While I do believe Arteta has improved Arsenal over last 2,5 years there, I thought they were poor both games against us this season. At Old Trafford we beat them, at Emirates with more luck I think we would've taken at least a point and we're basically a broken team at this stage.
This is absolutely true. We were trash in both those matches.
Overall, with Arteta you can't just look at the point total or the finish, you need to look at the big picture stuff as well.
Arsenal were in much worse shape when he took over than United are now. We had a lot of the same cultural problems in terms of playing power and entitlement in the dressing room, with a far less talented group of players and some truly poisonous characters. We had almost no high level young talent on the first team roster, a bunch of players with overpriced contracts that couldn't be moved (especially once Covid hit), and an ownership group that wasn't interested in sanctioning any spending. And we were even more screwed up at board level, no real footballing brains in the operation and being led by a bona fide crook in Raul Sanllehi, who was thick as thieves with superagents and likely working kickback schemes. The atmosphere among supporters was 100% poisonous as well.
Its not just that Emery had us around 10th in the table, its that we absolutely deserved to be there, and given everything else going on in the club it wasn't looking like a momentary blip. We had no plan at all for getting back into the top 4-5, no elite young first team players to really build around, no manager to build a team, and no sporting directors to bring in the right players or manager.
Now we have:
-A very promising core of 9-10 likable young players who seem fully invested in the manager's project and are all on reasonable wages.
-A very thin roster, but we have played some very good stuff, at a very high tactical level, when we have our best 11 on the pitch at the same time.
-A complete transformation in the attitudes of match going supporters, who are overwhelmingly positive about the club.
-A sensible and revamped club management structure that seems pretty functional in terms of recruitment, work between first team and academy, etc.
-An owner who completely believes in Arteta/Edu, to the extent that he has been willing to sanction a lot of spending to back their vision and will do so again this summer.
It will be massive for Arsenal if we can finish 4th this year and very disappointing if we don't, given the opportunity. But all of this stuff is 10x more important in the long run than whether we finish 4th or 5th in a single season. Whether Arteta can take Arsenal to the next level is a totally open question and you can reasonably argue that he might not be the guy to do it. But Arteta and Edu together have basically pulled the club back from the brink and, unless you're one of the miserable bastards that are overrepresented on Twitter and elsewhere online, made it actually fun to support the club again.
