Mikel Arteta has a well-rounded squad now, but can he take Arsenal to glory? | Image credits: IMAGO/Sportimage
Cast your mind back to December 2019. Arsenal have meandered into the middle and bulkier part of the Premier League table. UEFA Champions League football is no longer a guarantee. Arsene Wenger is not around either, and Unai Emery, appointed as his successor, has seen an entire fanbase turn on him.
Christmas is in the offing, but Arsenal are as distant from promised land as they have ever been. Their fans are wishing only for top four, and not even dreaming about the title because that resembles, for the lack of a better word, fantasy.
And then comes Mikel Arteta. Never a manager before, but a former Arsenal captain, and someone who knows what it means to wear the cannon on the chest. Slowly but surely, brick by brick, he rebuilds the club. So much so that Arsenal are now in the thick of every championship conversation, even though that final exclamation mark, that last punctuation, remains amiss.
Which, of course, has led to plenty of dialogue. Among fans, pundits and those supporting other clubs. There is even a school of thought suggesting Arteta has taken Arsenal as far as he could have. Or that Arsenal could do with a slightly different direction.
But those discussions, for the moment at least, need to be put on hold. Because this is perhaps the first time really that Arteta has a squad to compete with what Manchester City and Liverpool have been throwing at the Premier League for the past few years.
Seven games this season have driven that fact home too. Bukayo Saka being injured, in campaigns gone by, would have signalled impending doom. Perhaps not anymore, with Noni Madueke in the mix. Martin Odegaard being ruled out for any significant period would have been fretted over. Not anymore, with Eberechi Eze and Ethan Nwaneri in the fold.
They are probably just one striker injury away from having Mikel Merino deputize again. But they have several more options now. Gabriel Martinelli could be played through the middle, as could Leandro Trossard. And in neither case will they have to hope for Kieran Tierney to channel his inner Roberto Carlos, or hope that Raheem Sterling reincarnates as the player he was eons ago.
These extra options have helped Arsenal in matches already this season. Away to Athletic Club, they were struggling to create, with Eze unable to stretch play and Viktor Gyokeres unable to knit it together. On came Martinelli and Trossard, and the game changed seconds after the former’s arrival.
A few days later against Manchester City, Martinelli popped up with the same party trick, exploiting a high line, with Eze, on as a sub too, creating the goal.
Against Manchester United at Old Trafford, Arsenal were able to send on Madueke, Jurrien Timber and Kai Havertz. Each of them played a crucial role in seeing the game out, with Timber’s energy particularly pivotal. Against Leeds United, 15-year-old Max Dowman won a penalty, with Trossard producing an assist as a substitute against Nottingham Forest.
So, Arteta definitely has more to work with this season. But the doubts have quickly pivoted to whether he can now make the most of the squad, and utilize the attacking capabilities that exist. And they are not without basis either.
Against Liverpool and Manchester City (at home), he has been a little guilty of not grabbing the game by the scruff of the neck. In the home fixture, in particular, Arsenal were incredibly passive in the first half, often content to knock the ball between their centre-backs and defensive midfielders without really forcing the pace further ahead.
The luxury of game-changing substitutes helped quicken the tempo after the break, but a second-half stoppage time equalizer, against a City side that has struggled on the road for almost twelve months now, felt a let-down and possibly a missed opportunity.
And that is primarily because Arteta now has this expensively-assembled, highly-glitzy, and potentially high-speed machine, also armed with components that are interchangeable, but is still somehow averse to allow them into overdrive, almost forcing them to use the handbrake far more than they should.
That there is chitchat and criticism over why Arsenal are not being as effervescent as they can be, and not about how they rescued a draw against a fellow title challenger, shows what Arteta has indeed done to this club.
All of which, undeniably, adds pressure. The good thing, though, is that Arteta has been here before. Where the outside noise has been almost unbearable, but where he exists in an insulated state, albeit too insulated and rigid at times, as his critics might point out.
When he won the FA Cup, the narrative immediately shifted to whether he could make Arsenal a Champions League club again. When they got there, it was about whether they could challenge for the Premier League title.
And when that has happened for three consecutive seasons, it is now seemingly only about whether he can win the title or not. Or if he can win the Champions League - a crown Arsenal have come close to touching only once, and a prize that has made far greater managers toil.
Pep Guardiola did not achieve UCL success overnight with Manchester City. Jurgen Klopp, for all the joy his teams have given, has only won it once. Even Jose Mourinho and Sir Alex Ferguson only won it twice apiece.
But it is also tough to escape the supposition that Arteta needs to win something. While the Carabao Cup and FA Cup are tough to win in their own right, Arteta probably requires a Premier League or UCL medal around his neck to validate how he has resurrected Arsenal from the dumps, and how he is among the very highest echelon of managers.
Arteta finally seems to have the requisite tools too. Now, it is over to him to deliver, and squeeze every ounce of performance from what is undoubtedly a very talented squad, and one with lots of variety.
In the meantime, there will be jokes. There will be banter. There will be glances cast at the style of play, his line-ups and whether they have enough oomph and panache. There will be discussion and debate, one way or the other.
But back in December 2019, Arsenal fans would have bitten hands off for being challengers season after season, and for considering a UCL spot as the bare minimum. And that, forever, will remain Arteta's doing.
He was, after all, the ultimate greenhorn brave enough to walk into dreary times, and brighten what was, more often than not, a grim horizon. Sometimes, with something as rudimentary as a light bulb. But now, that is also his greatest challenge and foe. Not Liverpool. Not Manchester City. Not Chelsea. Not any other club.
If he overcomes that, he will have a place in Arsenal history all to himself. Not just as the man who made a fanbase dream again and dream beyond what would have previously been perceived as fiction, but also as that guy who turned that dream into reality.
And, of course, into tangible trophies.
