Hey, fellow Gooners, there’s reason to be optimistic if Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta’s latest claims are to be believed. The Arsenal manager has finally begun to address the main problem that has plagued the team for the past two seasons: winning trophies. The Spaniard has mentioned that he believes his project is on the verge of achieving its ultimate goal of winning major trophies.
He told Sky Sports, “We need to upgrade everything we’re doing and improve in every area. That’s what we’re trying to do. We are so close. The outcome of this club has to be to win major trophies and we are in the process to achieve it.”
The Spaniard’s comments really show the drive and determination of his team.
It’s pretty impressive that Arsenal has managed to secure consecutive top-2 finishes and have a say in the title race. However, winning the PL trophy would truly be the cherry on top of their excellent performances in the last two seasons. The Gunners’ summer transfer activity and incorporation of new tactics should help them succeed even further next season.
After coming so close to winning the title race on the last day of the season, falling short by just 2 points, the disappointments of last year should really motivate the Gunners. Their desire to win and become league champions should be fueled by the disappointments of last season as they seek to end Manchester City’s dominance in the Premier League.
Peter Rix
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It is essential we sign someone in the midfield and if possible a striker. Nelson, ESR, Nketiah are on their way out. There are rumors of Arsenal pursuing Fabian Ruiz and Mikel Merino, so lets see. I would also like Arteta to consider Ethan Nweniry for the first team, the kid is extremely talented and will only get better with game time.
Fabrizio Romano just said Arsenal would likely approach Mikel Merino after completing Calafiori’s transfer
If Merino plays the left-sided AM role, Rice would likely compete with Jorginho for the CDM position and Partey might be transfer-listed
My view is that Arteta has a winning mentality. From day one he has shown that desire which clearly impressed his bosses at his interview
Arteta’s been the first to admit that he hasn’t got everything right but has now got us close to City
I believe the club was at a crossroads when he took over. The executive level and leadership had serious shortcomings and now they and Arteta look to be on the same page, I’m much more hopeful
The way it looked to me, was there were senior players who had been happy with the status quo – they clearly didn’t fancy Emery and I guess they didn’t fancy Arteta either as he made his non negotiables clear.
This is not to criticise AW who had appointed most of the players that MA inherited. It was two different men with different ways of doing things. Until such time as the ones who were unable to follow Arteta’s philosophy- either through lack of the required skill set or from disciplinary issues, were moved on it was difficult to follow the direction of travel, as form was so patchy. Then there seemed to be a light bulb moment around Christmas, 2 years in the job. Much better since then with a togetherness that has replaced the toxicity.
We are now at a stage where most of the players do have a value in the transfer market rather than being virtually given away.
I’m just pleased that Arteta is succeeding and still hungry as the thought of another manager biting the dust would mirror the distractions that have beset Chelsea and Utd
@SueP
The Wenger Emirates era taught me me patience. Now I look at things in more long term, patient way. No need to be sensationalist and a “Want it Now or Else” kind of fan..
Again, patience is a virtue. Thank Wenger for instilling that in me..
But on Arteta. The moment he came in and put his foot down and told our entitled, overly pampered, overly paid, overhyped primadonna celebrity players. I was all in. We needed that kind of tough / dictatorial manager back then.
But I hope we win at least one of the Biggies (EPL or CL) this season. I feel like we are so close.
🤞🙏
But the outcome of the last four or five seasons under Wenger showed that patience didn’t pay off as Arsenal didn’t win the “major” trophies – PL/CL – and, of course, haven’t won either since he left.
Clearly, coaches need time (and money) to build a team capable of winning these trophies. Arteta has been coach since 2019 and Arsenal has spent something over £700m on transfers since then so I think we can say that the clock is beginning to tick now.
Arsenal’s near PL misses in the past two seasons has actually increased the pressure on Arteta and the team to win the league in 2024-25. Having come close and very close in the preceding seasons failure to win it next season will be seen as a major setback, particularly if the spending in this window continues at a fast pace.
In the modern, professional, money-focused, game at the top level, patience is a scarce commodity.
@Bertie Mee..
I know that it all did not turn out as Wenger and The Arsenal board had promised us.
But I really believed their promises and long term targets.
We were told that the Austerities and tightened purse-strings were due to the Emirates Stadium debt. And I could actually see that. We had built a brand new stadium and we had to lower our expectations as fans. So I did. We were told that after about 10 years we would have paid off most of the stadium debt and that we would start ripping the rewards.
We were constantly getting mixed messages from the board and wenger all throughout. So from the 2015 summer transfer window when Wenger only signed a finished Petr Cech when we needed a lot of reinforcement in the team is when I decided to take off my Arsenal and Wenger tinted glasses. I then started objectively questioning the mixed and contradictory messages the Board and Wenger kept feeding us.
But from the moment we moved into the Emirates stadium until 2015 I was all in, I was so in on the Stadium debt cause that I never even noticed the contradictory statements / messages that the board and wenger had been feeding us all a long.. Later on is when I had to look into the whole thing objectively.
That’s me, if I am convinced that someone is being honest, that they really care about about what they are doing then I find it difficult to go hard on them. Hence why I was in the “Arsene Knows Best” bandwagon for more than 10 years. But when I noticed that he was being dishonest together with the Kroenke, then I jumped off the train.. So I became a Centrist on the Wenger issue.. 😊
@Bertie Mee..
“In the modern, professional, money-focused, game at the top level, patience is a scarce commodity.”
It used to be that way until the Arsenal / Arteta experience showed up.
Now the Arteta and Arsenal experiment is being praised all over ( by the Media and Rival fans).
Since the 202/23 season our rivals in the league keep citing the patience and backing The Kroenke’s have given Arteta and that they would like their managers to be given enough time and patience..
Just go onto the Spurs, Chelsea, Man United, Liverpool and Villa fans forums and read comments regarding what they want their owners to do? They keep referencing the Arsenal Arteta experiment.
I couldn’t believe even believe the way Chelsea fans reacted to Pochettinho being suddenly sacked the end of the season. Who would have ever thought that from Chelsea since the Abramovich era?
Man United fans wanted Ten Hag to be given another season at least.
Spurs fans wanted Ange to be given enough time.
Villa fans said the same for Emery.
With Liverpool fans it had been a bit of a mixed bag for their new manager (Arne).
Flipping Bayern Munich went for Vincent Kompany, a guy that has never won anything as a manager and got Burnley relegated.
Isn’t it?
When he says “ we need to upgrade everything”
Does he mean himself if we go trophy less once again this season ?
No sir…
Those days from 2020-22 when some of us were asking for a bit of patience, maturity, calmness, rationality to think long term. But we were constantly shouted down by a certain group of fans. They weren’t having any of it as they wanted the manager (Arteta)gone straight away due to some controversial decisions he made and had to make.
They wanted blood, went with their emotions, feelings, pride, egos etc instead of an objective outlook.
Now look at the harmony, unity, optimism, happiness and sense of pride in the fanbase and around the club. Good top players now want to join / play for Arsenal once again. The future looks much more brighter and optimistic for Arsenal FC.
Now please Arteta, win us the EPL and CL. M🙏👍🤞
Goonster
The vast majority of those who wanted Arteta gone have gone themselves. It’s the same as the Ozil argument as there were those who followed him but not Arsenal and they cleared off
Those who don’t see it like you and me as we believe that Arteta has changed the club for better, have a different point of view and will cite the lack of academy players coming through and going on about Arteta being a cheque book manager. It’s their prerogative and I can only hope MA can change their minds by winning next season – with home grown talent and the largesse of Stan Kroenke. It’s what City, Chelsea and Utd have been doing for years
We must remember that for the past three years some big clubs spent billions but they performed poor, I believe this year is going to be difficult for Arsenal. They are going to try to bring us down
I think we have to accept that Arsenal is competing in a tough, professional, league where (whether we like it or not) results do matter and results translate into trophies.
There are two sides to the Arteta debate. On one side are those who say, rightly, that the club has been changed for the better since he arrived (along with Edu and others). Frankly, Arsenal had got into a complacent “rut” under Wenger in his last four or five seasons and that wasn’t greatly improved under Emery. The team’s performance in the PL in the last two seasons is evidence of the change.
However, on the other side, we can’t get away from the fact that since 2019 with over £700m now spent on transfers, and despite all the obvious hard work, there’s a single FA Cup in the trophy cabinet. The hard reality is that the real prizes are the PL/CL nowadays and runners-up, no matter how close to winning, don’t get a trophy.
I think that because of this the 2024-25 season will be key for Arsenal under Arteta. Winning the PL is a must do in my opinion because coming second again (or lower) won’t be/can’t be seen as an improvement. At best treading water, at worst going backwards.
Another factor if that happens again will inevitably be the commitment of key players to “the Arsenal/Arteta project”. If clubs who are almost guaranteed trophies coming knocking at the door, they wouldn’t be human if they didn’t think, however briefly, about a change after another trophyless season.
I hope that 2024-25 is the season when expectation turns into reality for Arsenal/Arteta, but I’m keeping my fingers crossed.
The only issue BMK that I have with your assessment is omitting to mention the near stranglehold Pep/City have had on the premier league since his arrival.
For what it’s worth, I don’t think not winning the league is the beginning of the end necessarily. Much depends on other factors, ie, better domestic cup runs and getting further in the CL. Going backwards in the league would definitely put pressure on Arteta as you said but it didn’t affect Klopp’s popularity so who knows?
Regarding the players moving to other clubs, there is no guarantee of a trophy as Harry Kane knows only too well
The influence of Pep/MC is regularly omitted in many of these discussions as if Arsenal are competing against modest opposition. Some of this is simply because fans want us to win. In other cases there various other considerations. Some people cite how much we have spent; some cite the Chelsea “model” which seems to have eventually foundered; some simply have limited respect for Arteta.
Pep and Klopp are two of the greatest contemporary football managers and probably two of the greatest in history. However, Klopp’s name sometimes comes up almost as an afterthought, in part, because he has had to compete against such a juggernaut and therefore has “only” one PL title.
There are some sobering statistics that highlight the issue. The three highest points total for a second place team have come during this era. Yes, Liverpool twice, and Arsenal last season.
If you look at MU’s league winning points total over the years (13titles), they were higher than Arsenal’s last season total in 3 of those years; and one of those was a 42 game season.
It is a massive task to overhaul MC and it will take another monumental season to do it if MC maintain their levels.
Very good points David. In the short run, injuries and even luck or lack thereof can have a large effect on the season’s outcome as well. For example, what if Rodri had missed one more fixture? What if Leicester had a few injuries in their title run? These are elements that a club cannot completely control and MA is very correct that very fine margins separate the top clubs.
Spending sufficiently is certainly necessary to get a club in the running but imo, it is the superior talent identification and managerial skills which over the long run ultimately end up making the difference between the champions and the rest of the pack.
It’s a possibility Bertie. They may see players like Haaland or Bellingham who won trophies after moving to winning clubs.
To all that care to listen….
I will repeat the same thing I said on another thread regarding this issue. While, obviously, the target this season is to win the league is not yet the period to make it a do or die affair due to the following reason
Firstly, the money spent that makes some people believe that it’s worth the league is not new to other teams. We are the only fans thinking that way. As a matter of fact we’re still a beginner in the big spending club league. Also, while I admit that money can buy you success is not always 100% guarantee as is the case of man United and Boeley’s Chelsea. We are not the only club spending.
Secondly, This just concluded season is the first season in many years that we enter a season with a realistic target of winning the league. Our title run two seasons ago is unexpected not we, the fans or even the club itself entered that season with league target. I remembered that the target then is top four which back then we’re not even sure of. So technically, last season was our first attempt at the league hence, it’s too early to start holding the manager’s neck for not winning the league. Let’s remember that two seasons ago we’re not sure of making top four.
Thirdly, which some fans deliberately refuse to consider because it’s obvious is the juggernaut, man City. I often say that if klopp a manager who I rate higher than Mikel himself and his team who at their prime is one of the best team in Europe can only won one league tittle despite the quality of that team and it’s manager that tells how difficult it is to beat them in the tittle race. They’re just so good with the best manager in the world. So no team in the world can be told to compete with them for any trophy under a do or die affair. It’s just not fair.
Now, am not saying we can’t beat them but let’s be realistic in our target. This man City team made no mistake that Real Madrid is the champions league winner, is still the best team in Europe and that’s who we’re competing against. Yes, the target now is to win the league but not unfailingly.
Personally, I believe we’re due for a trophy but it can be any trophy. The positive about competing against man city is that the moment we better them as a team then we can say we’re the best in Europe.