Three games into last season’s Premier League, Arsenal’s young charismatic manager Mikel Arteta had zero points, zero goals and was favourite with the bookies to be the first manager of the EPL season to be sacked.
After spending more money than most clubs in Europe during the summer transfer window, Arsenal fans were expecting a top-six finish and some great football.
However, it didn’t work out that way. Instead, despite an awful start, Arteta’s Gunners put together an impressive set of results to put Arsenal in the driving seat to qualify for the Champions League ahead of bitter rivals Tottenham, who never seem to win any trophies.
Arteta showed his strength and values by getting rid of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang by giving him to Barcelona where he banged in the goals for fun. He scored 11 goals in 1133 minutes in Spain compared to his 4 goals in 1059 minutes last season for Arsenal.
Embed from Getty ImagesArsenal reportedly paid £7m Aubameyang just to leave the club and received no fee from Barcelona despite having cost £56m in 2018.
This could have been forgiven if the French-born forward had been replaced by a high-quality striker in the January window but he wasn’t and Arsenal were left weakened and eventually blew their ECL place by losing out to Spurs.
Arteta was pretty unlucky with injuries and the lack of depth and experience in his young squad was exposed.
He can be forgiven for this, however, should he manage to steer the North London giants to a Champions League place and some silverware next season.
I think it will be 50:50. He talks a good game and has strong values as a leader and an admirable vision for the club. I just hope he can back it up with an improvement on last season with a strong successful finish to the season.
This could be very hard with an improving Newcastle squad, a strong Spurs team along with the possible improvement of a terrible Manchester United outfit.
Adding players Like Jesus and Viera could be a step in the right direction. However, I think he needs two more really big signings to have a chance or moving the most successful team in North London back to where they belong. Above Spurs and in the Champions League. I hope he does it but I’d say it’s 50:50.
Embed from Getty ImagesJesus could be a huge step forward for Arsenal.
If he can bring in Youri Tielemans from Leicester, then those odds will improve, especially if he can get a great season out of his youngsters such as Martinelli, Smith Rowe, and Nketiah whilst holding onto Gabriel in defence.
If he fails this time around I’m not sure many people will believe in his vision or his capabilities as a manager, especially after the crazy situation of giving away his best striker and not replacing him. However, that could be the club’s lack of negotiating skills when trying to bring in a replacement but who knows?
Embed from Getty ImagesYouri Tielemans could be a game-changer for Arsenal’s midfield.