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Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta is doing “a great job” and the club has a “great and beautiful future”, says the club’s technical director Edu.
The Gunners have had their worst start to the season in 46 years.
Before Sunday’s 1-0 loss to Burnley, they hadn’t lost four straight top-flight league games since 1959.
However, despite the team booed According to the 2,000 fans present, high-level sources insist that Arteta has unequivocal support throughout the club.
And, while Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola offered strong backing to his former assistant, Edu says he’s confident Arteta is on the right track.
“Mikel is doing a great job,” said Edu, technical director since July 2019.
“It’s normal and easy to get carried away with results. But I can see the future, see where we are going and the way we build things on a daily basis. Everything here is fine, everything here is working.
“How many young players have started to have opportunities and to perform quite well in the first team?
“I can see a big and beautiful future. It’s very strange to say that right now, but I have to be fair, this is how I see the photo.”
Arsenal have won one point from their last five league games and four of their last eight, and have fallen to 15th place in the table, five points above the relegation zone.
After replacing Unai Emery in November 2019, Arteta beat Manchester City and Chelsea on their way to winning the FA Cup for a record 14th time.
They also defeated Liverpool in the Premier League, the EFL Cup and the Community Shield during Arteta’s time in command, and defeated Manchester United at Old Trafford on November 1.
However, they have not won a domestic game since, and their winner that day, captain Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, also did not find the net until his own goal condemned Arsenal to another defeat on Sunday.
“He is one of the best coaches I have ever worked with and seen directly,” Guardiola said of Arteta.
“I don’t have to give my support publicly because he knows he has it. Sometimes a club needs time when it comes from a period where it is not so good.”
“I have no doubt about his quality and ability to put Arsenal in the place Arsenal deserves. There is no one better to lead the club this year and the next.”
Arsenal will look to make signings next month, but Edu is convinced his team is good and it is up to the individual players to take responsibility for the overall improvement.
He also defended the summer arrival of high-profile Willian, after the 32-year-old midfielder’s below-par performances led to his retirement.
“It’s only a matter of time before Willian performs the way we know he can,” Edu said.
“Are you looking forward to it right away? Boom. Willian may be the best. But you need time to get to know the other players.
“When we signed David Luiz, he told me: ‘When I drive, most of the time in my entire life, I turn right to go down a road. I have experience, but now I am faced with a situation where I turn right. left … It’s pretty weird coming here and I need some getting used to it. ‘”
With games against Southampton, to be played behind closed doors after London was placed at level three of the UK’s pandemic coronavirus restrictions – and Everton ahead of a Boxing Day encounter with Chelsea, there is an easy way out of Arsenal’s current situation.
But Edu promises to be with Arteta every step of the way.
“We have faced so many changes, now is the time to try to be a stable club in the old sense, externally and internally, we need it,” he added.
