I don't think he can survive another season without silverware. But by the same token, I also don't think winning just the Carabao would be enough at this stage of his Arsenal career.
Our mediocre performances of late, as well as our struggles for creativity, coupled with Newcastle's red hot form and our poor recent record against you since Howe joined, was always going to be a recipe for disaster. To be fair, you've got a proper team. Really like the way you play and the profiles of your players. Hope you go onto win this trophy, genuinely.
If United KO us from the FA Cup on Sunday, the mood around the club is going to get extremely toxic and negative again. Tonight was the first time probably since the Brighton 0-3 home loss at the end of the 2022/23 season where I've seen fans leave early. Equally, if we don't make a couple of additions this month, I fear our season could unravel and we'll get dragged into a top-4 battle. Not that I think we're in a title race, but I did think we'd comfortably finish in the top-4. I'm becoming less certain of that now. I think if he gets CL qualification for a 3rd successive year, the Kroenkes will keep him at the club. They've made clear what their ambitions are. They're happy for us to compete, they don't give a **** about actually winning tangible things.
That was **** last night, and the result against Brighton was a kick in the bollocks too. Injuries haven't helped either and fans are down at the moment. But people shouldn't start panicking. I think we'll find our form again. Talk about sacking Arteta, even if he won the league cup are just nonsense.
Thankfully we aren't like your lot and constantly sacking our managers. You really think the club would sack him even if he wins a trophy
But I don't think it's unreasonable why people are starting to seriously worry. The narrative I'm seeing online isn't based purely off last night, it's based off what people were worried about after our summer window and the fact that, since Arteta won that FA Cup in 2020, our record in the cups has been pretty appalling truth be told. We need to be very careful that our season doesn't begin to unravel. If we lose to United on Sunday (which isn't beyond the realms of possibility), things could take a nasty turn for the worst. We've done so well to get to this point from where we were 4 years ago, but the club have started to be less proactive and more risk averse at a time where we need to be aggressive in pursuing top talent. The recent recruitment needs to be called into question too. I'm also beginning to wonder what our scouting department actually does. A lot of fans feel like it's Groundhog Day and who can blame them for feeling this way? Also, I did want to ask - whilst I don't think we should sack Arteta right now, at what point should he be under pressure? We can't keep going year after year of not winning anything. I reckon we have one more year after this season before our best players begin to have their heads turned - assuming we're still in this same position by the end of the 2025-2026 season.
We should have recruited better last summer, but for whatever reason we didn't. This season we've gone into the mix light in a couple of areas and with injuries mounting, it's really putting pressure on this squad. That said, we still have the same number of points this season as we did last time, so the squad is doing just as well as it was. We badly need some attacking players, I think Arteta knows this, but getting the right players isn't that straight forward, they HAVE to improve the squad and they have to be available at the right price. I think that's also been compounded with Edu leaving, and we might wait until the summer until Rosicky possibly comes in before we make any big signings. When should Arteta's job be under pressure ? When the club are going backwards. We're on a plateau right now, and we need to make another step forward. But sacking him because we haven't won anything, or because fans are getting frustrated would just be a detrimental move and would almost certainly set us back. Who would we even replace him with ? And how would the strategy from the Kronke's be any different ?
Two responses on this. One, the points tally we had after the same games last season was deemed not good enough. A lot of fans were really unhappy and felt we'd slipped up too many times. So it's not a positive thing that we're matching form from last year that wasn't sufficient enough. Two, It's worth remembering that our domestic second-half season form last year was 16 wins, 1 draw and 1 loss - do you think this team right now has what it takes to do that? Because I don't. And even then, that near-imperious form still wasn't good enough to win the title. I think this would be quite a big mistake personally for reasons we've already discussed, but put that aside for a minute: is there honestly no player we can add to this squad that can improve us in January? Even on loan? We have Raheem Sterling who we barely use, I know he was injured, but he was back on the bench yesterday and he got 0 minutes. In fact, none of our Summer signings stepped foot on the pitch yesterday - that, for me, is telling. Trossard and Martinelli are hardly pulling up any trees right now too (and haven't for a while). And Jesus is too streaky. I've just seen City are going to bid around £50m for Omar Marmoush from Frankfurt, why are we not trying for him? Wouldn't he improve us? So, if come the end of the 2025-26 season, we've not won anything and we've finished in the top-4 again, you don't think it's worth trying to get a new manager? Do you think the likes of Saliba, Saka, Odegaard etc are going to just wait around while we continue to not win major honours? If our star players begin to look for a way out, and the atmosphere in the stadium starts to turn toxic, then we need to be concerned. I actually think there are several managers who could improve us based on their achievements at other clubs. Inzaghi, Alonso, Nagelsmann etc. Let's not forget that Liverpool fans were absolutely dreading Klopp leaving, now look at how they're doing under Slot. They could easily win several trophies this season.
If we can get some decent attacking option in during January window then yes we should do it. I think the club are trying to do that. I don't know how much of that has been affected by Edu leaving If at the end of the 25/26 season we aren't progressing and a better manager is available then I wouldn't be opposed to appointing them There's so many variables in that scenario though, that's it's largely a moot point at the moment.
