Mikel Arteta will look back and smile at his luck that hole his still the head coach of the Arsenal Football Club after guiding his young Arsenal team to a very poor campaign in 2020/2021 season – while the North London team finished eight on the log of Premier League table and losing out to to the Spanish outfit, Villarreal who eventually beat Manchester United to the Europa League trophy.
Though, his previous season produce the FA Cup and Community Shield in the beginning of last season but that won’t matter as the team shambolic performances throughout the season leaves more question to be asked than Ben answered.
In fact, it was a season that most of the Gunners fans across the globe would be fancied not to come alive again but the technical director and the management of the team were pleased with what they’ve achieved in such season while they assured the Spanish tactician his job coming into the 2021/2022 campaign.
Despite having such a horrible campaign in the previous season, which was promoted by the slow start to life in the season – the just started Premier League campaign is looking to follow the path of the last season where Arsenal were dominated and beaten by the newly promoted side, Brentford in the opening match of the Premier League season.
With this! Many are asking and pondering if Mikael Arteta is the man who could return Arsenal back to their former glory or just a manager that couldn’t handle the ego of such giant club. In his defense, many would argue that the Spaniard was without his star striker and captain, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyamg and his colossal deputy, Alexandre Lacazette, Gabriel among many other players who resuscitated Arsenal season in the previous campaign.
But, it doesn’t change the fact that one of the big team in Premier League lost a team that have never tasted the Premier League before and was recently promoted to the top flight football after 74 years absence.
According to the online sportsbooks, the North London club should have won the match convincingly despite losing their talisman to sickness while the Emirate stadium outfit were tipped with 20/21 odds to win win Brentford. But with such a disastrous start to 2021/2022 campaign, the unanswered question is that will this be Arteta’s last season at Arsenal as the head coach?
When the former Arsenal captain was appointed to be the manager of north London, many had hoped for him to transform the team into a competitive one – judging from the fact that his master had done a fine job from Barcelona, Bayern Munich and now Manchester City, his understanding of the game had been hoped on his relationship with Pep Guardiola.
Though with this expectation, Mikael Arteta was able to deliver the FA Cup in which he defeated Manchester city in the semi-final and Chelsea in the final of the competition, while he also scooped Community Shield Cup defeating Liverpool despite Arsenal having poor track records against these team in the previous campaign.
With Arsenal’s loss against Brentford in the 2021/2022 Premier League opening match, the pressure on Mikael Arteta is getting intense and might be looking at the exit door if he cannot turn around the season as quickly as possible.
Though, his next five premier games are difficult – as Arsenal will be playing against in-form Chelsea, the wounded Manchester City who might be having Harry Kane in their rank before they face Norwich, Burnley and Tottenham Hotspurs who might be having their vengeful season without Harry Kane.
But Arteta will need to find his groove again, while he will need the luck that set him on track when he defeated Manchester City and Chelsea in the 2019/2020 FA Cup semi-final and final respectively to relieve him of the mounting pressure that will come from losing his three opening match of the Premier League season while he hopes to qualify Arsenal for next season Champions League but making the top four at the end of the season.
Even, Jamie O’Hara believes that the board will run out of patience with Arteta unless the Spaniard has a very good start to life and with the look of a thing and the next fixtures, it doesn’t look like the former Manchester city assistant coach will be having it easy at Arsenal this season.
Though, in his words, the former Tottenham Hotspur midfielder believes that his FA Cup triumph in 2020 against Chelsea save his job last season that Arteta will be going into this season with clean slate to either make it or break it.
However, he further emphasize on Arsenal signing while he was interviewed by the talksport breakfast show that “Arsenal are signing some good young players now, the transfers they’ve brought in, Ben White’s one of them,”
O’Hara further said that “It will be interesting to see how they start the season. He’s going to be under pressure.
“For me, Arteta is going to be under pressure at the start of the season because they’ve spent the money now.”
He continued: “They need to go on and do something this season. They’ve got a good, young side so if they don’t start well he’s going to feel the pressure.”
Moreover, with their loss on Friday evening, many have begun to wonder if Jamie O’Hara might be right in his thought as he was backed by the bookies which emphasize on that Mikel Arteta might be the first manager to be relieved of his duty in this newly began Premier League campaign after his 2-0 loss to Brentford.
Such a shambolic manner at 11/4 odd – while his mentor and former compatriot at Manchester City, Pep Guardiola was touted by the oddsmakers to be the last sacking coach in this Premier League campaign.
With an instant success upon his arrival in November 2019 with FA Cup and community shield cup in the bad, his inability to build from that to a successful campaign is getting most Arsenal fans worried and this season looking to a very long one for the Gunners faithful – and despite some exciting signings made by the club in the current transfer window, it will be a shock if Arsenal didn’t qualify for the European competition will miss out in this season European competition.
But what will be more shocking is the lack of ambition that the Arsenal management will portray if the standard is not sacked before another disastrous campaign could manifest, but provided that the former Everton midfielder could turn the table around after his hell of opening fixtures. The Spaniard might be spending more than this season at the North London club.
