i was a vocal "arteta out" advocate, and nothing really has changed.
we are arsenal, we are one of the biggest teams in europe, and we were on the edge of the relegation zone like 6 weeks ago. there is no universe in which that is acceptable, pandemic or not. we are now 10th in the table and there is somehow a feeling of optimism around the club, which is bizarre.
there are a bunch of problematic players at the club who have struggled, but this is still a team with a ton of talent in it, and when you compare our squad to the squads of a lot of the teams ahead of us, there is no reason those clubs should be ahead of us in the table. none. managers that no one would ever want to manage arsenal are accomplishing more with less, sometimes a lot less.
arteta hasnt proven to me that he really knows what he is doing. our attack, though slightly improved, is still pedestrian, we still struggle to regularly create chances. yes, our defensive approach has improved, but it has clearly come at the expense of our attack. how long will it take arteta to find the right balance? if we were nothing more than a midtable team like aston villa, then youd give him plenty of time to figure it out. but we've been in rebuilding/retooling mode for years now, starting at the end of the wenger era, then the emery stint, and now the last year plus under arteta. we should expect more from this club.
if the team goes on an amazing run and our attack drastically improves, and sustains that improvement for the rest of the season, i'm willing to re-think my stance on arteta in the summer. but as of now, i still think we need to go in another direction. i guess we'll see.
