Can I ask a serious question. What manager out there had won major trophies within their first 5 seasons of their managerial career? I mean, i know Pep did, but how many have their been? And I am not talking farmers leagues, but major European leagues. There really have not been all that many, have there? I mean, Arteta won the FA Cup in his first year, which afforded him time to get the Arsenal management to back his vision. He is building the team from the back forward and we are getting toward the (hopefully) final stages of that squad build. We are only a couple pieces away from challenging on multiple fronts, and we have progressed the entire time. I know we're a lot of points behind last years pace but we're still (theoretically) coming in second again, and we went one step further in the CL, losing to a pretty damn good PSG team that has cost way more than our team has. (and it took them a while to figure it out too).
I do think this upcoming season is important, we need to continue progressing, and really challenging for those major titles is a big thing. One good thing is that we will have a summer of rest. The Club World Cup is this summer, and we are not participating, but the likes of Chelsea and City are, so that could be a bad thing for them in terms of energy drain (again). We were hampered by too many games for a lot of our players last season and this past summer. We saw it with the England players (Rice, Saka) and it was a knock on effect that ultimately created a lot of injuries. Overplaying our players derailed the season. A summer of rest and preparation is important.
I know i ramble a lot when i do this, but Arteta is only 5 years into his career, and he's already got us back to being one of the strongest teams in Europe.
