It’s no secret that Arsenal have had a poor season so far – way below their expectations.
Fans were excited to witness Mikel Arteta’s first full season as a manager after he had won the north London club’s 14th FA Cup. They even put up an impressive performance to beat Liverpool in the Community Shield too.
It was believed that Arteta would be able to imbed his style into the Gunners with transfer departures and arrivals. However, as the season progressed Arsenal found themselves as low as 15th in the table.
Things have improved since then, but questions remain about the club’s direction. Going into Sunday’s north London derby against bitter rivals Tottenham they sit 10th, 13 points behind fourth-placed Chelsea.
Is Mikel Arteta the right man for the job?
The bad run of form has led to conversations about the poor running of Arsenal. Some fans are questioning whether Arteta was even the right man for the job. It has been reported that the Arsenal board had a choice between Arteta and Carlo Ancelotti, who is now in charge of Everton.
Arteta is an exciting managerial prospect who studied under arguably the best coach at present in Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola.
However, that cannot be compared to Carlo Ancelotti. The Italian has proven himself in the Premier League before – winning the 2009-10 title at Chelsea. Furthermore, he is one of only three managers to win the Champions League three times – doing so at Real Madrid (once) and AC Milan (twice).
Arsenal fans have grown impatient of not competing for major trophies. They are yet to win the Champions League and haven’t won the Premier League since 2003-04. Logic would have suggested a proven winner was needed as manager. The board decided to think long-term by hiring Arteta instead.
The Ozil and Saliba situations
Another problem within the club is the ostracising of players within the squad. The most notable example of this being Mesut Ozil. The German playmaker managed to secure a £350,000-a-week contract while at the club as they were desperate to keep him and Alexis Sanchez. However, his salary proved a big financial burden on the Gunners and Arteta didn’t see him in his first-team plans.
The lack of creativity in midfield this season was to a huge detriment of Arsenal, but Ozil wasn’t registered in their 25-man squad. It led to many thinking that it was because of Ozil’s comments about China’s treatment of Uighurs. Fortunately for the club, they managed to offload him to Fenerbahce after struggling to find a team willing to pay his wages.
A similar situation is occurring with the promising French centre back William Saliba. In 2019 he was transferred to Arsenal for a fee of £27million. However, surprisingly he has since been sent out on two different loan spells in Ligue 1 since joining. When asked about his Arsenal situation, the 19-year-old – who is yet to play for the club -said he has been judged off of two-and-a-half games by Arteta. It seems as if fans will have to wait until next season to hopefully see him partner Gabriel in defence.
The Willian enigma
Elsewhere, Gabriel Martinelli has also seen decreased playing time, despite impressing in previous seasons. Willian has been played ahead of the young Brazilian, who has had injury issues, on many occasions.
The signing of Willian in August was an unusual one due to the plethora of wide men on the club’s books beforehand. This is before even taking into account his hefty £200,000-a-week wages.
To highlight the talent of Martinelli further, French publication L’Equipe ranked Martinelli the 33rd best player born in 2001 or after. He has obviously shown that he has the potential to outperform those above him at Arsenal, but he needs regular game time to do so.
Matteo Guendouzi’s future at Arsenal is also up in the air and he has not played for the club since last season’s high-profile incident at Brighton. He is currently on a season-long loan at Hertha Berlin and is impressing in the Bundesliga. Despite his recent performances it is hard to see how he fits into Arteta’s plans, especially after the purchase of Thomas Partey.
Arsenal need greater investment
Arsenal have done a poor job in offloading unwanted players by Arteta. Eight are out on loan, including Joe Willock and Saed Kolasinac, while five left as free transfers. It is well known that the Gunners needs to raise funds to buy transfer targets due to a lack of investment from owners Stan and Josh Kroenke. Recent transfer transactions and wage bills have kept Arsenal in limbo preventing the club from acquiring top talent.
Before the start of the season, many comparisons were made between Manchester United, Chelsea and Arsenal. Now it is clear that both of those teams are exceeding Arsenal as the management of the club has continually become worse. It is key that Arsenal heavily invests during the summer transfer market to better the side. The Kroenkes must move away from his self-sustaining model in order to allow Arteta to thrive.
By Layton Ryan-Parson
