Arsenal did not collapse into crisis before 18 other Premier League teams had kicked a ball this season. Yet so comprehensive, so both predictable and shocking, was their defeat to Brentford that onlookers could have been forgiven for thinking they had. With their August featuring meetings with Chelsea and Manchester City, there is a plausible scenario that they end it bottom of the division (and maybe even with their earliest League Cup exit since 1978 as well).
All of which could prompt a time of reckoning for Mikel Arteta. The Spaniard’s time in charge of the club he captained has been traumatic and it is wildly incorrect to say he has escaped scrutiny, but he has not felt under pressure. Unai Emery was sacked after fewer games and with a higher win percentage. Arteta has been afforded some understanding, aided by some tactically brilliant victories against elite sides, 2020’s FA Cup win and a fine finish to last season. Only Manchester City picked up more points in the last 15 games and with Emile Smith Rowe and Bukayo Saka assuming talismanic roles, it added to the sense of long-termism about Arteta’s overhaul.
Yet it has never been that simple. Last season consisted of short-term gambles to try and bounce back into the Champions League: Willian was a crushing failure, David Luiz’s new deal brought little reward, the £50 million Thomas Partey was often injured and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang got the second most lucrative contract in Arsenal history and, albeit partly because he contracted malaria and his mother was ill, had his least prolific campaign for a decade.
That Aubameyang and Alexandre Lacazette missed Friday’s loss at Brentford, when the youngster Folarin Balogun led the line, offered a mitigating factor. Yet both strikers are signs that plans have gone awry. Perhaps Arsenal would have accepted offers for either to accelerate the rebuild. Yet, though a broke Barcelona are linked with Aubameyang, both remain. So do Hector Bellerin, Cedric Soares, Ainsley Maitland-Niles, the awful Willian and the utterly unwanted Lucas Torreira and Sead Kolasinac. Arsenal started the summer thinking Granit Xhaka would go. He ended it with a new deal and captaining them at Brentford.
A failure of recruitment and sales alike shows the problems have extended far beyond Arteta. Arsenal’s squad is in a state of permanent flux. This may be the third consecutive transitional season even if Ben White, like Partey, had a £50 million price tag that suggested loftier ambitions. White’s dismal debut was an inauspicious start; the way he was bullied by Ivan Toney revived accusations Arsenal have a soft underbelly. Bernd Leno again looked inferior to Emi Martinez, the goalkeeper they sold last summer. The benched Rob Holding could scarcely have done worse than Pablo Mari. A side lacking leadership and resolve reflected badly on Arteta. Only Kieran Tierney and Smith Rowe should be spared blame.
Smith Rowe had provided much of the grounds for optimism in the summer. Aston Villa’s bids were spurned, he committed his future to Arsenal and was granted the No 10 shirt. Sunday’s meeting with Chelsea is a reminder of his breakthrough performance last season, in December’s 3-1 victory, and his winner in May’s rematch, yet the reality was Arteta stumbled on a homegrown solution half way through last season.
With his preference for overly structured football, the Spaniard can seem a meticulous organiser. His strategising peaked against Chelsea, in Arsenal’s FA Cup glory in August 2020. August 2021 began with Arsenal’s plans seemingly in disarray and a fixture list that suggests things could get worse before they get better. It has been a recurring theme in Arsenal’s wilderness years.
