Opinion: Arteta Again Proves He’s Too Cautious To Win Arsenal The Premiership

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·21 de septiembre de 2025

Opinion: Arteta Again Proves He’s Too Cautious To Win Arsenal The Premiership

Whatever the result on Sunday, it is too early to write Arsenal out of the title race purely based on the league table. Yet factoring in our starting line-up and first-half performance at the Emirates, there was further evidence that Mikel Arteta might simply be too negative to lift the Premiership with the Gunners.

Not because he is not a good manager. Defensively he is a very good coach, but is he brave enough to get over the line? The only hope is that this was the weekend the Spaniard finally realised he cannot become a champion in North London with his current tactics. The very best have the ability to self-reflect and learn from their mistakes.

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Same old caution in the big games

The reason so many Gooners were despondent about our loss to Liverpool was that it was the first test where the 43-year-old gave evidence that, no, in the summer he had not changed his ethos. He played into Arne Slot’s hands, being led into a false sense of security thinking our opponents would accept a 0-0 draw. In reality, in front of the Kop, the home side were always going to have a period of control.

Therefore, it was almost depressing when our eleven was announced to face Man City. It will have even the biggest defenders of our boss doubting if he will ever be prepared to gamble to get over the line. In another big game our approach was not to lose and not to win. Our principles were reactionary.

That is why the stadium was so quiet in the first half, because they simply did not believe the men on the pitch were going to create anything. The majority of our creativity was on the bench. It is not like those who started even acted like they believed they could do anything in the final third. Forget corners being our only source of a goal, we were resorting to a long throw.

Just remember how much it is for a ticket for this fixture, and entertainment was restricted to trying to pick up scraps from set pieces. 60,000 were silent in the stands because they were bored.

Haaland v Eze (Photo by Justin Setterfield/Getty Images)

Time is running out for Arteta to adapt

So did Arteta finally put his ego to one side at the interval and accept this was another big game he was letting pass him by? Did one of his staff speak up? Did he realise that the crowd would be lifted just by the sight of Saka and Eze?

I hope it is a turning point. The only issue in this sport is that success and failure are separated by the smallest details. You cannot let 45 minutes pass you by, just like you cannot let a trip to the red half of Merseyside pass you by.

Arteta taking so long to change his outlook could have already left us with too much to do. We might have to go to St James’ Park next week eight points away from the top. Newcastle will do exactly the same as Pep Guardiola. Eddie Howe will park the bus, confident that if his men defend well, the visitors might not be able to break them down.

Tyneside will tell us if Arteta has seen the light and will now be on the offensive, or if he will go back to being cautious. This is it now. If he does not learn from this, it is title over.

How do you feel after our injury-time goal at least earned us one point?

Dan Smith

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