Mikel Arteta has been great for Arsenal as a player and manager. Winning the FA cup in his first season in charge was amazing, and as an Arsenal fan, winning it for the 14th time was astounding.
But things are not good now. He did well to motivate a team that had lost its drive under Unai Emery, despite his early success. But that team has lost the motivation and drive that it had last season, and for the early part of this season. The simple facts are that the team is producing results that could mean relegation. Teams do not seem to need to fear us any more and I fear for our team in the next game. Unai Emery has shown that he is a great manager at Villarreal which means that I suspect, the issue is with the team.
Before Arteta was employed, I had wanted José Mourinho to join us. I felt that we needed someone to reorganise the team, and like he has done in other teams, he has won titles and trophies, and almost always has left the team in a better position than when started there. The difference there of course is with Manure but even there, he won the league and Europa cups. I am grateful to Mikel Arteta for his service as a manager and player, but now in hindsight, it may have been better if we had taken on José Mourinho instead. A manager like him would have been able to reorganise the team, motivate them and change the mentality that they had. He would have annoyed them and like in all the other teams he has been in, would have been sacked after losing the dressing room, but I would have taken him for what he could do for our defence.
But it may not be the fault of Arteta for not being to reinvigorate the team. It may be that the some of the players have been abducted by aliens. We have a striker who has only scored in our own goal recently, and Willian who has been great before has now appeared to vanish. Another explanation, other than alien abduction is that they have identical twins who are playing for them. Personally, I think that it is the first part of an alien invasion with the players being replaced by alien clones.
Hopefully I am wrong and the form of Arsenal will pick up. Starting on Wednesday.
