If Arsenal don’t win a major honour this season Mikel Arteta’s failed
Arsenal and Mikel Arteta really need to win a trophy this season to avoid any backlash from fans come May.
It’s been nearly five years since The Gunners were last glorious in a major competition, when they lifted the 2020 FA Cup for a record 14th time in Arteta’s first season in charge. The North Londoner’s came back from a goal down to beat then Frank Lampard’s Chelsea 2-1, with once relied upon talisman Pierre-Eemerick Aubameyang scoring twice to seal the deal.
Arsenal might’ve not won the league during the 2010s but they still achieved three FA Cups in that time and two on the trot in 2014 and 2015 empathically. The 2014 FA Cup was a real standout witnessing Arsene Wenger’s Arsenal claw back from two goals down against Hull City to win 3-1 in the end in extra-time, with a dog like determination about them which is needed, more so now than ever.
However Arsenal has failed to seal the deal when it comes to silverware since. To start off with during the 2020/21 Europa League campaign after having only lost the final two years earlier to Chelsea 4-1 humiliatingly, Arsenal had the chance to fix that upset.
Once Slavia Prague were knocked down 5-1 on aggregate in the Europa League quarter finals, Villarreal would be waiting for Arteta’s army in the semi finals. Over in Spain the Yellow Submarines sunk The Gunners lost 2-1 in the first tie, with the return leg heading back to England. It was now or never if Arsenal wanted to reach the final but they didn’t even score, drawing 0-0 and being left soul destroyed.
In 2022 the ball was in The Gunners court in terms of reaching the League Cup final. In the semi-finals they were drawn against Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool, after the first leg of the semi’s Arsenal rescued a 0-0 draw at Anfield taking the second dogfight back to the Emirates with the home advantage of nearly 60,000 fans cheering them on, (well mostly)! After a very lacklustre performance from Arsenal they threw away the chance of playing an underperforming Chelsea in the final. The Reds defeated Arsenal 2-0 with Diogo Jota finding the back of the net on both occasions. Liverpool of course went on to pick up the cup at Wembley securing the win intensely 11-10 on penalties, following a surprise 0-0 draw.
The next year Arsenal were eight points clear of the 2022/23 Premier League title chase impressively after 29 matches, with only nine to play. Despite dropping more points after 35 games they were still four points clear of second place Manchester City with the title surely inevitable (or not)! On the 20th May 2023 it was official, Arsenal had chucked away the Premier League title after Nottingham Forest beat them 1-0 at the City Ground gut wrenchingly.
Last season Arsenal tripped up again disassociating themselves with a Premier League double! We lost the title by two points despite losing only one game from new Years’ Day to the last day of the season, that game occurred on home soil versus Aston Villa in a 0-2 blow to our Premier League hopes!
We have been “same old Arsenal” for far too long now, hence why we’ve gone 21 years this season without winning the Premier League which many young fans can barely scratch their heads to remember. This needs to change urgently!
Will Arteta’s Arsenal finally learn their lesson this season?
Liam Harding
ADMIN COMMENT
So here are some simple rules which I must insist commenters follow….
You agree not to give any personal abuse to other Arsenal fans. Everyone is allowed to hold their own opinions even if you disagree with them. It COSTS NOTHING TO BE POLITE TO OTHER ARSENAL FANS.
CALLING ALL ARSENAL FANS! Anyone who would like to contribute an Article or Video opinion piece on JustArsenal, please contact us through this link…
I agree with you. If we don’t win at least two trophies this season, our process for years will be a failure and we won’t be able to win it again.
The last part of your comment is ridiculous. May be you misspoke and meant to say “We might find it more tougher to win the title there after”.
That what the manager is there for? Too win trophies.
It becomes more difficult to justify the longer it goes on really. As I’ve said before, Arteta’s focus (to the detriment of any other trophy) on winning the EPL means that nothing less than winning it will do.
Good though it would be, I don’t really see a domestic cup being much compensation for another near miss in the EPL this season (assuming we don’t win the CL – not very likely). The time for winning the odd cup was after the initial F A Cup win – now it’s really got to be the EPL (or, in the words of the old song, “All or Nothing At All”).
Klopp’s liverpool were a very strong team and they only won it once. Mancity are not easy to beat in the long run. Its easier to beat them than to actually snatch the league from them.
The project is completed, and now it is time to produce. Everything has been provided in terms of time, money, and decisions to build a team of his players.
Personally ilike Arteta as manager, but I understand this project is supposed to result in trophies.
An FA Cup is nice, but a PL title is not unreasonable within the next 3 years. Otherwise hard questions and decisions need to be made.
I think that the timescale will be tighter than three years. Given the two near misses recently, I don’t see KSE waiting until summer 2027 to see if the EPL can be won by Arteta. I know he’s signed a new contract, but when did that ever prevent “changes” being made?
I suspect they’ll be looking for something this season or next at the latest, or that will be four consecutive seasons of near misses – assuming they are all near misses of course.
There’s also the effect of that on our key players. Are they going to wait around for silverware season after season? I can imagine the pitch that, say, Real Madrid may make – look what you’ve won in the last three seasons or so against what you would have won here.
The “project” as you call it needs to produce now in my opinion.
@Bertie.
The Kroenkes see things completely different from us the normal Internet football experts. They seem to understand that this Man City under Pep are the greatest EPL side so far. So as long as Arteta stays on Pep’s cocktails and does not drop off a cliff, The Kroenke’s will stick with him.
Why would one want to get rid of Arteta if he keeps finishing 2nd behind a beast of a manager (Pep)?. As long as Arteta remains competitive against Pep then the club will not get rid of him. And why would they? We’ve all have got stop being surface level thinkers. The grass is not always green on the other side.
The sense of entitlement is overwhelming.
Or should that be… underwhelming?