Arsenal continued their miserable start to the Premier League season after getting thrashed at the hands of Manchester City on Saturday. The humiliating 5-0 defeat saw them slip to the bottom of the table.
After losing three league games on the bounce with no goals scored, this has become the club’s worst start to a season in its 135-year history. Mikel Arteta was appointed as the head coach in 2019.
The Spaniard started his maiden season strongly by winning the FA Cup. But fast forward just more than a year, that record FA cup triumph seems to be a distant memory now. There are now significant question marks over his future at the Emirates following a string of underwhelming performances.
The fans, for quite some time now, have been chanting for their club to spend. This summer, the club has splashed out the cash. With an expenditure of around £130million, the North Londoners have spent more than any other club in the Premier League this transfer window.
With such financial backing, Arteta can turn their fortunes around, but 21 defeats in 61 League games is a statistic that suggests otherwise. He guided the Gunners to back-to-back eighth-place finishes causing them to miss out on European football for the first time in over a decade.
In all fairness, the Spaniard has not been able to field his strongest team yet this season. He has missed crucial players due to injury or illness. Although they have brought in reinforcements, there is still a host of players who just aren’t good enough for the team.
Arteta’s primary objective was to strengthen the defense and for a period, it looked like he did a good job. But the old frailties are creeping back. The team has completed lost its solid defensive shape, and the defenders seem to be at sixes and sevens in the back.
It is not the defeats, but the manner of them that has really worried the fans. Arsenal have suffered some embarrassing results under the Spaniard’s reign. There is no doubt that a better manager would be able to extract better performances from the same crop of players.
There have been reports suggesting that the former Inter Milan manager, Antonio Conte is the frontrunner to replace Arteta at the Emirates. However, convincing him to join Arsenal would be a herculean task in itself.
The Gunners’ board have an enormous decision to make. Arteta was brought as part of a long-term rebuild project but it is time they look back and introspect if there has been any progress made in the last 20 months. Appointing an inexperienced manager like Arteta was always a gamble and that does not seem to be paying off well at the moment.
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