As we have seen many many times in the Premier League, when a manager is in such a bad position that there are rumours that there is a sacking on the way, The boss or the Board some out and give a public vote of confidence in support of the manager.
This is usually done just before the manager gets told he is in the last chance saloon, and if nothing improves quickly then they will have no choice bit to sack him.
It looks to me that that is exactly where Mikel Arteta is now, and he has already stressed to the Arsenal players that nothing less than a win will do against Burnley on Sunday, and, sure enough, the Gunners chief executive Vinai Venkatesham has issued a message of support for Arteta. ‘With Mikel we have got a number of things,’ Venkatesham told Henry Winter in The Times.
‘You’ve got an individual who has extraordinary experience in the Premier League across his time at Arsenal, Everton, Man City and then back at Arsenal.
‘You have got a guy that loves this club and understands what it means to play for this club, and he was obviously captain here. You’ve got a guy who is a real team player.
‘The team he’s formed with Edu [the technical director], and also his technical staff, is really, really strong.
‘You’ve got a guy who is absolutely driven to succeed and be successful on the pitch, but doing it in a way that respects our history and traditions. So I think with him we have got a really, really powerful individual.’
It has already been reported that Arteta has only got three games to save his job, and the way that the Spaniard has been insisting to the players that only a win will do, does that mean that he has been given an ultimatum himeslf?