If Arsenal don’t win a major honour this season Mikel Arteta’s failed
Arsenal and Mikel Arteta really need to win a trophy this season to avoid any backlash from fans come May.
It’s been nearly five years since The Gunners were last glorious in a major competition, when they lifted the 2020 FA Cup for a record 14th time in Arteta’s first season in charge. The North Londoner’s came back from a goal down to beat then Frank Lampard’s Chelsea 2-1, with once relied upon talisman Pierre-Eemerick Aubameyang scoring twice to seal the deal.
Arsenal might’ve not won the league during the 2010s but they still achieved three FA Cups in that time and two on the trot in 2014 and 2015 empathically. The 2014 FA Cup was a real standout witnessing Arsene Wenger’s Arsenal claw back from two goals down against Hull City to win 3-1 in the end in extra-time, with a dog like determination about them which is needed, more so now than ever.
However Arsenal has failed to seal the deal when it comes to silverware since. To start off with during the 2020/21 Europa League campaign after having only lost the final two years earlier to Chelsea 4-1 humiliatingly, Arsenal had the chance to fix that upset.
Once Slavia Prague were knocked down 5-1 on aggregate in the Europa League quarter finals, Villarreal would be waiting for Arteta’s army in the semi finals. Over in Spain the Yellow Submarines sunk The Gunners lost 2-1 in the first tie, with the return leg heading back to England. It was now or never if Arsenal wanted to reach the final but they didn’t even score, drawing 0-0 and being left soul destroyed.
In 2022 the ball was in The Gunners court in terms of reaching the League Cup final. In the semi-finals they were drawn against Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool, after the first leg of the semi’s Arsenal rescued a 0-0 draw at Anfield taking the second dogfight back to the Emirates with the home advantage of nearly 60,000 fans cheering them on, (well mostly)! After a very lacklustre performance from Arsenal they threw away the chance of playing an underperforming Chelsea in the final. The Reds defeated Arsenal 2-0 with Diogo Jota finding the back of the net on both occasions. Liverpool of course went on to pick up the cup at Wembley securing the win intensely 11-10 on penalties, following a surprise 0-0 draw.
The next year Arsenal were eight points clear of the 2022/23 Premier League title chase impressively after 29 matches, with only nine to play. Despite dropping more points after 35 games they were still four points clear of second place Manchester City with the title surely inevitable (or not)! On the 20th May 2023 it was official, Arsenal had chucked away the Premier League title after Nottingham Forest beat them 1-0 at the City Ground gut wrenchingly.
Last season Arsenal tripped up again disassociating themselves with a Premier League double! We lost the title by two points despite losing only one game from new Years’ Day to the last day of the season, that game occurred on home soil versus Aston Villa in a 0-2 blow to our Premier League hopes!
We have been “same old Arsenal” for far too long now, hence why we’ve gone 21 years this season without winning the Premier League which many young fans can barely scratch their heads to remember. This needs to change urgently!
Will Arteta’s Arsenal finally learn their lesson this season?
Liam Harding
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I agree with you. If we don’t win at least two trophies this season, our process for years will be a failure and we won’t be able to win it again.
The last part of your comment is ridiculous. May be you misspoke and meant to say “We might find it more tougher to win the title there after”.
That what the manager is there for? Too win trophies.
It becomes more difficult to justify the longer it goes on really. As I’ve said before, Arteta’s focus (to the detriment of any other trophy) on winning the EPL means that nothing less than winning it will do.
Good though it would be, I don’t really see a domestic cup being much compensation for another near miss in the EPL this season (assuming we don’t win the CL – not very likely). The time for winning the odd cup was after the initial F A Cup win – now it’s really got to be the EPL (or, in the words of the old song, “All or Nothing At All”).
Klopp’s liverpool were a very strong team and they only won it once. Mancity are not easy to beat in the long run. Its easier to beat them than to actually snatch the league from them.
Liverpool also won a domestic cup, Premier league, and Champions League during Klopp’s time at Liverpool.
Hopefully we can boast the same in 9 years, if not questions should be asked.
If some say “Arteta wasn’t as experienced as Klopp” then why did Arteta get the job as a rookie?
They obviously hired Arteta because they clearly believed in him, and believed how good he could become. And part of being good is having trophies and titles as evidence.
Without them, “good” is only an opinion, because there is no tangible evidence to base it on.
Same reason we parted ways from Wenger and Emery, they were deemed not “good” enough.
The project is completed, and now it is time to produce. Everything has been provided in terms of time, money, and decisions to build a team of his players.
Personally ilike Arteta as manager, but I understand this project is supposed to result in trophies.
An FA Cup is nice, but a PL title is not unreasonable within the next 3 years. Otherwise hard questions and decisions need to be made.
I think that the timescale will be tighter than three years. Given the two near misses recently, I don’t see KSE waiting until summer 2027 to see if the EPL can be won by Arteta. I know he’s signed a new contract, but when did that ever prevent “changes” being made?
I suspect they’ll be looking for something this season or next at the latest, or that will be four consecutive seasons of near misses – assuming they are all near misses of course.
There’s also the effect of that on our key players. Are they going to wait around for silverware season after season? I can imagine the pitch that, say, Real Madrid may make – look what you’ve won in the last three seasons or so against what you would have won here.
The “project” as you call it needs to produce now in my opinion.
@Bertie.
The Kroenkes see things completely different from us the normal Internet football experts. They seem to understand that this Man City under Pep are the greatest EPL side so far. So as long as Arteta stays on Pep’s cocktails and does not drop off a cliff, The Kroenke’s will stick with him.
Why would one want to get rid of Arteta if he keeps finishing 2nd behind a beast of a manager (Pep)?. As long as Arteta remains competitive against Pep then the club will not get rid of him. And why would they? We’ve all have got stop being surface level thinkers. The grass is not always green on the other side.
I disagree. I think KSE want to get Arsenal into as good a shape as they can in in order to sell the club for as big a profit as they can at a time of their choosing. Arsenal doesn’t, and never has, fitted in with the rest of the KSE franchise.
Their aim is club profitability of course, but it’s also a question of the profile that goes with it – and there’s not a better way to improve a club’s profile than winning trophies, preferably big ones. We’ve all noticed the likes of City and Real Madrid, among others – who couldn’t have?
After all, people don’t look to the likes of, say, Real Madrid primarily for their business acumen, pretty good though that is. It’s their success (the silverware they win) that attracts their massive sponsorship and commercial deals, some of the biggest in the football world. It’s the image of RM players holding the latest trophy with “your” logo on the shirt or plastered across the stadium – the association with success. I don’t think coming second, particularly to US friends like KSE, counts that much – it’s not the “winning profile” they want.
So, this isn’t “surface level thinking” as you put it, it’s about maximising the asset (Arsenal FC) as fast and as much as possible. If Arteta shows he’s the man who can help to do that now, he’ll be fine. If he can’t, he’ll be out in my opinion. It happens in these situations, sometimes it works, other times it doesn’t – but it doesn’t stop it happening.
**I disagree. I think KSE want to get Arsenal into as good a shape as they can in in order to sell the club for as big a profit as they can at a time of their choosing. Arsenal doesn’t, and never has, fitted in with the rest of the KSE franchise.**
You lost me here. There is absolutely no evidence when it comes to The Kroenke’s to back up your assertion. Can you list the names of any Kroenke Sports franchise that they bought and sold it for profit? Stan does not seem to sell his sports franchises. Josh Kroenke has been talking about wanting to get more planning permission in order to increase the Emirates seating capacity etc..
I am not saying that they wouldn’t sell Arsenal FC if they decided to, but I just don’t see any evidence to backup that statement you made about what The Kroenke’s overall plan for Arsenal is.. Their business history is all there for all of us to look at and I don’t see anything close to what you are saying here.
That’s all I am saying.
We haven’t won the league in over 20 years Bertie so I don’t think 4 years with near misses will matter.
If Arteta ceases to be competitive or Pep leaves City and we fail to capitalise then that is a different discussion
Exactly. This is what some of us keep saying but other fans are not buying it. They have a completely different viewpoint.
The sense of entitlement is overwhelming.
Or should that be… underwhelming?
If it’s about winning the league, then we’ve been the nearly men for over 2 decades. Cup glory is very welcome and I’d love Arsenal to win a cup competition this season but the big prize is the league.
Am I being an Arteta apologist? Maybe, but when Manchester City have won 7 out of the last 11 titles (Chelsea 2 & Liverpool and Leicester once) it shows the total dominance after years of heavy City investment and getting one of the world’s best managers to lead it to further success. Leicester winning was a great story but they haven’t been stayers. Was it 9 years at Liverpool for Klopp and he came out with one league win (success in other trophies though) and walked away having suffered burnout?
I felt when Emery was removed, the club wasn’t going to be an easy fix and so it has proved. Those who thought a couple of years were needed to turn it round were blinkered imo.
The core of the team 2 plus years ago was very heavily laden with young players – most of whom hadn’t won an awful lot. Now, those young players are maturing and learning about a winning mentality. As heartbreaking as it was, losing out has shaped them and it shows. The other reason to be hopeful is the emergence of the academy players being introduced into the first team. I know it was a cup game against much lower opposition but none looked out of place. The club is building
@SueP
A fair enough assessment…
I do believe the guys need to win something this season in order to maintain any sense of winning mentality.
Very true NYG
Hope it’s the league and cup double 😊
Is this the appropriate time for this conversation though?
If not now, then when?
Another 5 years without a title or trophy?
Another decade? 20 years since our last PL title. First it was a stadium needed to compete, now we have the Emirates. Then it was KSE needed complete ownership; been done for years now. Then needed investment and rebuild squad; ok it’s done.
With 800 million in spending, completely rebuilding the squad, and finishing 2nd twice, I ask again; if not now, then when?
There have been only 2 clubs that have been able to throw money at it – Chelsea and City – to overtake Utd and Arsenal. Abramovitch kept refreshing the managers and City got Pep and even under RA I think Chelsea would have struggled to overturn the combined strength of City & Guardiola. It’s been scraps for everyone else. It’s like trying to win Wimbledon knowing that over umpteen years Djokovic is facing you at the other end.
As for the recent investment that is never a guarantee. Utd have spent fortunes over the years and still haven’t replaced Fergie. I think we are on the cusp and should we lift Gunsmoke’s ‘big jug’ in May it will be a huge combined effort from the Board and Arteta. City still hold all the cards but if it takes the unfortunate injury to Rodri to get us there, I won’t be complaining