Mikel Arteta will likely be in tune with the brutality that comes with sitting in the dugout of a high-profile club with intense media scrutiny.
The never-ending soap opera of football makes us forget even the recent past. A past that saw Arteta face the scorn of his own supporters, many of whom felt he wasn’t up to the job.
With eight games to go, the once-fledging dream of a league title is in reach. Arteta can end an almost two-decade wait to lift a Premier League crown in North London. He has created an aggressive, effective and balanced side that has rarely looked overwhelmed by the task at hand.
It has been some transformation given that at the back end of last season, hopes of Champions League qualification were scuppered by a soft underbelly with devastating defeats to sour a promising campaign.
The expectation of disappointment since 2004 has probably been engrained into supporters that initially rejected the idea of a title charge before Christmas, only in recent weeks grasping the magnitude of what could be accomplished.
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Ending a dominant run of Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City would be some feat, one that Arteta and Arsenal cannot allow to slip through their fingers.
For Arteta, it might never get any better than this. What is to say that before long, those bellowing cries for his dismissal return? #ArtetaOut is dusted down and repurposed with more ferocity. We live in a fickle time, one that is urged on by the divisiveness of social media furore.
Elite football is as much defined by fine margins as it is by momentum, both of those have gone in Arsenal’s favour this season. You take away the late wins against Liverpool, Manchester United, Aston Villa and Bournemouth, injuries to key players are more prevalent and an over-performance in players naturally fades.
Arteta’s methods are questioned, a failed transfer here, player fallout there and loss of confidence later and the once steep rise feels like a distant memory. Short-term thinking in the modern landscape is a wider phenomenon. And to the Arsenal hierarchy’s credit, the evidence would suggest they are willing to grit their teeth through brutal periods for Arteta. What would stop them from doing it again?
In many ways, Arteta can be seen to have won the argument. He has silenced his harshest critics many within his own fanbase. Taking over in the winter of 2019, getting back into the top four was probably the height of perceived achievement for an inexperienced coach.
He has not only done that, but he has also reconnected supporters with their club and players. The Emirates now looks like Arsenal’s stadium, rather than a hollow bowl used to malign the present and long for the past of Highbury, David Dein, Henry, Bergkamp, Vieira and Pires.
Ramsdale, Saliba, Partey, Saka, Odergaard, Martinelli and Jesus now form the spine of a new generation of heroes. They not only represent a clarified vision of recruitment and planning, but they are also the faces of a progressive brand that allows for echoes of the past.
Football clubs are not just different flavours of ice cream, they all have their unique cultures and demands. It is in this aspect where Arterta’s greatest achievement has been found from an outside perspective. He has turned a confrontational and negative environment into one of unity and positive energy.
Should Arteta’s reign only last another year or two, by current standards that is a decent chunk of time.
An eventual dip would not be a crime or disaster, that is probably expected. However, when that happens, Arteta being able to lean back on a landmark achievement will be of some comfort. It might be easy for fans and pundits to lean on the more nuanced view that Arsenal are a young squad with a young coach and there will be opportunities in the future. But that forgets a ton of different variables.
What has defined the impressiveness of Arsenal’s rise this season has been bolstered by its unexpectedness. Back in August, the simple goal was going one step better than last term, and that probably was fourth and Champions League qualification.
This is not to compare this trajectory, as some have, to that of Leicester in 2015/16. A silly take given the vast disparity in finances and quality of players at both clubs. Arsenal boasts a 60,000-seater arena, and even if their fans will point to the gap in spending with Manchester City, we are still talking about one of the richest clubs in world football.
The slow and steady process that builds piece by piece does not always align with the chaos of football. Sometimes that step is a huge one, and sometimes it appears ahead of schedule, but it is important that you take it. Arsenal fans may not appreciate the comparison to their most bitter North London rivals, but a similar logic was applied to Spurs following their failed title pursuits in 2015/16 and 2016/17.
Although that rise was unexpected and saw a young team achieving above expectations based on the finances of their rivals, from a league perspective those glorious failures were the peak of Mauricio Pochettino's climb. Under two years later, Potch was gone and the club has been lost in the wilderness since.
Arsenal can lean on more silverware than Spurs in the form of FA Cups but a return to the top will be more significant. Something Arsene Wenger failed to achieve post the Invincibles of 2004.
There is also the welcome return of Champions League football to The Emirates from next season and the financial benefit that comes with that esteem. But that comes with new complications for Arteta who has never coached in it before, the strain of those fixtures against a higher calibre of opposition.
Then you have the reality of the riches of competition. Manchester City are unlikely to slow down and could even spend more on further improvements. Can you imagine an Erling Haaland that could get better? And also Arsenal will be hoping the incompetence and underperformance of Liverpool and Chelsea continue, but that could quickly change.
Newcastle's smart investment is a threat and Manchester United under more ambitious ownership is a juggernaut everyone should be concerned with.
That makes this moment in time a rare window for something special. A culmination of Arteta’s hard work in the face of what looked like a losing battle. Getting this far deserves respect, but going one further needs to be grasped right now to potentially alter Arsenal’s future.
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