In the city of London, there is a club who stands tallest in history. A certain Arsene Wenger worked there for a record number of years and boldly gave it the modern blend of teamwork, possession, quick passing kind of "delicious" game. His name is even similar to the London club.
Today it is a Mikel Arteta in charge of this famous London club, he being a one time club captain as a player under Arsene Wenger himself. You may have guessed right, the club is Arsenal, nicknamed "The Gunners" . He's been in charge for about 3 seasons now and in them Arsenal has won one FA Cup in his entry year 2019/20 season and the following season the Community Shield. His one nil victory over Watford on November 7th was his 56th victory as a coach in exactly 100 games for Arsenal. This means he overtakes even the great Arsene Wenger and ties with George Graham as having the highest number of wins of any Arsenal coach in history for their first 100 matches.
Wonderful isn't it? I guess this is what the Arsenal board focuses on. The other side of the coin, if you like, is that Arsenal has finished 8th twice in the EPL since Arteta came in. They were dumped out in the Europa league last season by Villarreal coached by Unai Emery, the coach he took over from at Arsenal. Infact Emery was only employed at the start of that season while Arteta was employed in the middle of the previous, meaning Arteta ought to have the advantage of knowing his team more.
Let me expose that after 100 matches Wenger's Arsenal had lost 18 times, Graham's Arsenal had lost 23 times, but Arteta's Arsenal had lost 26 times. Infact in the top 7 chart of previous Arsenal managers after 100games, only two had a poorer conceding record than Arteta's Arsenal( Neill–27 and Chapman–31) and you can forgive them because, Arteta's jointly tops the chart of goals scored. This clearly shows something is not right somewhere.
This season has begun with no European football, so an opportunity for the Gunners to train more, but what do you have? They are 7th in the EPL and are not really dominating matches. Overall they labour to beat most teams and then the big teams whip them silly. Even a West Ham team now can boast of being able to beat Arsenal. A closer look at the team reveals that this seemingly new found consistency this season has basically been the brilliance of Smith Rowe and Saka. Arteta still has a problem with the right timing and choices for in-game substitution in a tight match. It cost them against Manchester United and Everton(a team that was there for the taking).
Arsenal next play Southampton in the EPL and you can trust that Smith Rowe will be back starting(as he didn't against Everton) and if Arsenal trumps them, then the board will relax again. It only goes to remind me of the recently sacked Solksjaer of Manchester United. Just as the pressure is about to mount so heavily, he will begin to win a few matches after unforgivable losses or draws, then United's board will relax. There is a simple question a big club should ask themselves– "what can this coach win for us?"
The truth is that Solksjaer would have hardly won anything for United, at best he keeps qualifying them for the Champions league. Arteta is no different, even worse even. Solksjaer United had their way with some big teams like City or Liverpool, but we can see clearly that Arteta's Arsenal don't have a clue against the big boys. Infact the big boys now know that if you press the Gunners heavily, they would cave in and surrender victory to you. Arteta has trained a team that looks a lot like him when he was a footballer(a midfielder)- slow in the build up and not much vertical passing. Smith Rowe has been his saviour for sometime now, but how do you put such a burden on a young lad of 21 years?
Arteta is simply a Solksjaer in disguise, turning and turning but going nowhere really. The board has continually proven to be as the Holy Bible described some folks- "which have eyes, and see not; which have ears, and hear not:",found in Jeremiah 5:21. Wenger was great but left as Manager for way too long, Emery was left too long too. Ofcourse Arteta ought to have been booted out before now. Kudos to him for signing some interesting players, but even if a Wenger handles this team or a Rangnick, you would be surprised how bad Arteta is.
It's a strange board in charge of the Gunners I must say.
cheerfully...