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When Arsenal appointed Unai Emery to succeed Arsene Wenger in 2018, Mikel Arteta’s name was the next most discussed among Arsenal executives who made the decision.
Ivan Gazidis, Raul Sanllehi and Sven Mislintat made that momentous decision. Since then, the three have left the club.
Gazidis, who had been close to Arteta when the Spaniard played for Arsenal and was impressed by his attitude, brought his name up for discussion but there was consensus that it was too early for Arteta. “It would have been quite a bold decision to name a successor to Arsene who had never coached a game,” said a source familiar with the trio’s discussions. “It was always believed that Arteta had the tools to be a top manager. But it was more a matter of time.
Emery lasted only 18 months and Arteta was appointed a year ago. His handling of his first nine months, including a tense negotiation to persuade players to accept a pay cut due to Covid and win the FA Cup and Community Shield, suggested the time was right.
But those cup wins feel like a fading adrenaline rush. Now there must be the fear that an inexperienced but promising manager like Arteta may still burn out from the scale of the job. He has managed 31 Premier League games, but his record is considerably worse than Emery’s during that period, mostly due to Arsenal’s obvious inability to score. Fourteen goals in the entire season is a meager fee, even for one side in the middle of the table. Two of the last seven are downhill form.
Not that anything dramatic is likely to happen. The club has made it clear that Arteta is their long-term man.
But with fans returning to the Emirates today against Burnley, whether they will tolerate a two-year transition is a moot point. “I feel the pressure every day since I took the job here because I know the demands of this great club and the demands that I place on myself,” Arteta said.
In front of the goal, his record is lousy. By beefing up Arsenal’s fragile defense, which was definitely necessary, Arteta has neutralized their attack threat. And the plot to launch counterattacks is no longer a weapon. Clubs are more alert to that threat and Aubameyang has scored only twice in 11 games since agreeing to his new contract on September 16.
Arteta knows that rejuvenating Aubameyang is a top priority, but notes that Arsenal’s problems go beyond their star forward. ‘When you have a player in that kind of spell, you need other players to support him. The problem is that when we have two, three or four players in the same way then it becomes unattainable, ‘he said.
Arsenal’s top winners are not covering themselves in glory. Thomas Partey was reprimanded by Arteta for walking away with an injury at Tottenham last weekend, when the Spurs fought back to score.
Willian shone brightly on the first day of the season. Since then, the wisdom of awarding a three-year contract worth over £ 200,000 a week to a 31-year-old has seemed hugely questionable, although Arteta lobbied the board for him in the summer. No goal and three assists is the sum of his production; and those assists came on opening day against Fulham.
Meanwhile, Mesut Ozil is busy on Instagram, but Arteta kicked him out of the team. His contract ends in June and he has surely played his last game with the club.
The problems keep coming for Arteta and Arsenal.
Source: m.allfootballapp.com
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