Arteta has been outstanding so don’t let the poison and resentment that once engulfed Arsenal return
THE shouts of frustration at the Emirates had a ring of familiarity about them. I hadn’t heard them for a while but when Martin Odegaard looked as if he was going to score in the midst of a first-half glut of missed chances but slammed his shot on to the crossbar instead, some angry yells poured down from the stands and from the seats abutting the press box.
That is not a criticism of Arsenal fans, by the way. Their team’s wastefulness in front of goal against Liverpool on Sunday evening would have tried the patience of a saint. But it was a faint echo of the angst and seething discontent that gripped Arsenal’s home for so many years in the dog days of Arsene Wenger and beyond as they tried to recapture former glories.
Those were painful years when the stadium dripped with poison and resentment. ‘Wenger Out’ banners were flown from planes circling overhead and the fanbase was riven by arguments about whether the greatest manager in the club’s history should be trusted to get Arsenal back to the summit again.
But those isolated yells of exasperation on Sunday evening, as Arsenal slipped to their third defeat in a row, were also a reminder of the outstanding job that Mikel Arteta has done at the club since he was appointed in December 2019 when it felt as if Arsenal were being tortured by their failings.
It is a labour of Hercules to turn around a football giant like Arsenal, particularly in the aftermath of the departure of a patriarch like Wenger who dominated every facet of the club and whose absence created a vacuum of power across the entire organisation in north London.
The ongoing travails of Manchester United, who are still suffering the agonies of life in the wake of Alex Ferguson’s retirement, who are still searching for an identity, still trying to recreate the environment of the past, still trying to find players who want to fight for the club, tell us just what an accomplished manager Arteta has already proved himself.
He did not handle the adversity of losing at Newcastle in early November to a contested goal well at all and his hysterical response to that defeat did neither him nor his club any favours but Arteta (left) wears his heart on his sleeve. This is his first job and he will learn with time. Nor does that brush with authority diminish the job he has done. Arsenal are suffering a blip now after losing successive Premier League games to West Ham and Fulham and crashing out of the FA Cup to Liverpool but Arteta deserves only credit for the way he has turned the club into legitimate title challengers once again. Tottenham, rightly, have attracted much praise for the football they have been playing under Ange Postecoglou but let’s not forget what a lovely team Arsenal are to watch.
They may not have got the result that they wanted against Liverpool but some of their play was still breathtaking. Arteta has created that.
Who are your favourite players to watch in English football? I would put Trent Alexander-Arnold, Son Heung-min and Kevin De Bruyne in there but I’d have two players from Arsenal: Odegaard and Bukayo Saka. Arteta has created the conditions for them to flourish and grow and express themselves.
Declan Rice may have had some criticism in the last couple of games — much of it unwarranted — but he has already proved himself one of the best defensive midfielders in the world since his move from West Ham in the summer. He is only going to get better and better. And William Saliba is one of the classiest defenders in the Premier League.
The English game needs a brilliant Arsenal team, too. It needs every challenger it can get to the hegemony of Manchester City because, beautiful though City are to watch, no one wants them to coast to a fourth title in succession. English football needs competition. It needs Liverpool and Arsenal to take the fight to Pep Guardiola’s side.
Arsenal are not quite the finished article. That is increasingly obvious. They are missing a prolific striker. ‘We need a killer,’ Ian Wright said, bemoaning Arsenal’s poor finishing on Sunday, and he was absolutely right. What they need is Ivan Toney but whether they can afford him or persuade Brentford to part with him is another matter.
That’s the last piece of the jigsaw. A prolific forward. But what is happening now is not a cause for panic. It’s a blip. It feels as if the winter break has come at just the right time for Arteta and his side to effect the ‘reset’ he said they need.
Arteta has brought Arsenal a long, long way already. He has proved he has got what it takes to manage a giant. If the club holds its nerve, he can take them to the journey’s end.