“This is Arsenal Football Club,” they scream. Yes it is, but actions speak louder than words and right now the Gunners are not the favourites for the competitions they enter at this stage but certainly are working towards that aim.
Yet the expectation from some continues to be that Arsenal, at the very minimum, must win a trophy. You’ve probably seen taglines like fans need to “raise their standards” or “Arsenal won’t ever win with this mentality”.
Ludicrous I know, but let’s break it down for the benefit of those who might be on the fence. Manchester City are currently the best team in the world and therefore enter every single competition as favourites – must be nice, right?
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If they fail to win the Champions League against Inter Milan and the FA Cup against Manchester United despite winning the Premier League they would have arguably underachieved. Meanwhile, Arsenal, who finished second this season were described as having overachieved during the campaign, yet for some the “minimum expectation” is for Mikel Arteta to win a trophy with his side; see the contradiction?
There’s a difference between the terminology of aims and expectations. Without a doubt, a club like Arsenal should be aiming to try and win every competition they enter but when going up against the mechanical winning machine of Manchester City the expectation to win them simply is far too fanciful to consider.
I understand that this comes across as rather defeatist, which certainly isn’t the intention; that is perhaps where the “we need to raise our standards” line comes from. However, the suggestion that somehow a coach that is only making this team better, progressing it closer to our goals and closing the gap with arguably the best Premier League side of all time, earning points hauls that previous teams have won leagues with and installing not only a great footballing philosophy but ruthless principles should be sacked if a trophy isn’t secured is rather mad.
Arteta isn’t untouchable and if the Spaniard begins to oversee a decline that he seemingly cannot wrestle back then I could understand calls to make a change. But taking the side from eleventh, to eighth, to fifth and then second is evidence of undebatable progression.
Plus who is going to do a better job? I firmly believe no coach would have won the league with Arsenal this season outside of Pep Guardiola himself because he is simply that brilliant and secondly then Man City wouldn’t have had him.
But Arteta’s work with this Arsenal team and the argument surrounding its improvement is barely debatable. Were it not for the injuries at the end of the season plaguing the run-in and the subsequent impact on form, it would’ve been interesting to see if the Gunners could have picked up the necessary points even without beating City in their two games – we’ll never know.
So next season the expectation is that Arsenal again challenge for the title with the hope of potential silverware from elsewhere thanks to a successful summer transfer window reinforcing the squad. I expect a rapturous round of applause when the players do their lap of appreciation on Sunday, not the sound of fans needing to “raise their standards” but those appreciative of this season’s efforts and rightly excited for the future.
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