The Gunners are entering the fifth year of a trophy drought despite clearly coming on leaps and bounds under the Spaniard's stewardship
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With the gap to Premier League leaders Liverpool now at six points and having already played a game more than the Reds, Arsenal have one hell of a mountain to climb if they're to topple Arne Slot's men and secure their first title in 21 years.
The downfall of Manchester City has given the world the impression this is a missed opportunity for the Gunners, but that is not necessarily the case. Though they have had more than their fair share of injury luck in recent years, that debt has come to be collected this time around, with Martin Odegaard already missing around two months and Bukayo Saka potentially out for a further three.
Not much else has gone Arsenal's way in this title race so far. You need to be good and you need to be lucky, yet unfortunately they haven't had enough in either department to keep appropriate pace.
Nevertheless, this is far from the time to call this season a write-off, even if their main goal seems a tad out of reach at this stage. Arteta's long-term plan can still benefit from creating winning habits in the three cup competitions Arsenal are fighting for.
Follow GOAL on WhatsApp! 🟢📱AFPOne trophy, not three
First things first, let's address the elephant in the room. Well, the two of them, actually. Arsenal won a trophy with Arteta in the dugout, taking home the 2020 FA Cup behind closed doors against Frank Lampard's Chelsea, brilliantly and unexpectedly eliminating Manchester City along the way.
The problem is that was a completely different era for the club. That Arsenal is not the Arsenal of now, and Arteta as a coach has come a long way since hoisting that trophy aloft. The only starter remaining from that team is the outgoing Kieran Tierney, with unused substitute Saka – still only 18 at the time – the sole other member of both the 2019-20 and 2024-25 squads.
And, despite Arteta's assertions, the Community Shield – which Arsenal have lifted twice under the Spaniard – is not a major, competitive trophy. It isn't. Stop trying to convince yourself it is. We scoffed at Jose Mourinho for thinking that way, the same principle should apply for Arteta.
AdvertisementGetty Images Entertainment'Like watching Netflix'
Amid Arsenal's slide earlier this season, Manchester United legend Patrice Evra made a snide comment which went viral on social media. "Watching Arsenal is like watching Netflix, you always wait for the next season," he proclaimed. "And trust me, every season is going to be like that."
We're not here to say that Gooners should take this criticism at valid, particularly at a time where anyone associated with United should be making sure their own house is on order first. To date, Arteta's Arsenal have had more than enough reason to believe they're on the right track, and their priority has understandably not lied in the fate of their cup exploits.
That doesn't excuse such a fruitless run of underachievement in that regard though, despite the development of the team and the club in general.
Getty Images SportNo tournament pedigree
This current iteration of Arsenal, the one which has been rebuilt brick by brick since the summer of 2021, has not only failed to deliver silverware when expectations are weighing heavy on them, but they've seldom come close either. They've reached two semi-finals – the 2020-21 Europa League versus Villarreal and 2021-22 Carabao Cup against Liverpool – across 11 cup runs in the four-and-a-half years since that Wembley triumph, and on both occasions were meekly eliminated with a whimper. What's more, Arsenal have failed to even advance beyond round four of the FA Cup in the four campaigns after taking the trophy back to north London.
The European picture isn't much brighter, despite Arteta leading the Gunners to their first Champions League quarter-final in 14 years last season. That was, to their credit, a huge step forward to restoring their lost footprint on the continent, though they remain without a marquee victory in Europe and have largely scraped through any knockout battle with sides even remotely close to their reputation.
Given how many fallen giants occupy spots in this season's Champions League and a new format mixing up how the knockout rounds could play out, Arsenal should still rank among the top five or six favourites for the European Cup, but this notable lack of nous is what's preventing them from breaking into the upper tier of that select list.
Getty Images SportProgress made regardless
Make no mistake, Arteta has completely transformed Arsenal back into a competitive club, one better than anyone had could have conceivably imagined when he first took the job. At times he's turned water into wine, and the fact we're even having these debates about the Gunners is proof of their intangible success. We only demand this much more from teams worth caring about.
Losing out to Pep Guardiola's Manchester City in back-to-back title races is nothing to be ashamed of in big-picture context, particularly last year having been within a Son Heung-min shot of finishing first. Their two-season rolling average of 86.5 points is their joint-highest by a considerable margin since wins started counting for three points, level with the 2003-04 Invincibles and following 2004-05 sides. Again, cup competitions aren't the only measure of success, and if anything league success is a better barometer of how consistently excellent a team is.
This is now an Arsenal era in complete contrast to the very end of legendary manager Arsene Wenger's tenure, a time where they won three FA Cups in four years but their Premier League form floundered and they lost their everlasting grip on Champions League qualification, despite getting over the hurdles set by stadium debt repayments. Arteta's charges are much, much better than those outfits.
