Arsenal’s recent away form has raised difficult questions about their readiness to win the Premier League title this season, a reality that many supporters are finding increasingly uncomfortable to accept. For much of the campaign, fans believed their team were destined to be champions, a belief shared by several neutrals who felt this might finally be Arsenal’s year. That optimism was fuelled by the struggles of their closest rivals and by Arsenal’s impressive consistency across both domestic and European competitions. However, their last three league matches on the road have challenged that confidence and exposed vulnerabilities that had previously been less apparent.
Concerning Away Performances
Arsenal’s difficulties began when Sunderland halted their winning run, forcing them to settle for a result that felt below the standards expected of title contenders. Their subsequent trip to West London brought further frustration, as they failed to overcome Chelsea and collected only two points from the two games. Matters worsened when Aston Villa ended Arsenal’s unbeaten league run in their next away fixture. That result has prompted a reassessment of Arsenal’s true level, especially with Manchester City now closing in and exerting familiar pressure at the top of the table. City’s experience in navigating tense title races remains unmatched, and their steady pursuit has intensified scrutiny on Mikel Arteta’s side.
Pressure Mounts on Arteta
This season is shaping into one of the most defining periods of Arteta’s managerial career. He has been consistently backed by the club, receiving substantial support in building a squad capable of competing at the highest level. Yet the expectation to deliver silverware has grown in parallel. Should Arsenal fall short once again, questions may arise about whether Arteta can ultimately guide the club to a Premier League triumph. There remains a strong argument that he has already given his utmost to the team, raising standards and transforming competitiveness. If the title slips away this season, the key question becomes whether supporters would still see him as the right man to lead the team forward.
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Unless he chose to leave I think we will be having the same conversation this time next year
Not for me personally ,he’s a good manager nothing special ,i honestly believe we should have a prem title in the bag over the last 3 years , and with a better manager we would have .
When you look at what Liverpool did with slot and how he turned an 18 point deficit around without spending a bean you realise how easy it can be done with the right manager .
There are better managers out there that have their own ideas which I hope we go for if we come away once again empty handed this season .
Overall I think Arteta as been put on a pedestal which his ridiculous wages and his so called street cred don’t match up with .
Tactically genius !
Don’t make me laugh .
Pray tell who else could have won the PL for us, I am intrigued
Big Sam
Tony pullis
Moyes .
Prey that’s answered your question👍.
Heck, even Fabregas 😁
I’m actually serious about him😒, he should be the next Arsenal manager, preferably next season. What he has done with Como is pure genius. We should hurry before Barcelona or Chelsea go for him
“,he’s a good manager nothing special”
People complain that MA is too defensive, yet his teams score more than Wenger’s. Top two scoring seasons in the Premier League era for Arsenal were MA teams.
Most ever wins in a season in the Premier League era for Arsenal was a MA team.
Second most points (89) in a season in the Premier League era for Arsenal was a MA team. Only one point behind the Invincibles.
Not bad for someone who nothing special, and rarely has anywhere near his best team available.
Exactly how times did Klopp win the league?
Why don’t you look externally for once, and accept getting past Liverpool is very tough, getting past City is almost impossible. And before you mention Slot, don’t forget that City AND Arsenal had a huge injury crisis last season. Clearly injuries are why City were so poor last season, so I don’t know why that is never applied to Arsenal?
If injuries don’t matter, I guess you’re not fussed with Saliba an Gabi missing, and apparently it wouldn’t weaken us further if Rice and Zubi did their ACLs tomorrow 🙂
Too easy!!!
Context can also be your friend before you go on another pointless rant to look smart .
Talking of stalkers ,couldnt help yourself again I see Thirdman .
Lucy78,
You say that Arteta’s teams score more than Wenger” teams, without checking I’ll take you’re word for it.
But Wenger’s teams won trophy’s, just saying. 🏆🤷♂️
Why the need to discredit Mr Wenger to mask out current managers failings ?
Because it’s MR Thirdman Dan (remember the weird conspiracy idiot )massive Wenger hater ,and the only fan to get banned (3 times )and still come
On here pretending his ridiculous opinions matters .
Lucy78,
All these personal records regarding Arteta, very good. But where are the trophy’s. 🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🤦♂️
It depends how the season pans out.
We have four trophies still to play for and have just been drawn against Portsmouth in the FA cup, in the quarter finals of the League Cup, top of the CL and top of the PL.
This has been achieved with the kind of injuries we had last season and said injuries have to be taken into account.
My opinion of Mikel has changed positively over his five years as manager and I believe he needs to win one of the four above, in order to stop those demanding trophies.
However, my one caveat is the injury list, that never seems to grow smaller.
If Mikel doesn’t win a trophy and said injuries have cleared up, then I will have to look again at my support for him.
He will still be my manager. He is making progress every season and imo he is coaching the best team in the league right now. Arteta and the players can handle the preassure of leading the race, the only thing I see that can stop them from winning the league is the injuries. Arteta wanted a better squad for healthy rotation, but the ridiculous number of injuries has taken some of that away from him. Hopefully everything will look better in january. We need more goals, that is what he could improve.
Making progress every season !
23/24 – 89 points
24/25 – 74 points
Trust the process seems to have disappeared from the Arteta camp .
2nd 2nd 2nd currently 1st
The process is still there in The Arsenal camp – such a pity your not part of it DK.
Why’s it a pity Ken ?
Simply because your continued negativity and one or two liners when we win a match, means your contributions are always expected to knock our manager.
As I say, it’s a pity.
So you think I should be down on my knees then ?
As for my one or two liners after a win ,it’s because I’ve seen this movie so many times .
Your turning into another DAVID mate ,now that’s a pity
I’m sure David won’t be happy with that observation DK and why you think you should get down on your knees to celebrate a win is puzzling!!
You should be out of your chair celebrating the club you support winning a game.
Never mind, we’re still top of the PL and CL, into the quarter finals of the Carabo cup and have drawn Portsmouth away…time to get down on your knees and pray that we win away – watch out for those needles and pin as though 😂
Ken, and probably cheated out of at least two 1st’s.
Some people eh!!!🤣.
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Wow so funny .
It will be interesting when we finally get the verdicts regarding city115.
As we’ve discussed before, if found guilty, The Arsenal could rightly argue that we (Mikel) were cheated out of two PL titles.
That would change everything regarding Mikel’s record.
@ken1945
Remember that Dan kit hates context and critical thinking.
According to him, MA tactics, and team selections play a vital role when lose (not when we win), yet 6 red cards last season, and the worst injury crisis we ever seen at any club, had zero impact whatsoever.
But to be fair can it not equally be said that when Arsenal won it’s been said we have the best squad in Europe
But when we lose we suddenly don’t
I’ll give you example , look how many Gooners say Skelly and Nwanreri should start more
Then if they start and we don’t win ,it’s oh but look how young they are
Both can’t be true
In my opinion that 11 was good enough to be beat Villa
The only time I really think injuries were an excuse was second half of last season
But Dan, until that 95th minute scrambled goal we were as good as them.
Surely your not dismissing Villa as a team we should always beat – that would be arrogant wouldn’t it?
As for Skelly and Nwaneri, damned if you do and damned if you don’t for
Mikel.
Are you saying that not having Saliba and Gabriel in the back four, didn’t influence the villa game in any way, let alone Havertz, Gabriel out, while Trossard and Odegaard were just coming back from injuries?
😂
Do you just make stuff up as you go along ?
Honestly you are a nutter ,well you must be to come back on here 4 times and still look a knob .
Nope I see him as a decent manager that has taken us as high as he possibly can already. I have not wavered in that view for years.
If he had released the reigns a bit in 23/24 and didn’t micromanage so much I believe we could’ve won the EPL
I look at it in a similar way as playing monopoly. You can hang in there for a long time playing conservatively and you’ll look like a good player, but doing that you rarely ever actually win.
Good is the enemy of great!
He is a good coach but we need some else to take us to the promise land ,,,Arteta is not brave enough with his tactics
Looking at the title of the article, my answer is that it might but equally, it might not.
What’s the point of trying to imagine the outcome of the season now? Until faced with losing out and the manner of it, I really only see the question as unnecessarily negative particularly as the end of the season is months away.
I still have a little believe that we will win something this season, although my belief is fading away lately especially for the Premier League with Man City breathing down our neck.
We just might drop points against Everton and Aston Villa in the upcoming matches and some will blame it on injuries.
And if Man City climbs up to that 1st position, they just might not come down again by giving a very long winning streak because they have the experience and personnel to do it.
The Champions League is too big of a task for us to win except a miracle happens.
Which leaves us to the FA Cup and League Cup that we can stand a chance to win.
Winning the FA Cup will be good because it will extend our lead as the best in the competition in England with 15 FA Cup titles.
We are in the quarter finals of the League Cup so let’s try and make it to the final this season and win it this time for the first time in over 30 years.
This is a very strange article. It shows just how reactionary we fans can be. I say that because this kind of article tends to pop up every time we drop points. You don’t see them when we win. It reminds me of Saka’s interview when he said People’s opinions on them change like the weather.
It’s also strange that we are talking about titles in December.
I just hope our players have a stronger mindset than us fans and I think they do. The 18 match unbeaten streak says a lot more about this team and the manager than the loss to Villa.
I think some of our fans have mild PTSD from having been in the title race and eventually being overtaken by City.They need to realise that this is a different Arsenal-as good as it has ever been under Arteta. And the current City side is not nearly as good as the one that won the treble.
Onyango. Two words:click and bait come to mind for this type of headline and article.
Allot of contradictions here mate
Onyango,
We just have to hope the players available right now will hold the fort until January when, hopefully, all injured players will be back.
We are the hardest team to beat if all our 1st team players are available.
Liverpool at home, Everton away, Aston Villa at home, Chelsea at home are all winnable games with Saliba & Gabriel in the team.
Let’s hope their mindset are strong indeed because that’s what can actually see them through.
They failed the Aston Villa bogey test. Other bogey tests are there to come soon through, Everton, Brighton and Villa all 3 of them are currently at the top half of the table.
We will see how strong their mindset is when we face this 3 teams in the coming weeks.
Nothing will take away the fact, Arteta is a good coach. Not infallible but meticulous, sometimes over elaborate and overthinking coach. One similarity he shares with Arsene Wenger is their stubborn loyalty even in the face of impending disaster. They lack flexibility, agility and decisiveness. Arteta’s loyalty to Odegaard blinds his objectivity. His positive view of Havertz leads him to judge him differently. Despite everything Trossard, Martinelli, Eze, White and Calafiori have shown him, they’ll remain on the second tier below Saka, Odegaard, Zubimendi, Merino on the 1st tier. Merino has a great personality, work ethic and commitment but will never help him achieve what he wants in the place of Goykerese.
Arsenal’s biggest challenge is injuries. Over %90 of the entire squad has been out from the blast. Arteta as usual, has not fielded our strongest 11, not at Liverpool, Newcastle, Chelsea and worst still, Aston Villa. Arsenal’s very strong spine is currently weakened badly with the a sense of key defenders whose presence breeds fearlessness and air of authority. It has nothing to do with Man city who does not look like champions either, some people talk about experience, where was it last season when Liverpool leisurely stroll to the pinnacle? Arteta has nothing else to prove. By the way, where are the better managers? Arsenal needs continuity, not disruption, how many teams have lost lesser matches?
👍
Arsenal’s biggest challenge is injuries. Over %90 of the entire squad has been out at one time or another since the blast. Arteta as usual, has not fielded our strongest 11, not at Liverpool, Newcastle, Chelsea and worst still, Aston Villa. Arsenal’s very strong spine is currently weakened badly with the a sense of key defenders whose presence breeds fearlessness and air of authority. It has nothing to do with Man city who, by the way, is a one-man team and does not look like champions either, some people talk about experience, where was it last season when Liverpool leisurely stroll to the pinnacle? Arteta has nothing else to prove. By the way, where are the better managers? Arsenal needs continuity, not disruption, how many teams have lost lesser matches?
Are we saying Man City will not drop points until the season ends?
I appreciate being realistic but articles like this are what makes me hope our players don’t cross path with Just Arsenal.