Ten mostly unreasonable reasons for Arsenal to sack Mikel Arteta

enough to make one picture what a post-Arteta Arsenal might look like, as does the fine work Andoni Iraola is doing at Bournemouth.

Arne Slot

The Dutchman has been a disaster for Arteta in two ways: he’s shown that a top team can lose a great manager who was by all accounts doing an excellent job at the point of departure and get better; he’s taken up the Premier League mantle from Manchester City, which by all rights was Arteta’s to grab hold of after two close-but-no-cigar seasons.

Pickpockets, lemons and lightbulbs

Nothing makes Arteta more ripe for the sack than his commitment to cringeworthy motivational tactics.

A lightbulb as a prop to promote “electricity” between the players and the fans, in a speech where Arteta eruditely pointed out “it would be f***ing dark without this guy”, Thomas Edison. Lemons whose “juice is our team magic” as Arteta took one from a player who said he had squeezed out all the juice only for his manager to illustrate “you can always squeeze more”. Hiring a pickpocket to steal from his own players – including one who had fought off a baseball-bat wielding thief in real life – to teach them a lesson about “the importance of being ready and alert”.

It’s all very weird, a bit funny and a big red flag for 90% of the population who dread corporate away days when a team leader opens a seminar with a smile and a promise that they will make the experience as interactive as possible.

He’s reached his ceiling

Arsenal’s 89 points last season would have been enough to win the title in five of the previous ten seasons. If it weren’t for arguably the greatest team under arguably the greatest manager in Premier League history they would have won last season and the season before.

But Liverpool are on course for 92 points this term and with Manchester City regathering themselves and Chelsea building for future dominance, the bar may now remain at the height Pep Guardiola has pushed it, which Arsenal have failed to reach thus far under Arteta and look set to fall way beneath in the current campaign. Maybe he just doesn’t have what it takes for that final push.

Football365

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