William Gallas has given a scathing assessment of Arsenal’s performance under Mikel Arteta.
The Gunners made the Spaniard their boss at the end of 2019, and he has kept the job for two full seasons now.
Arsenal made great progress in the last campaign, and they nearly secured a top-four spot.
However, Tottenham eventually beat them to a place inside it, and they finished fifth.
Considering that they were not in any European competition in the last campaign, that is considerable progress.
However, Gallas says they have to play in the UCL, and because Arteta was unable to achieve that, he has failed.
The former defender said, as quoted by Metro Sport:
‘For me, last season he failed because he didn’t qualify for the Champions League. That is the minimum for Arsenal, with the story of Arsenal, they have to play the Champions League.
‘It didn’t happen, they didn’t qualify, so this season again they will be focussed on the Premier League, the FA Cup, the Carabao Cup. I know he won the FA Cup in 2020 and the Community Shield, but it’s not enough for a big club like Arsenal, so for me he has failed.’
Just Arsenal Opinion
We truly should be in the Champions League every season, but Arteta inherited a team that was incapable of achieving that.
We needed a major rebuild after Arsene Wenger left, and he is now helping to reconstruct the team.
The former midfielder needs more time to make this club great again, and we should give him that.