Garth Crooks has claims that Mikel Arteta has done better than expected with Arsenal this season, despite claiming that we are ‘running out of steam’.
The Gunners were clear favourites to finish in the top four at the international break, with some claiming we could even catch a faltering Chelsea side who currently occupy third, but it has been a disaster run of results since.
We lost Kieran Tierney ahead of the clash with Crystal Palace, while Thomas Partey pulled up during that fixture, with neither now expected to be made available to return this season, injuries that appear to have really taken it’s toll on our side, but despite our team seemingly dropping out of the race for the Champions League places, Garth Crooks insists that Mikel Arteta has impressed.
Whilst naming Fraser Forster for his Team of the Week in his BBC column, he made the above claim.
“Southampton took a hammering from Chelsea at Stamford Bridge last week but recovered brilliantly to put another dent in Arsenal’s Champion League ambitions. Had it not been for keeper Forster, the scoreline against Chelsea might have been considerably worse and he was superb again for the Saints, making a number of outstanding saves against the Gunners. Forster has been playing well, a point highlighted by his recent selection in Gareth Southgate’s England squad. Arsenal, on the other hand, are starting to look like a team who are running out of steam. I must admit, regardless of where they finish this season, Mikel Arteta has done a much better job than I had anticipated.”
On the back of three straight defeats, some have moved to criticise the Spaniard, and that is unlikely to get much better as we now face the daunting challenge of trying to end our run of defeats against Chelsea, with Manchester United and West Ham waiting after that.
While I don’t think there is any chance of Arteta being moved on at this point, nor in the summer, not even if we was to see out the rest of the season without a win and miss out on Europe altogether, I think it is fair to ask the question. What we need to ask however is whether this squad has outdone itself which would be a credit to Arteta, or whether the team overall has actually underachieved.
I don’t recall many claiming that fourth was the worst-case scenario for this side when the transfer window closed on August 31, so why should it be the point of reference now?
Patrick