Another season where an overachievement on paper still feels like a failure. Can you succeed amongst a disappointment?
That’s the question and for many, the answer remains, ‘No!’ Rather emphatically too as Arsenal’s social media feeds once again exploded into debate after the 3-0 defeat to Brighton and plenty of it was unsurprisingly rather unsavoury.
Of course, it is all down to personal opinion and the context of how one supporter looks at the club compared to another and the debate can be a healthy one when it avoids the idiocy of online abuse. From my own view Arsenal have done nothing but progress since the takeover of Mikel Arteta and yet it has not always been so obvious to me that this has been the case.
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With the likelihood of a second-place finish this season for the first time since the 2015/16 season when any title hopes evaporated just after the halfway mark for Arsene Wenger as they watched Leicester City run toward the trophy, it will be yet another campaign without silverware. Despite what to most has been a brilliant campaign by Arsenal who have pushed Man City close to the end, some feel that a trophy remains a must for the following season.
Arsenal’s league season might have been promising but their exits from the three cup competitions was anything but. There’s an irony that both Brighton and Man City who knocked the Gunners out of the League Cup and FA Cup respectively are key reasons why the league will likely avoid them too.
Meanwhile, their Europa League campaigns have persistently ended without the trophy. I remember the infamous calls to drop into the second-tier UEFA competition because the Champions League was an unattainable dream under Wenger; how things change.
But putting the question of a trophy or bust as many feel to be the case to the test, it’s very difficult to get on this train of thought. Mikel Arteta has only taken this Arsenal side closer to where so many of the supporters want the club to be.
Progression is the word to associate under Arteta’s tenure and whilst the club continues to do so then why would anyone question whether he’s the right man for the job? It is perhaps associated with the now likely minimum 20-year wait for a title that patience is a virtue amongst other Gunners supporters.
But where this season the target was Champions League qualification and the club has gone far beyond that, next season Arsenal will be expected to again challenge. In essence, this is what the club should be doing and the Spaniard has taken them there.
A trophy though? With the presence of Manchester City and the increasing competition that this country’s teams continue to present, to have an expectation of either winning a trophy or the alternative being to sack the coach, scrap the project and start again under somebody new just seems outlandish right now.
If that progression halts and a slide begins to emerge I will have no issue with the club taking action in a much faster manner than they did under Arsene Wenger. No one person will ever be bigger than the football club, but it just seems wild that these are even the conversations to have at this stage of the club’s revival – and that is exactly what Arteta has overseen… a revival.
I for one am excited for the forthcoming summer transfer window and watching the club’s plan to reel in their title rivals. Having missed out on the top four last season the response was to then fight City for a title; considering they missed out on the league this year who knows what 2023/24 might hold?
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