Arsenal is long overdue for a major trophy, and if they fail to secure one by the end of this season, serious questions need to be asked about the club’s decision-makers. The Gunners boast some of the finest players in England and made key signings in the summer transfer window to strengthen their squad. However, despite their talent, they have not performed at the level expected by their fans, even though injuries have undeniably played a role in their struggles.
While Arsenal have quality across the pitch, the real issue is availability. How many of their top players are fully fit? The club had an opportunity to reinforce their squad in the January transfer window, particularly in attack, but chose to stand still. Instead of bringing in reinforcements, they opted to rely on their current options and wait until the summer to make further changes.
That decision is now proving costly, as the team struggles to win games and sees its title hopes fade. The lack of a recognised striker has become a glaring problem, and it is baffling that Arsenal did not address this in January when they had the chance. The consequences of that inaction are now playing out on the pitch, where the Gunners are struggling to keep pace in the Premier League and other competitions.
If Arsenal end this season without a trophy, then there must be accountability. Whether it is Mikel Arteta or the decision-makers above him, someone has to take responsibility for failing to strengthen the squad when it was desperately needed. The club cannot afford to keep making the same mistakes and expecting different results.
Winning silverware is the standard for a club of Arsenal’s stature, and anything less should not be acceptable. If they fail again, changes must be made to ensure that history does not repeat itself.
ADMIN COMMENT
So here are some simple rules which I must insist commenters follow….
You agree not to give any personal abuse to other Arsenal fans. Everyone is allowed to hold their own opinions even if you disagree with them. It COSTS NOTHING TO BE POLITE TO OTHER ARSENAL FANS.
I don’t think Kroenke will be willing to pay Arteta’s 2-year severance package this year, but it will be a different case in June 2026
En quoi, il a failli ARTETA ?
C’est vrai que c’est facile de remporter la 1 ère League. La concurrence est faible !!!
I love a lot of what Arteta has done at Arsenal, and in many ways, he’s the least of our problems when you look at the stats, but I did feel he should go if we won nothing this season.
Only for so long can we support progress without anything tangible to show for it.
However, despite some of Arteta’s faults this season, I cannot ignore the fact that he’s been incredibly unlucky with the injuries and red cards. I have never seen anything like it.
We could have had Ancelotti in charge this season, and it would have made no difference.
So, being a realist, and considering the circumstances, I have changed my opinion. Next season he has to win something, and I am not even sure the League Cup would be enough.
What the club really needs to do, is to nail on the summer transfer window, and that will restore some faith.
Lucy78,
Yet another one of these fans that come out with next season we must win a trophy or it should be Arteta out. And then the next season, and then the next season, and then the next season. Is anyone spotting a familiar pattern here.
Its like watching an episode of Only Fools and Horses, where Del Boy would say. Rodney, this time next year we’ll be millionaires.
Its always next year with Arsenal to.🙄🤦♂️🤷♂️
You are right on the money there. all JA Arteta apologists said we should give him 3 years, then they changed to five until they give up. Now they want him to see out his contract, so 8 years.
When one base their relevance on a platform like this on a blind following of a substandard manager instead of just having honest views, they will naturally want him to stay for their own relevance.
Even more so because they have given some so much grief over it.
I think we should give him another 5, if he doesn’t win anything in that 5, then thats it, no more chances, finished, 5 more years again and thats definitely it. If he can’t win anything in 15 years, you have to think, it would be a hard decision to give him another 5 and that would be 20 years. I suppose 20 years would be it, unless……….
Reggie,
Behave yourself, your running the risk of upsetting the Arteta can’t get anything wrong fans out there.🤣😂😉👍
Derek
No, I am just thinking like an adult and being a realist. Football fans aren’t the most intelligent of folks as we see far too often on here, and refuse to see any context.
If Federer in his pomp was in a final against a poor player, we’d expect him to win. But then if he broke his wrist during the match, how could you possible not expect anything other than a defeat?
But according to people like yourselves – “I don’t care! It’s Federer, he should be winning!” And that’s my point. You refuse to look at the context.
Seriously, what were your expectations for this season given the CONTEXT! Tons of injuries, and 5 red cards?
At what point do we question why we have so many injuries and red cards (understanding probably a couple of those reds were unfair), and particularly why they affect the team so much? An injury to Odegaard at the start of the season was a crisis on it’s own. An injury to saka at that time (instead of odegaard) would probably have been even worse. Jesus has been injured frequently since he joined, and so we were always banking on havertz (a player who clearly wasn’t signed to play CF) staying fit all season. That’s three key positions where we’re blatantly under stocked, after spending 100s of millions across 5 seasons. How is that anything other than poor management? Can we really continue to blame misfortune at this point?
Good points Davi
To cut to the chase, I’d say the investment was essential looking back at where we were. Naturally, further investment is made on a rolling basis as older players etc fall off at the other end of the conveyor belt so the idea that X amount has been spent is reasonable but only up to a point. Other clubs have spent more- even Spurs. City have acted expensively to bolster a poorly performing team. Liverpool spent £80m on Nunez and probably has a worse return than Havertz
Some of the signings haven’t worked out and you and I know who they are. Money wasted of course. Those players should have been used as the cover you refer to but instead have weakened the squad and wasted transfer funds
No denying that a striker should have been signed. In terms of injury issues it’s worth looking at TransferMarkt to see how bad it is. Liverpool by comparison have had a much more settled season.
👍
I do see this as mismanagement, though. The attack has clearly been neglected while we’ve bought defender after defender. I think the only signings we’ve made that were expected to immediately help the attack were jesus (divisive, would have been good imo but injuries have ruined him), trossard (good signing), havertz (divisive but mostly positive imo) and Vieira (disaster) – and two of those currently comprise all of our CF options. Please correct me if I’m missing someone, but that looks terrible to me. (I’m not counting marquinhos as I saw him as a “potential” signing, whereas I think the others were expected to be first team ready)
We’ve even handed out large contracts to sub par players just to fill bench spots for a year or two rather than buy in attacking players. We have spent a lot of money, but a lot of it very badly.
True. They knew in the summer that we had no center forward. That was not adresse. Comes winter market and two of our strikers are injured. Still not adressed…Someone gotta be held accountable .
Firstly Lucy78,
If Federer broke his wrist he would have to retire injured, therefore the match would won by his opponent.
Secondly, yes we’ve had some injury’s this season as apposed to last season. But there’s a chance that can happen in nay given season. So that makes it even more important that the second highest paid manager in football, makes sure the squad is adequately prepared for such eventuality’s.
Something Arteta has failed to do in 5 seasons now. Going into this season, Arteta new of Jesus injury record, he knew that he needed a striker and has done for the last three seasons, he knew he needed better cover for Saka, and while Nwaneri has been a pleasant surprise, the loaning of Sterling tells you all you need to know about this manager.
While you can’t foresee injury’s, you can better prepare for them.
Thirdly, you mention 5 red cards. Well who’s fault is that, the players need to take responsibility for that. (And please none of this conspiracy crap, that some fans like to go on about).
And Finally Lucy78, I did notice your veiled dig at me. Suggesting that I am not an adult, and that being a football fan I’m not intelligent. Well I have never claimed to be the sharpest tool in the box. But one thing I am, and that’s honest.
Your last sentence is so telling, you talk about context, and then talk about the tons of injuries, and 5 red cards. Well take note of my second and third points.
So Lucy78, you keep making those excuse’s for Arteta if you like. If second place is acceptable to you, then fine.
But it’s not with me, this is one of the biggest clubs in world football. The third biggest in this country. And with the history that the club has and with it’s trophy winning history, any manager that takes on the position is expected by the fans, (well those with ambition that is) to win trophy’s.
Something that this manager is consistently failing to achieve. But don’t worry, we might finish second again, WHOOPEE! 🙄🤦♂️🤷♂️
We have ended the season without a trophy already and nothing will happen to the board or the manager.
Arteta will see out his contract and might even get an extension if he delivers Champions League qualification money to Kroenke.
The fans pay heavy expensive tickets and get frustration and mockery in return.
IMO, if Arsenal wins nothing this season which is most likely, “some persons” must take the blame. The reason can’t be down to someone’s decision alone. I would say The Arsenal board and Arteta should be be blamed.
Arteta, in many press briefings has said he has enough in his armoury to win games, but this statement turned out not to be so. A depleted squad, wrong team selection and tactics at times is all on Arteta, And the board for not being ambitious enough to make some signings and make positive decisions for the club.
Good luck with that. This club is not built like that. Top four is their priority and anything beyond that is just a bonus. Arteta will be at the club until the end of his contract as long as he delivers top four. He is been unlucky with injuries but I feel like he has peaked and running out of ideas. He doesn’t evolve when his plan A is not working.
He should be sacked for negilance ,! We are going backwards with him as our manager .
We will not win anything with him as manager ..
Same problem for our last 3 seasons , and he ignored
It . He seems to be stubborn .. but he ran out of “his ideas” .
The standard for Arsenal over 2 decades has been to not win the league for a variety of reasons. As we know, since its inception, only a handful of clubs have actually won it. Before Arteta it was repaying the debt and since then it has been the dominance of one club – until this season when a different one is top dog.
Lucy78 referred to the injuries which I agree with. A reasonably settled side has been wishful thinking
Liverpool have been really excellent and deserve their large lead. I’d like to factor in from the article that I’m not seeing Arsenal struggling to keep pace with the other clubs. I’d say the clubs below us haven’t been any better than us quite honestly. We wouldn’t be 2nd if they were
That said, when so much promise was expected after the 2 second place finishes and with the City slide, it’s galling to have some performances that are so below par.
What I’m fearful of is a backlash developing to the point that the board act hastily. With the remaining games to gauge the players working relationship with Arteta and how they come back from disappointment as the season progresses, will determine what happens next.
Sue what happened against Newcastle with a basically fully fit squad? Same as always. Collapsed!!!!
What happened against Utd, in the F A cup, ground hog day.
jimmy thierry henry collision biscan carragher! i name him that way. why you despise more than the 1b people residing in the continent of mother africa? for the sake of biscan the collaborator you need not have said that word. how many EPL trophies you sincerely won in your too long EPL career? if not with england three lions? look inside out liverpool lad!
Yes one word-name ,Arteta!
Managers will always be at fault that’s part and parcel of football life .
There are better managers out there so not sure what all the fuss is about .
AFC = Arsenal football club not Arteta football club .
Dan Kit,
Well said. 👍👍👍👍👍
Fact is Arteta has done quite well at Arsenal but some of his decisions have cost the club dearly and I add my voice to the opinion that he must leave if Arsenal are unable to win any silverware this season. Sometimes he is too egoistic to my liking and he has not be arsed his coaching tactics which makes it very easy for teams to counter our style of play just like Westham did last Saturday.
The writer rightly said that every clubs ambition is to win silver wares and that includes Arsenal Fc. But the big question here is – is it truly The Kronke’s ambition? If they do they would have ended AW’s contract at least 2 years after declining set in and not the tortures 11 years of no Epl trophy. They luckily hired Unai Emry that took the club to Europa finals in his first season but lost it due to management’s insistence that he must be starting Ozil. The management and The Kronke’s turned their back on his demands on how to move the club forward. They refused to give him the money and back up that Arteta has enjoyed these 5 seasons. These 3 cabin crew – The Kronke’s, Management and Arteta are flying an aircraft that is heading nowhere, their destination is not in sight at all though it looks like but the truth is that it’s not. Arteta’s mentor knows that you must have a balance team to win the Epl but it’s only the above 3 that thinks otherwise and have failed to prove themselves right for the past 5 seasons. And the fake fans that doesn’t want Arsenal Fc to bounce back are attacking us for saying the truth, lying to themselves by telling us to trust the process, of course we trust the process will never land us Epl trophy 🏆 certainly. There’s no way Barca, Bayern Munich, Real Madrid, PSG or even Napoli will miss the league trophy for three consecutive seasons and they still retain the manager. Bayern Munich lost the Bundisliga title to Bayern Leverkusen and the manager was sent packing, Vincent Kompany that was in charge of Championship Burnley 2 seasons ago was hired by them in addition to Harry Kane and Michael Olise that Arteta overlooked and they are back to the top. $63m. Alexander
Ipsak that New Castle Utd. hired in July 2022 has scored 50 goals and that’s more than the combined goals (-45) of Arteta’s acclaimed strikers Gabriel Jesus $45m & Kai Havertz $65m. Some people will ask if you sack Arteta who will the club hire? Please hire Xavi for he won everything while playing for Barcelona and give him all the support that Arteta enjoyed. The Kronke’s should seriously take appraisal of the Management and do the needful ASAP. NO MATTER WHAT ARTETA MUST BE RELIEVED OF HIS JOB AT ARSENAL, IT’S BIGGER THAN HIM AND HE’S AT LOSS OF POSITIVE IDEAS.
Fact is Arteta has done quite well at Arsenal but some of his decisions have cost the club dearly and I add my voice to the opinion that he must leave if Arsenal are unable to win any silverware this season. Sometimes he is too egoistic to my liking and he has not been able to vary his coaching tactics which makes it very easy for teams to counter our style of play just like Westham did last Saturday.
There was every opportunity to have got at least one forward player on loan during the winter window but chose not to. Players like Kolo Muani, Rashford and the likes were available but Arteta and Arsenal didn’t bother to beef up the attack.
The Gunners boast some of the finest players in England
That’s the issue – we don’t
Agreed Dan
Fans saying odegaard is as good as KDB
Saka better than salah .
Rice on par with Rodri
To much biased hype
I would say though that saka is getting there and Gabriel and Saliba are the best centre pairing in the league and Saliba is not far off world class .
As for the rest seen a lot better over the last 4 decades I’ve been a fan wearing an Arsenal shirt .
Don’t forget Havertz predicted to score more then Halland
Nwaneri more skilful then lemal
Skelley compared to Cole
And Mbappe would not make us better because of his attitude
True the club did not address the issue in January, but why aren’t people talking about Arteta failing to address the issue in the Summer?
5 years and we finally have a backup to Saka in Sterling; at least we have a body as backup finally. Who is at fault for this? No money from ownership? Did the board force Arteta to buy another LB and DM in the Summer?
Everyone knows Jesus is a poor striker; known that since City benched him then sold him. Arteta then brought in Jesus as our striker? Poor poor decision.
Then when the Havertz midfield experiment failed, he was moved to striker for the injured Jesus. I don’t blame either Havertz or Jesus, they are not strikers; I blame Arteta for forcing square pegs in round holes.
How about yet another LB before a striker, a winger, or a B2B or attacking midfielder? Who made those decisions?
Tired of hearing the board and ownership getting blamed for Arteta’s poor decisions. It is Arteta’s team, hand picked by Arteta himself, and only funded by ownership.
I doubt winning the league was set out as the aim before the start of the season.
It was all about getting in there and rubbing shoulders with both City and Pool and see what happens afterwards.
That could explain the indifference during the January transfer window.
In as much as we are in and around the top four, the objective has been met.
I doubt there’ll be consequences.
Whatever be the case It’s Arteta I pity the most here.
He’s not helping his reputation with his stubbornness and unwillingness to evolve.
Even though an ownership that spends £700 million can hardly be considered as lacking ambition. It’s easy to haul insults at them (not saying they are faultless).
But we shouldn’t forget they provided the money, it’s Arteta and Co. that decided the players we bought. Something that left us with four left backs and no single attacker on the bench in the game against Leicester.
The only consequence I foresee is the owners being forced to act due to mass fan reaction/protest, if nothing changes by this time next season.
We will loose our best players by not winning a trophy.
Arteta is not able to buy strikers he has no clue.
He has to go if not we will be overtaken next year.
If we do not win anything this season, I would like to see ambition from the owners and get a manager who can. We can, if we are supposed to be a big club, stay as we are. The summer will tell us a lot from the owner, who have been very supportive of success so far. But the experiment with Arteta was always doomed to fail as far as winning something. He is devoid of the knowledge and skill required.
The QUESTION is who should pay ?
It is not far fetched, except Arsenal sporting goals are not Trophy and here is a manager who is a learner on the job calling BIG shots, bigger than himself. He calls the shots, he should pay.
Klopp left Liverpool, by announcing he was leaving, on self assessment. He has done well for Liverpool, in Ucl excellent, epl always competing, his team didn’t lose identity, but he realised, he had NOT GOT THE FORMULA TO WIN EPL, remember he won the league by default, not by competition. He could not find any excuse to try again, BECAUSE, all Klopp successes were nothing special, he did what Liverpool had always done before. Now, Liverpool have got a manager who is in the money to win the epl, really win since many many years of trying.
So what has Arteta done in line with what Arsenal have always done before and had not done before in positive contribution. The FA Cup was won by players he despised to manage.
Honourable men, know their limit, Arteta is less qualified for the job, he should resign not wait to be sacked
MA Has done well under challenging circumstances. Please add up the influence of PGMOL in your assessment of him. If it was not for their meddling Arsenal could have won the league by now. Even if you get a coach from the Moon Arsenal will not win the league as long as they are targeted by the PGMOL. The current injury situation is caused by the Refs failing to protect our players from rough challenges. So whoever comes in as coach is bound to fail until the PGMOL issue of partiality is addressed.
It’s funny though isn’t it
PGMOL had nothing to do with Saturday’s performance?
The Carabo Cup exit ?
The FA Cup ?
All the evidence was there that we needed help in January
Sure you had the same few readers who for sake of positivity said we didn’t need anyone ,there were zero options , defended the Watkins ‘ offer ‘
Yet majority said transfer window would cost us everything
If we saw it , how could our owners not ?
They don’t care that’s why
I can’t think of anybody suggesting that reinforcements weren’t required.
What most certainly would have been pointed out, Dan, is the thinking of the club as to why they wouldn’t do anything. All the signs were there that signing a player was unlikely
And yet SueP,
Arsenal supposedly put in a bid for Watkins.
I can send you some quotes if you like
Well I hope they’re not from me. The view expressed was no signings were expected which changed when Jesus got injured. I don’t recall anybody thinking the Squad was strong enough in its own right so I look forward to the link
I’ll send you the quotes as I don’t want to call anyone out
You have been more defending that no one was possibly available?
To that extent, I took the view that – in general – Arsenal came to the table late. Clearly from Arteta’s own words, incoming players were not expected. That changed and I think it’s likely they were caught out with other clubs further along in the process. With good old hindsight signing someone- a loan – would have been better than nothing. Upsetting a summer window should not be an option, particularly with making up ground looking fragile. I find it hard to believe that anyone would think we were strong enough as we stood In mid to late January. Accepting the situation is one thing but saying we were good enough to overcome Liverpool with so little fire power is another thing
Mr S,
Another conspiracy theorist. How many of them are there?. 🙄🤦♂️🤷♂️
I don’t think…. it’s right for anyone to say Mikel Arteta is cause of the current Arsenal troubles and injuries.
Arteta came publically to ask for a striker in January window, even
last Summer’s transfer business was a mess in my view…. The board is to blame….. not the Manager.
No disrespect intended Eric, but that’s complete rubbish. It’s not the owners fault that he gave Arteta funds to buy a striker, but instead Arteta bought two defensive minded players in Calafiori and Merino.
How can you blame the board. Put the blame fairly and squarely where it belongs and that is with Arteta full stop. 🙄🤦♂️🤷♂️
Arteta may currently have much to be criticised for but does it need to be done with such obvious pleasure? I’m all for constructive criticism but there are those here who can’t wait for Arsenal to fail so that they can mock the manager with juvenile comments.
Jax,
What’s juvenile about my post.
We need a striker and Arteta buys Calafiori and Merino. As I said that isn’t the owners fault. Arteta had the funds and wasted them. So the fault clearly lies with Arteta.
Many of the criticisms are not sensible or thought through.
The criticism of bringing in Merino and Calafiori is curious as so many seem to align themselves with the view that these were poor decisions.
It is quite clear that the criticisms are overly reactionary and partly based on hindsight bias. An alternative view of Arsenal’s squad last year would indicate that we needed to strengthen in the areas these players could cover. What we also needed to do was to strengthen the attack.
I do agree that some of the comments are juvenile.
David,
The need for a striker was more important than getting Calafiori and Merino, how many left back do want at the club.
There’s nothing juvenile about that view.
At the end of last season we had the following main potential options at LB:
Zinchenko
Kiwior- although not really a LB
*Tierney (already a likely transfer)
Tomiyasu
Do I really need to explain why we needed to bring in a LB given the last two seasons we have had?
This is the most senseless comment of the day. It is clear that this comment is overly defensive and biased against criticism of the transfer mistakes made