It’s been well over five years since Mikel Arteta was appointed to take charge of the team at Arsenal. At a club of such magnitude and pedigree in English football, trophies are without a doubt the main factor in determining the success of a coach after such a long time, and the Spaniard has already delivered some silverware at the Emirates; in 2020, his team won the FA Cup and subsequently the Community Shield, and repeated the latter in 2023/24.
However, it’s now been over two decades since Arsenal won their last Premier League title as they stand firm on their total of 13 league triumphs. They were in the race a couple of times in that span, coming closest last season when they finished two points behind Manchester City, and they’re poised to finish second to the already crowned Liverpool this term as well.
Arsenal have made notable progress under Arteta, improving gradually in every aspect of the game. They know how to control a game through possession, they know how to set up defensively to win if need be, and they’ve turned set-pieces into almost an art form this season. On top of it all, they have high-quality individuals in almost every position, and the fact that they’re finishing close to the top is no fluke. The same can be said about them reaching the semifinals of the Champions League, especially after they forcefully disposed of Real Madrid in the quarterfinals.
However, Arteta’s tenure at the club is undoubtedly reaching a pivotal moment, one that could determine the mentality, not to mention the public perception, of the team. It feels they’ll either break through that final barrier by actually winning something far more meaningful than the FA Cup and the Community Shield soon, or be ed in relation to the old saying, “always a bridesmaid, never the bride” for years to come.
Though they lost the first leg of the semifinals at home to Paris Saint-Germain, it’s still only one goal dividing the two sides and it’s far from settled. But even if they manage to turn the tie around and reach the final, they’ll still have to face either a ruthless Barcelona or a fantastically resilient Inter Milan. The game they play at Anfield against Liverpool, the team which beat them to the Premier League title, at the end of the week is now practically irrelevant, as much for Arsenal as for Liverpool. Right now, the full focus of Arteta and his players will be on the Champions League challenge alone. If they return victorious from Paris on Wednesday, it could be a moment similar to the one Liverpool had when they produced that historic comeback against Barcelona, which propelled the Merseysiders to the heights they reached over the following 12 months. Otherwise, things could turn to a downward path for the North Londoners.
The pressure of needing to deliver a trophy is already present and steadily mounting, and if they finish 2024/25 without one, it will surely go through the roof going into the next season.
But if this campaign made one deficiency stand out in assessing the Gunners’ squad, it’s the lack of a high-quality striker. Arteta is obviously aware of this – in January, Arsenal reportedly made a move for Aston Villa’s Ollie Watkins. They’ve been strongly linked with Matheus Cunha of Wolves, who is now tipped to Manchester United instead. There have also been reports of interest in RB Leipzig’s Benjamin Sesko and Sporting Lisbon sensation Viktor Gyokeres.
Whatever else they may be thinking – that they’ve been unfortunate with injuries, for example – the players wearing the Arsenal shirt, including those who might the club over the summer, must grip the oncoming challenges with great determination and deal with the pressure head-on, or fail utterly.
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