for Arsenal) would be looking to make a point. Suffice to say, it’s obvious that Top 4 for Arsenal would remain elusive, and the pain in the Arsenal will continue uninterrupted.
Louis
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Video – Mikel Arteta talks ahead of our last game of the season