100 games up for Mikel Arteta after Watford...Are the Gunners in a better position now?

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100 games up for Mikel Arteta after Watford...Are the Gunners in a better position now?

By Oscar Maung-Haley


We’re now 100 games into Mikel Arteta’s reign.

And with a century of games up for the incumbent Arsenal manager, we ask the question, are the Gunners in a better position now than they were when they hired him in December 2019?

That first season

It’s safe to say that Mikel Arteta’s first season at the Emirates was a bit of a wild one.

Of course, no one could have predicted the entire world would be thrown off course by a global pandemic.

Taking over from Unai Emery in late December, Arteta drew his first game against Bournemouth before suffering a 2-1 loss to Chelsea.

On New Year’s Day, he helped the Gunners to an impressive 2-0 win over Manchester United, which set Arsenal on a run of nine games unbeaten. 

That streak was ended by Olympiacos, who dumped Arsenal out of the Europa League in embarrassing fashion in the Round of 32. 

Arsenal/Olympiacos

And then COVID struck, with Arteta one of the first people across professional sport to contract the virus in early March.

With football returning as part of Project Restart in June, Arsenal’s return to action didn’t go to plan. A humiliating 3-0 loss to Manchester City, followed by a 2-1 defeat to Brighton.

Arsenal finished the eighth in the Premier League, with no European football, but did manage to win the FA Cup in impressive fashion, beating Manchester City in the semi-finals before dispatching Chelsea in the final.

Those two games alone were great examples of what Arteta could bring to the Emirates, it was just about marrying up those performances with consistency. 

Second season syndrome 

The 2020-21 season was marred by inconsistent performances. Every time Arsenal seemed to take a step forward, they would take two back.

A rocky run between November through till the end of December saw Arsenal go eight Premier League games without a win, with the worst result of all coming in the North London Derby in a 2-1 loss to Spurs.

They did end that run with a surprise 3-1 win over Chelsea on Boxing Day, but if anything that just made the previous run all the more frustrating.

PEA

Form in the second half of the season did pick up, but European football evaded the Gunners grasp, with Arsenal being embarrassingly dumped out of the Europa League by Villareal and Emery in the semi-finals.

Another mixed season with highs and lows – an eighth-place finish was exactly what Arsenal deserved following an inconsistent campaign.

Finally on the up?

This season got off to a horror show start.

An opening day Friday night loss to Brentford in which the Gunners got bullied, followed by resounding defeats to Chelsea and Manchester City could have seen Arteta sacked by the end of August.

But the Gunners have seemingly recovered since their 5-0 drubbing from Manchester City.

Since then, Arsenal have not lost. They have only dropped points against Brighton and Crystal Palace in the league.

AR


They currently sit two points outside the top four too and all of the notable summer signings, Benjamin White, Takehiro Tomiyasu and Aaron Ramsdale seem to have found their feet after a shaky start to the campaign.

Arsenal are unquestionably on the up – the table proves it.

The question is now, will their inconsistency from the last two campaigns creep in at any point this season? Time will tell, but Arteta’s third Premier League season certainly looks to be a promising one!

So are Arsenal in better shape?

After 100 games in charge, Arsenal are absolutely in better shape than before Arteta’s reign.

The squad is as strong as it has ever been in recent years. There are a host of youngsters currently starring for the Gunners and the spine of the team looks like it could be there for years to come.

Arsenal have the foundations to compete with the other top sides in the Premier League.

They’ll have to box smart in the transfer market and improve their current players if they want to stay there, but it looks as though Arteta and Arsenal might finally be heading in the right direction without taking too many backward steps.

PHOTO CREDIT: GETTY IMAGES

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