After being tipped to challenge for a quadruple, Arsenal are on the brink of a historic meltdown, but Mikel Arteta’s team is also just five victories from success in the two competitions it has become so desperate to win: the Premier League and Champions League. So which is it going to be? Glory or infamy?
More than ever before, Arsenal’s fate lies in the hands — and the mind — of their manager.
As Arteta went to bed on Saturday after the Gunners’ shocking 2-1 defeat against EFL Championship side Southampton in the FA Cup quarterfinals, you can be certain that very question was keeping him awake. And when he awoke on Sunday with Tuesday’s UEFA Champions League (UCL) quarterfinal first leg against Sporting CP on the horizon, the same thoughts of success or failure would have been racing through the 44-year-old’s mind.
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With Arsenal’s season now teetering on a precipice, it’s inevitable that Arteta, his players and the Gunners’ fan base will be troubled, night and day, by the unbearable prospect of chasing a quadruple but ending up with nothing. Again.
And while the wheels are starting to come off at Arsenal, title rivals Manchester City are seemingly surging toward a domestic treble — again — with Pep Guardiola and his players enjoying what appears to be a stress-free run toward the finish line after winning the Carabao Cup (against the Gunners) and reaching the FA Cup semifinals against Southampton, having fallen to Real Madrid in the UCL.
For Arteta, with both domestic cups now off the table, it has become a nightmare scenario. The fear of failure has become unavoidable, especially after three successive runners-up finishes in the Premier League.
But while Arteta is being tormented by doubt and worry, Guardiola’s incredible record of success simply exacerbates the problem. He is a master of the situation both men now find themselves in, and Arteta knows that better than most — having served as his assistant for three years.
Arsenal are still in pole position at the top of the Premier League; City are nine points behind in second spot, albeit with a game in hand and home advantage against the Gunners when they meet on April 19, so they will likely have to win all eight of their remaining league games to win the title.
City are unbeaten in the Premier League since losing at Manchester United on Jan. 17, but Arsenal’s last league defeat came just eight days later, at home to United, so their recent wobble of two defeats in two games came in the cups — against City in the Carabao Cup final and at Southampton in the FA Cup — so it does not offer true perspective. It is simply because Arsenal’s slump has coincided with City hitting the turbo button that their prospects suddenly appear bleak.
But now is the time when Arteta has to step up and show that he is the real deal as a manager. Everything that he says or does in the coming weeks could mean the difference between success or failure, as his words and deeds will count as much as goalkeeper David Raya’s saves, the tackles of Gabriel and William Saliba, or the goals and creativity of Bukayo Saka, Kai Havertz and Viktor Gyökeres.
When Arteta spoke ahead of the Southampton game about his players using the Carabao Cup final disappointment against City as “fuel” to push them in the final weeks of the season, it was the equivalent of a Raya fumble or Gyökeres missing an open goal, because he simply reminded his players of the Wembley defeat and the team that inflicted it.
It sounded like a manager trying to convince himself his players could do it and was the kind of statement that you would be unlikely to hear from greats such as Guardiola, Jurgen Klopp, Jose Mourinho or Sir Alex Ferguson at this stage of a season.
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Mikel Arteta: I take the blame for Arsenal’s defeat vs. Southampton
Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta believes he is to blame for Arsenal’s FA Cup exit to Southampton.
Arteta is still a young manager attempting to earn his place alongside those Premier League legends.
Only Mourinho, at 42, was younger than Arteta is now when he won his first Premier League title (with Chelsea in 2004-05), and he had already won a Champions League with FC Porto by then; Kenny Dalglish was 44, the same age as Arteta, when he guided Blackburn Rovers to the title in 1995, but the former Liverpool manager had already won three titles as a manager in his 30s at Anfield.
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Arteta doesn’t have the experience of a young Mourinho or Dalglish, and the next youngest on the list — Guardiola, Roberto Mancini and Antonio Conte — were all 47 when they won their first Premier League titles but had already won leagues outside England. So winning that first title is a challenge for Arteta as much as it is for his players, who will now look to their manager for guidance, inspiration and composure as the screws begin to tighten.
If Arteta can hold his nerve, there are so many positives for Arsenal to use to their advantage. They are still top of the Premier League and have scored more goals (61) and conceded fewer (22) than anybody else; they have won more league games (21) than any other team, and lost fewer (three), while five more wins will mean City can only deny them the title on goal difference even if Guardiola’s side wins the rest of its fixtures.
In the Champions League, Arsenal have avoided the Silver Path to the final — which contains Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, Paris Saint-Germain and Liverpool — and landed perhaps the most appealing quarterfinal tie against Sporting CP, with Barcelona or Atletico Madrid awaiting in the semis.
Five more wins in the Champions League will ensure Arsenal’s first triumph in the competition, so Arteta’s glass should be seen as half full rather than half empty.
He just has to pick the right team and say the right things amid a cacophony of voices expecting him to fail again. Sounds easy, right?
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