Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta is going through a tough patch – dumped out of the Champions League by PSG and falling well short of Premier League champions Liverpool, despite back-to-back title races with Manchester City that went the distance.
It’s worth remembering that this is still Arteta’s first job in management, having cut his teeth as Pep Guardiola’s assistant at Man City after retiring as a player. All things considered, he is doing a spectacular job, even if there’s nothing tangible to show for it since the FA Cup win in 2020.
The rebuild and #process Arteta has overseen means Arsenal fans would be mad to call for his head now. But that doesn’t mean he’s above criticism. And it definitely doesn’t make him immune to pressure next season, which already feels like a make-or-break campaign.
Arteta has made plenty of brave and brilliant decisions, but here are ten that didn’t go to plan…
10) Persisting with Martin Odegaard and ignoring Ethan Nwaneri
Ever since returning from a two-month ankle injury, Martin Odegaard has looked off his game. Was he rushed back? Is he still injured? Does he need a break? Probably yes to all three.
Especially over the last two months, Odegaard’s performances have been alarming and have held Arsenal back. Against PSG at home, he delivered arguably his worst performance for the club, backing that up with a poor showing at home to Bournemouth, a single assist doing a lot of heavy lifting to mask a poor outing. There were some calls for him to be dropped ahead of the Champions League semi-final second leg in Paris.
Unsurprisingly, he started in Paris and flopped again. Having been backed by Arteta to perform, Arsenal needed leadership, control and a spark from their captain, but he let them down. He hid from 50/50s and let the game pass him by. Declan Rice tried to carry the midfield on his back, but there’s only so much one man can do.
And all the while, Ethan Nwaneri was Right There.
Yes, he’s young. But Nwaneri has courage, flair and an eye for goal. He doesn’t overthink chances; he just hits them. Watching Odegaard pass up shooting opportunities that Nwaneri would’ve buried was enough to make fans tear their hair out.
A couple of injury-time minutes for the teenager across both legs against PSG was criminal. Arteta’s loyalty to his captain might be admirable. But in this case, it was costly.
READ MORE: Stubborn Arteta, no striker, poor Odegaard: Why Arsenal’s season has been another failure
9) The August 2023 defensive experiment
During an experimental start to the 2023/24 campaign, Arteta moved Thomas Partey to right-back and put Benjamin White next to William Saliba in the middle. Left-back was Jurrien Timber but he tore his ACL on matchday one. Then it was Takehiro Tomiyasu’s shot, but he got sent off on matchday two. Against Fulham on matchday three, it was Jakub Kiwior’s turn.
This wasn’t clever rotation and it likely had everything to do with the Saudi links swirling around Gabriel.
Arsenal edged past Nottingham Forest and Crystal Palace with narrow wins, but the tactical tinkering finally bit them in a chaotic 2-2 home draw against Fulham – a game they absolutely should’ve won.
Thankfully, Arteta snapped out of it in time for Manchester United, restoring Gabriel and some common sense. But those two dropped points proved costly.
8) Signing Raheem Sterling
The loan signing of Raheem Sterling has proven to be a waste of time and resources for everyone involved.
It was a panic signing. Sporting director at the time, Edu Gaspar, admitted that adding Sterling wasn’t in the plan. But pressure from fans led to a disappointing addition that arguably blocked Arsenal from signing someone who could have made a difference – like Marcus Rashford, who was reportedly on their radar.
Sterling has only managed one goal in 27 appearances for Arsenal, and that came in the Carabao Cup against League One outfit Bolton Wanderers.
7) False-nine Emile Smith Rowe vs Villarreal
In Arsenal’s biggest game of 2020/21, Arteta started Smith Rowe as the focal point of his attack, leaving Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Eddie Nketiah and Gabriel Martinelli on the bench.
It’s safe to say his plan backfired. Arsenal were blunt and found themselves 2-0 behind before the half-hour mark in the first leg of their Europa League semi-final first leg. A late away goal gave them some hope, but the return leg was just as toothless.
After losing 2-1 in the first leg, the Gunners again underwhelmed, drawing 0-0 at home to Unai Emery’s side and being knocked out by the eventual winners, who beat Manchester United on penalties in the final.
6) Signing WillianWillian arrived from Chelsea in 2020 on a free transfer – but not exactly a cheap one. He was handed a three-year deal worth £240,000 a week. For context: that’s £45,000 more than Bukayo Saka earns now.
In return, Arsenal got one goal in 37 appearances and a series of performances that made it look like he’d retired the moment he signed the contract. It was a disastrous signing.
To be fair to Willian, he did at least spare Arsenal further pain by terminating his contract early and walking away without demanding a payoff. That act of kindness saved the club over £20million and was a rare example of a player rescuing the club from its own bad decision.
5) 2025 January transfer window
Hard as it is to believe now, Arsenal were still firmly in the title race in January. All they needed was a smart, proactive window to put pressure on Liverpool. So, naturally, they did nothing. And by March, they were out of it.
With Gabriel Jesus ruled out for the season, it was obvious the Gunners needed a striker – an actual striker. Everything was suddenly riding on Kai Havertz staying fit and hitting red-hot form for five months. Predictably, that didn’t go to plan. Two weeks after the window closed, Havertz’s hamstring snapped and Arteta was left scrambling. The solution? Mikel Merino reimagined as a makeshift No.9.
To be fair, there’s every chance Arteta did want reinforcements and was politely told to p*ss off by the board. There are always two sides to these stories.
MAILBOX: Arsenal must ‘bin’ five players including Odegaard for Arteta to take the final step
4) Starting XI v Aston Villa
Arsenal suffered one defeat in the 2023/24 run-in: 2-0 at home to Emery’s Aston Villa. They were relentless in the second half of that season but that one defeat cost them dearly, recording 89 points but finishing second to Manchester City.
The Villa defeat stood out not just for its significance, but for Mikel Arteta’s starting XI.
At the time, Arsenal had found a devastating formula: Havertz leading the line, Declan Rice playing ahead of Jorginho, and a stable defensive core. But for reasons only Arteta can fully explain, he altered that balance for this crucial clash. Rice dropped deeper, Havertz moved into midfield, Gabriel Jesus started up front, and Oleksandr Zinchenko was restored at left-back.
The first half wasn’t awful; Arsenal created chances and should have gone ahead through Leandro Trossard, who missed a golden opportunity. But after the break, Villa took control. Leon Bailey broke the deadlock in the 84th minute, and Ollie Watkins sealed the win minutes later. Just like that, Arsenal’s title hopes were shattered.
Arteta’s in-game management didn’t help matters. Zinchenko, clearly struggling, wasn’t withdrawn until the 87th minute. Jorginho didn’t come on until the 79th. Martin Odegaard was forced off with a knock, and Tomiyasu replaced the wrong full-back – coming on for White instead of Zinchenko.
This match was a turning point, and while Arsenal’s late-season resolve deserves credit, this was a tactical misstep that probably cost them the Premier League title.
3) Rob Holding over Jakub Kiwior in the 2022/23 run-in
January windows have long been a bit of a blind spot for Arteta, but to his credit, he did at least recognise the need for centre-back cover during Arsenal’s unexpected 2022/23 title charge. He signed promising Spezia defender Jakub Kiwior, who was apparently not trustworthy enough to actually play.
Instead, Arteta brought in Rob Holding to replace the injured William Saliba. It was baffling at the time and is something Arsenal fans look back on with extreme frustration. Kiwior was overlooked due to a lack of Premier League experience – and also probably because he’s left-footed and would’ve played next to Gabriel – in favour of a player who was nowhere near good enough, with all due respect.
Holding went from starting title-deciders against Manchester City and helping Arsenal bottle to being ditched by Crystal Palace within the space of a year. That tells you everything.
And as we all know, Kiwior has been brilliant for Arsenal this year in the absence of Gabriel. Sigh.
2) Shoddy attacking recruitment
Alright, this isn’t one specific ‘decision’, we know. But Arteta has signed five attackers during his time at Arsenal (we’re not counting Kai Havertz, who was brought in as a midfielder): Raheem Sterling, Gabriel Jesus, Marquinhos, Willian, and Leandro Trossard. And only one of them – Trossard – has actually worked out.
While the defence and midfield have been rebuilt into something genuinely title-worthy, the attack has been strangely neglected. Arteta has needed a proper striker since the winter of 2022 and ended up moving Havertz up front in 2023/24. At least he has 200 left-backs.
A new striker is expected to join this summer, finally. The question is: who will it be? And what took you so long? Alexander Isak is the dream but Viktor Gyokeres is the favourite to be the reality – which, to be fair, is still a very nice reality…
1) Not replacing Pierre-Emerick AubameyangThe first sign that Arteta wasn’t too fussed about having a proper striker came midway through the 2021/22 season, when he binned off his captain and top striker, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, and then just… didn’t replace him.
Aubameyang wasn’t exactly tearing it up that season, but he was still comfortably Arsenal’s best goalscorer and had real chemistry with the young core of Saka and Smith Rowe. But after one disciplinary breach too many, Arteta made the big call to strip him of the armband, exile him, and then ship him off to Barcelona.
This was a difficult call to make but ultimately the correct one. The issue is that Arteta didn’t replace him. It cost Arsenal Champions League qualification, and in truth, Arteta still hasn’t replaced his former skipper – someone who scored 92 goals in 163 games for the club.
Jesus arrived the following summer but he’s a different kind of striker and not the reliable goal machine Arsenal still clearly lack. There were strong links to Dusan Vlahovic in that January, but nothing materialised. It didn’t even get a mention in the Amazon: All or Nothing documentary of the club’s 21/22 campaign.
We’ll finally see Arsenal sign an actual striker this summer, three and a half years too late.