The big question for Arsenal fans – If not Arteta, then who? | OneFootball

Emotions are understandably high following the result and performance of Tuesday night against Newcastle. Arsenal acquitted themselves pretty well in the first half, after a strong start from Newcastle but once again after the break our opponents came out strong and we had no answer. It is not the first time Arteta has failed to respond to an opponent and I suspect it won’t be the last. Eddie Howe set his team up with clear intent and they executed the game plan perfectly, whereas Arteta went with the same old tactics and got found out. It is this rigid allegiance to his preferred method that has cost Arsenal points again and again, further highlighting Arteta’s inability to react to developing situations and adjust accordingly.

To add insult to a set of already grieving fans, he then goes on to blame the ball on this occasion, which is so absurd as to be extremely worrying; the ball didn’t seem to affect Isak when he smashed it in off the crossbar! These pathetic excuses for his own shortcomings are negatively affecting the fan base, and his dogmatic approach to game management is probably not doing the players much good either. These are his players, that he chose to buy or keep, and he has no one else to blame but himself. I do not even blame the players because they appear to have had almost all the individual flair beaten out of them, similar to what we have witnessed at City and what Pep has done to Jack Grealish.

But the real issue is that Arteta is mostly still getting good results, and from a business perspective it would make no sense to change him. As stated in a previous post elsewhere, the board doesn’t care about sexy football or the fans’ happiness, they just want a profitable business model. However, if that business model should fail and Arteta stops getting the results on a regular basis and the team begins to slip down the table, then I would imagine he will only then be relieved of his duties. But be replaced by who? With the way the team is currently set up to be solid defensively and essentially try to dominate possession and steal a win, I think the role is best suited to someone like Diego Simeone.

(Photo by Florencia Tan Jun/Getty Images)

Of course, we can only speculate because we have no way of knowing who will be available and who might want the job, but speculation can be fun. So who would you want to take over from Mikel Arteta were he to leave his position as manager? Another club legend like Patrick Vieira?  Maybe bring in Santi Cazorla as Sporting Director and let him have some influence over the decision. Or better yet, bring in Santi and let him talk some sense into Arteta because he has done a lot of good things during his tenure. He got Arsenal back at the top of the league challenging for the title but it is also his fault that we are unable to enjoy the experience due to the way he makes the team play.

Inevitably, I think we must endure this style for at least another 18 months until his rigid micromanagement is no longer getting results against most of the teams rather than just a few shrewd managers like Eddie Howe. It is perhaps his worst crime that Arteta instead of being a popular manager who restored Arsenal’s pride and status as one of the best teams in the country, has large sections of the fan base calling for his dismissal because of the way he appears to mismanage his personnel and suck all the excitement out of the game by stifling creativity unless it fits snuggly within his idea of how the game should be played. Something must change because this way only disappointment awaits.

Ben

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