Flo, you have to give a manager time to implement his vision. Emery had 18 months and we saw nothing that was moving in a direction of giving us an identity. He stuck completely to pragmatic football that was based on neutralising opponent's strengths. Defence works well when you are facing tough teams that come at you, but when you are a top team that needs to win titles in football, you also need a potent attack. And we never constructed that with consistency.
Arteta has leaned into defence out of necessity and has communicated that this is not what he prefers, and the team must support him by buying creative players. There is clear messaging that is encouraging. But he also needs time. He ends on Aug 1st and starts a new season Sept 12, which means that players will get, at most, 3 weeks rest so, again, he could enter this season with only 1 or 2 substantive external improvements.
What would be worse is if we weren't supporting Arteta now.