What should we expect from Arsenal and Arteta this season?
By Vivek Julka
Two back to back 2nd place finishes have solidified Arsenal as contenders to Man City’s throne. However, this season, Mikel Arteta must turn us from challengers into winners.
More than £800million spent and five years on the job, it is time for Arteta to deliver silverware now. Having only won one FA Cup, four years ago which was with Unai Emery’s team, the fans have to demand more now.
Arteta has improved us, there is no denying that, as we amassed 89 points last season, pushing Man City all the way. But finishing runners up again next season shouldn’t be deemed as progress again, this is stagnating until we inevitably decline.
A recurring problem of Arteta’s reign is the way he dismisses the domestic cup competitions. Although they are not the biggest of trophies, a club and manager that have won nothing in almost five years should have a bit more respect for these trophies.
Since winning the FA Cup in 2020, we haven’t made it past the fifth round, that is appalling as we are record winners of the competition. This group of players haven’t won anything together, so winning a cup would breed confidence and give them extra belief that they can win the Premier League.
Man United finished 8th but won the FA Cup and they are in a far worse position than us, so we need start winning silverware as we have a very good team, because this will be huge missed opportunity if we fail to do so.
Our lack business this summer will probably come back to bite us again if we don’t do anything in the remaining two weeks. The signing of Riccardo Calafiori is a good addition to our backline and hopefully the Mikel Merino deal will finally get done. If the reported £17million is the price that is a good deal.
But a striker should have been the priority, I said this two years ago even when Gabriel Jesus signed for us. Even though Kai Havertz did a good job up front in the second half of last season and if we go with him again this season, I still expect us to push Man City again but to eclipse them, we need a proper striker.
Ivan Toney would be perfect as his price tag seems to have dropped but the consensus was that Arteta didn’t like his attitude in a meeting with him. But the fact is he will score at least 20 goals in the league in this Arsenal team.
Also valuing Eddie Nketiah at £30 million was another mistake from Edu adding onto the decision to give Nketiah, a player who couldn’t start for Leeds United in the Championship £100k a week at Arsenal. Just sell him, take the £25 million and use that money towards Ivan Toney.
Arteta has to win something this season or he has to be sacked. If it’s an FA Cup or Carabao Cup we must still go toe-to-toe with Man City to the end and give the Champions League a better go this time round. And if Arsenal win the Premier League, Mikel Arteta will prove he is not a nearly man.
Vivek
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“Arteta has to win something this season or he has to be sacked”
Such a wild statement to make. The current Man City are possibly one of the greatest teams of all time, definitely of the PL era which is saying something. All we can do is try to surpass that, Pep won’t be there forever and if he does leave soon Mikel could bring Arsenal the same level of dominance in the PL for a sustained period. Also, whilst I expect a good showing in the CL, for many players it’ll only be their second season in it, we can hope but you can’t honestly expect us to brush aside the likes of Real who are genuine experts of the competition.
Also, if Arteta were to be sacked, who on earth would replace him? Who could possibly instil the same belief in our squad? Help restructure the club in such a fashion thats won the fans back and made us a force again? I’m sure there may be options but realistically, it’s way too big a gamble to risk finding out. Just be happy with constant improvement, as thats what we’ve been seeing. If a head must roll I’d sooner see it be Edu who to be quite frank, is way too relaxed when it comes to securing signings, but even then, losing him as part of the structure could destabilise the club even more. Be careful what you wish for and respect where the club is at after such a terrible period.
Setting aside the PL, Arsenal’s failure under Arteta to win any other trophy since the 2019-20 F A Cup victory does stick out. Clubs less good in the PL than Arsenal recently have at least managed a domestic cup from time to time.
Such a trophy success for Arsenal would have given many of the players some experience of what winning (a trophy) is actually like – something many continue to lack.
It seems clear that Arteta has really prioritised the PL over everything, which is fair enough on one level of course, but a “big” club should be able to fight effectively on more than one front consecutively. City, who else, being the ultimate example with a clean sweep of the four domestic trophies a few seasons ago.
While I’m not suggesting that Arsenal will duplicate that feat anytime soon, a win in a domestic cup together with a really big (successful, hopefully) effort in the PL shouldn’t be beyond them in 2024-25.
On the bigger front, I think that Arteta will need silverware quickly to retain the confidence of the owners, KSE. There’s a limit to how often you can be the “nearly man” and when that’s reached you become “yesterday’s man” pretty quickly!
When people were mentioning Isak,i personally hoped we could get Dominic Solanke .This guy was cut for us and he would give us a new dimension attacking wise.
Now that he is gone,let’s trust G.Jesus to deputise Havertz hoping it works well.
My concern for the team is Saka.It should be our priority now to get a player capable of performing like him in that position. We do not have anyone who can replicate his contribution to the team in that role, which is very risky.
I believe Arteta and the players will win EPL or UCL this year, because Man City would likely get affected by the punishment
Wow, Arsenal winning the UCL! Even if City are punished – and let’s wait and see as they have an unfortunate habit of “dodging the bullet” as far as that’s concerned – how about Real Madrid? They picked up their first trophy of the season yesterday and new boy Mbappe scored as well. I think they may pose a bit of a problem.
Real Madrid almost lost against Atalanta because they didn’t have a strong CF to do hold-up play and they had no left-footed attacker in their starting lineup
I think they won’t win anything with that lineup
@gai “they won’t win anything with that lineup”, they’ve won a trophy already. Your thought process is baffling at times, like how would you even think that, even if you hate Real Madrid you can’t deny that’s the best squad in the world right now. Fact
Sacking MA for not winning something this season would be madness imo. Also, I don’t believe winning a cup would breed confidence and give the players any extra belief that they can win the PL title, they’re not stupid and can see reality. He should use the cups to give rest to the PL starters and play the youth and seconds. If the semi-finals of the FA Cup or final of the EFL are reached, then the top players can be used to bring home silverware.
It may be madness (and, personally, I don’t think it will happen as a result of anything in 2024-25), but the longer Arsenal go without silverware the more edgy KSE are almost certain to get.
I disagree that winning a domestic cup wouldn’t breed confidence – a winner’s mentality is a winning mentality and that first trophy (which it would be for many of our players in an Arsenal shirt) still counts, be it PL or domestic cup.
Back in the day, Utd were reported to be close to sacking Ferguson after a few years. What saved him was the F A Cup in 1990 – his first trophy there. He said winning it instilled the mentality into his players – and the rest is, as they say, history.
In my opinion, Arteta needs to win something pretty soon to kick start what will hopefully be Arsenal’s next era of success. If not, then someone else will probably be brought in to try.
you mean like your often referenced Man United and Ten Haag winning the FA Cup – you think that is success and the blueprint for Arsenal, utter nonsense, madness, embarrassing
100% Arsenal, trophy or no trophy
Arteta does NOT disrespect the domestic trophies at all, that is a total wrong statement. How does he disrespect them? We put out strong teams in ALL the cup competitions but Arteta has not found a way to play cup or knockout football. In fact, his record is embarrassing. He doesn’t disrespect them. The FACT that we haven’t got a WC striker, is part of the problem we can’t actually win anything.
new striker boreathon – everything leads to that door…snore
Really!!!!!! Snore on then.
trophy 🏆 🏆 🏆 🏆 no excuses this season no complain just bring in silverware this team need silverware make sure that happens 😉 😀 👍
My main concern with Arteta is his lack of multitasking ability to juggle more than one competition. He just seems to be a one competition in any given season. I want to see him challenge for the title and at the same time go farther (final or semi finals in cup competition). It’s a big concern to me.
But I hope to see a massive turnaround this season. 🤞
I agree with you there. It’s not a question (as others have said) of “disrespecting” particular competitions I think it’s Arteta knowing that winning the PL is clearly the main priority.
However, that doesn’t preclude a club the size of Arsenal with pretensions to be the leading club in England from effectively challenging for trophies on more than one front at a time.
Personally IMHO I don’t think it is “silverware or else” regarding Arteta’s management; yet anyway.
He certainly has problems multitasking several competitions at once, and lack of rotation does not help.
If we don’t win any trophies this year I still would not sack him
Instead I would reduce his responsibilities so he can focus on the first team solely.
Arteta has too many irons in the fire and should reduce some of his responsibilities.
Financial support was given, we have a highly talented squad, and several players have received accolades even.
Arteta’s extension is a given, but it should be the last one without hard goals.
3 years from now if we still have no trophy then he should go. 8 years without a trophy after nearly 1 billion spent on the squad is more than enough.
If we finish top 4 I’ll be astonished..
Why? We finished 2nd last year and our squad is basically the same.
For Arsenal to be competitive in all tournaments, Arteta needs to be flexible and rotate his players more and show faith in youth/Academy players. For example he shouldnt overrun Saka and by the time the season ends, Saka is nearly burnt out, this shouldnt happen. By proper management and rotation, Arsenal can go deep in all competitions and even win them.