(DISCLAIMER: If Mikel gets Top 4 this season, consider this post null and void. Mikel would have proven me wrong, credit to me for admitting that.)
I have been very vocal during Arteta’s tenure on how I would have gotten rid of him month(s) ago, even over a year ago. When Arteta took over Arsenal in late 2019, we were in 8th place. Arteta then worked a masterclass to have us finish the 2019-2020 season in 8th place. Amazing. Granted he did win the FA Cup miraculously over City and Chelsea which granted him deserved goodwill as Arsenal manager. However, Arteta brought that momentum from the FA Cup win to a hard fought 8th place finish in the 2020/2021 season. Finishing in 8th place for Arsenal Football Club is sackable in and of itself, imagine the outrage if Wenger or even Unai Emery finished that low. In the 2021/2022 season, despite Arsenal’s horrible start to the season, Arteta did well to get us back into Top 4 contention but these last fixtures has presumably put us out of Champions League football due to terrible losses to mid-lower table teams (Palace, Brighton, Southampton). Let me rank the times I believe Arteta should have been sacked as Arsenal manager.
- LOSS TO VILLARREAL IN EUROPA LEAGUE SEMIS – This is not even close. Let me give the appropriate context of this sackable loss. This loss to Villarreal took place at the end of the 2021 season where we were floundering in mid-table with no hope for Top 4 at this point. We were out of the FA Cup, with our only hope for European football being the Europa League title. In the SFs, we came across a Unai Emery led Villarreal and went on to lose 1-2 over two legs in embarrassing fashion which included a 0-0 draw at home. How Arteta kept his job after this tie, I have no idea, this loss solidified us not having European football for the first time in over 20 years. This loss also included LOSING TO THE MANAGER THAT HE REPLACED IN UNAI EMERY.
If Arsenal had any respect for themselves, they would have fired him before he left the stadium that night. Unai Emery embarrassed everyone associated with Arsenal Football Club that night including Arteta, the owners, the players, and the fans and the Kroenke’s just took it like a bunch of losers (Unai also has Villarreal in the UCL SFs smh). If Roman Abramovich wasn’t too busy being sanctioned, I would have worried for Arteta’s safety with what Roman would have done if Arteta did this at Chelsea. Imagine City, Liverpool, United or Chelsea keeping this guy as their manager with two consecutive 8th place finishes as well as a loss to the former manager he replaced, despicable.
2. LOSING 3 STRAIGHT TO OPEN UP THE 21/22 SEASON – Granted, Arteta has done well to recover from this situation. Credit to me for admitting that, I might’ve gotten this one wrong if Arteta manages Top 4 this season.
For context, we opened up the season with Brentford, Chelsea, and City, which are not an easy group of games to open up the season with. Brentford was making a long-awaited return to Premier League football, Chelsea are reigning European Cup champions and City are the reigning Premier League champions. However, first things that pops up when you see these results is that we didn’t score one damn goal in any of those games. Especially in the beginning of each season, I can take poor results if the performances are there but we were playing dire football. To the teams and Arteta credit, they rebounded magnificently and have ourselves fighting for Top 4 football despite the horrid start to the season. I have stated over the past few posts, it seems to be moreso the lack in quality of the opposition that have led to this resurgence but we will see at the end of the season where we stand and if sticking with Arteta is the right decision.
3. LOSING TO LEICESTER CITY 1-0 IN OCTOBER 25,2020 – If you look at this match at the highest level, it seems like a random game. I remember vividly watching this match and thinking to myself that Arteta was not our guy to take us forward. Here were our results up until that point of the season:
A 3-3 record with those losses isn’t terrible if you’re a mid-table team (which we ended up being that season). But if you want to be competing for Champions League places which is where Arsenal should be every season if it’s not for the title. This match was a personal light bulb moment where I realized that Arteta wasn’t able to offer guaranteed/dominant wins over teams outside of the Top 6, which is a must when you want to compete for Top 4 places.
4. FLOUNDERING IN RELEGATION ZONE IN DECEMBER 2020 – If we didn’t fire him after the Leicester game, I no doubt would have made sure his time at Arsenal would have been done forever after the first half of the 2020/2021 season.
My feelings after the Leicester defeat in October ended up manifesting what I thought the whole time, which was that Arteta was not fit for the job, having us put out one of the worst stretches in Arsenal history. Realistically, Arsenal was never going to get relegated with the quality that we had compared to Sheffield, West Brom and Fulham, but it became less funny when we were down there in December of a Premier League season. The stretch from Villa to Everton makes me just want to stand up and applaud Mikel for surviving that stretch. That man made me think that anything was possible if you are handsome enough. Like how that man lost all those games to mostly mid-lower table teams and keep his job is beyond me, but I can only give him credit for keeping his job. Job security goals from Mikel during that stretch.
5. IF WE DON’T MAKE TOP 4 THIS SEASON – I will not have any of this revisionism. Going into April of this season, we were in the driver’s seat for Champions League football next season until a string of 3 losses to Palace, Brighton and Southampton have put all of that in jeopardy. Mikel has done superbly to get us into this spot when looking at how we started the season but the malpractice in us not getting any striker in the January transfer window, loaning out squad players which hurt our depth are all sackable offenses that Edu and Arteta must pay the price for. if Top 4 isn’t achieved. They will most likely not get fired if we get 5th or 6th but that is only due to Kroenkes not having any respect for themselves as Arsenal Football Club owners. Not getting Top 4 is a total choke job by the manager, players, and upper management of Arsenal Football Club and should be treated as such if Top 4 isn’t achieved. Spurs have fired Poch, Mourinho and Nuno Santos for way less. Roman fired managers at Chelsea if they smelled bad. No reason to keep Arteta at the club if we don’t get Top 4 . No “process” is worth doing if it takes this long.
ARTETA’S HIGHLIGHTS AS ARSENAL MANAGER
- Two consecutive 8th place finishes in 19/20-20/21
- FA CUP CHAMPIONS (19/20) – somehow
- Europa League SF loss to UNAI EMERY (THE MANAGER HE FUCKING REPLACED)
- Europa League R32 loss to Olympiacos
- FA CUP eliminations to Nottingham Forest and Southampton
- Turned our most expensive transfer to an unused squad player (Pépé)
- Not able to integrate our 21 year old France International CB and 23 year old France International CM to the team (Saliba and Guendouzi). They probably will be sold for pennies on the dollar cause of Arteta’s treatment of these players. If they are good enough for France, they are damn sure good enough for Arsenal. Why would a team pay a high amount for players that don’t get along with the manager? Arteta’s incompetence lost all the leverage we may have had.
- Didn’t get a long with our captain and shipped him out to Barca for nothing (Auba)
- Kent still hating his life as an Arsenal supporter
Featured image credits: GETTY
Video credits: NBC
One thought on “All the times I would have sacked Arteta”