How long can Arsenal afford to continue with a policy of blind faith in Mikel Arteta?

Manchester City 5 Arsenal 0  
Premier League  
Saturday 28th August 2021 12.30pm   

Before the game, interviewed by BT Sport, Mikel Arteta explained that the policy of buying young and building for the future was one that came from above, and one he is charged with carrying out. So, develop a fresh team to lay the foundations for a healthy future. A rebuild. We can understand the need to do this, given how far Arsenal have declined since falling out of the top four in 2017. 

However, there are a number of questions that need asking regarding how this is going to work.
1 – Is Arteta the right coach to carry this kind of project through?
2 – Are the decision makers above him able to make the right choices to support any coach faced with this challenge?
3 – Do Arsenal have the right profile of experienced player for younger squad members to learn from?

For this observer, the answer to all three of the above would be no. Which, if I am proved correct, will spell trouble. The coach will get his cards first – maybe not until December, Arsenal being a reluctantly reactive rather than proactive club, but changes above him are necessary also. Right now, it feels like the institution is rotten from top to bottom, a consequence of the culture of complacency that has been in place ever since it was decreed that qualifying for the Champions League (because of its financial benefits) was good enough. 

Yesterday’s horrowshow at the Etihad exposed a lack of basic defensive technique that was alarming, as well as a frankly moronic challenge by Granit Xhaka that made the (always expected) defeat even heavier than it had to be, with potential consequences for squad morale.

Yes, Arteta has an injury list to contend with, but with the wages players are on, even if they are not first choicers, they should be able to do better than this. Four of the five goals were avoidable, and when the opposition manager says, post-game, “We could have scored more, but we respect the opponent”, it tells you all you need to know about the gulf between the two teams. It also reminded me, ten years on from an 8-2 defeat elsewhere in Manchester, of Sir Alex Ferguson’s tone after that match. One of sympathy rather than glee, for his one-time nemesis. Arsene Wenger was no longer any form of threat to Manchester United by then, and Arteta is not going to cause his former boss many sleepless nights.

I’ve heard Martin Keown, Lee Dixon and Tony Adams speak about the lack of defensive basics in the Arsenal team over a number of seasons. It’s about time the club got busy and recruited some of these guys to come in and take some sessions. One imagines Steve Bould was limited in what he could do under Arsene Wenger and Unai Emery, but the time for putting the focus on aesthetic football is past. The first team need to build from a foundation of going out not to lose matches before thinking about winning them. 

Granit Xhaka should never play for Arsenal again. He is too indisciplined. Whoever made the decision to give a long term contract to a player they wanted out of the door during the summer needs to be given their P45. The man is a liability. That he is regarded as the de facto captain of the team, the leader in the dressing room, tells you how bad things are. What kind of example does he set?

Still, Mikel Arteta’s team were already two goals down by that time, with a back five proving incapable of preventing Manchester City from exposing their frailties, not helped much by the pairing of Xhaka and Odegaard in front of them – a midfield screen that can be compared to a sieve. It reminded me a little of what Arsenal sides used to do to weaker teams at their peak – turn the game into a training ground exercise after winning it in the first half hour.

The lack of desire and spirit is worrying. It’s unfortunate that Antonio Conte is not going to be interested in the job, because that is the profile of manager Arsenal need. Diego Simeone would be the preferred choice, but that’s pie in the sky. I always remember one of his players stating they would jump off a bridge for the Atletico manager. Now that is motivation. Mikel Arteta has little experience of the culture of winning, and is not the complete package for that reason. Look at Guardiola’s playing career – littered with silverware. Arteta – still young – lacks the authority and gravitas to engender true respect and a little bit of fear from senior players, not helped by his inability to settle on a consistent starting eleven and formation. Is the manager responsible for individual errors? No, but the hunger to compete starts with him. He seems too obsessed with the details of play rather than the attitude of his charges. Add to this the lack of emphasis on the defending, the comfort zone too many of the players are in and you have a recipe for mediocrity. 

Arsenal’s decision makers now have a decision to make. How long can they let this go on before they understand that it isn’t going to work out? It’s only a matter of time now – why wait? Two defeats to last season’s Champions League finalists alone are no reason to dismiss the manager – but the manner of the defeats at Brentford and the Etihad are. 

Between the 60th and 65th minutes, Arsenal were in possession of the ball for nine seconds out of 300. They garnered one attempt at goal – off target – in the entire 90 minutes. Granted, any team going away to Manchester City with a defence containing Cedric, Holding, Chambers and Kolasinac has little hope (and we have to ask whether the club’s best centre back is on loan at Marseille, whilst his colleagues are leaking an average of three goals a game). All the same, the attacking players were good enough to do better than they did. It felt like only Emile Smith Rowe gave any kind of a damn. 

Martin Keown said post-game after Guardiola’s interview - “He’s never satisfied – it’s the only way to keep winning”. Indeed, and a mirror opposite of the aforementioned culture of complacency at Arsenal. The rot set in when Stan Kroenke took full control of the club, although it was bubbling from the moment that Arsenal moved into the Emirates and Arsene released too much experience, too quickly, and indulged in the youth project that reached its nadir in that 8-2 game in 2011. Ironic that Arteta joined before the next fixture, and it feels a bit like we have come full circle – although you can’t blame the kids for yesterday’s defeat. 

Club captain Aubameyang post-match: “We are Arsenal, we need pride”. And God alone knows where that is going to come from as the club are unrecognizable from the one that last won the league title back in 2004. 

It starts with the announcement of a new manager worthy of the club’s history. Ideally before the next match on Saturday week at home to fellow relegation contenders Norwich. Don’t hold your breath.

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