It's a bit of a dilemma and sometimes I feel pity for whoever finds himself as the coach of Arsenal. From the last days of Arsenal Wenger to the unpleasant stint of Unai Emery to Freddie and now to Arteta, there doesn't seem to be any obvious sign of growth or improvement on the squad and general team play.
At a time as this, when football is more competitive than ever, with teams winning now and also building for the future concurrently, Arsenal is unfortunately stuck in transition for the foreseeable future.
It doesn't help that the owners aren't really football people, they aren't emotionally invested in it as let's say the owners of the other top English teams, like Chelsea and Manchester United.
WHAT IS MISSING?
When you compare the current Arsenal squad with that of their rivals, talent-wise, they aren't so far off. So what exactly is the problem? One of the main problems is Mentality!
Ever since Arsenal went into a rebuilding phase after moving to the Emirates, they seem to have lost their winning mentality, their psychological edge.
Part of it had to do with losing their best players to domestic rival teams, who go on to win the League and other trophies with their new teams.
This is a big deal. Every physical battle is first fought in the mind before the actual battle. When your domestic rival can easily poach your best players, then they have defeated you psychologically and would go on to dominate you in actual battle.
One of the mistakes Arsenal made and kept making was selling their best players to their domestic rivals. This eroded every winner mentality the players had and in more ways than one, made players within the clubs see themselves as below par. Psychology plays a big role in every success we attain in life.
Look at it this way, the thought of Arsenal trying to poach Harry Kane from Tottenham would sound embarrassingly funny and ridiculous because, for starters, the player wouldn't want to come because Arsenal doesn't present any pull in terms of ambition. And the club wouldn't even consider selling because, well they wouldn't want to be the ones helping to Kickstart an Arsenal revival.
That's how far off Arsenal has fallen in terms of status. Not long ago, they still had this pull and almost nicked Suarez from Liverpool, if they didn't go ahead and act like total crack heads with the 40,000,000 + 1 bullshit.
Liverpool was still in their own rebuilding phase, Suarez wanted to leave and they would have sold to Arsenal if a good offer had come in. Now, do you see Arsenal pricing any of Liverpool's best players? The club wouldn't need to respond, the player in question would laugh Arsenal off the park.
HOW ARE THEY GOING TO STOP TRANSITIONING AND FINALLY REACH THEIR DESTINATION?
I said that the Arsenal team is not that far off from the rest and I wasn't playing. The problem with the team is the mentality within the club and the squad. Just a few details separate Chelsea and Arsenal, quality-wise. Chelsea is already used to winning, Arsenal is still trying to find that monster mentality.
Before Tuchel came in, the Chelsea players didn't feel they could do it, they knew they were Chelsea but they didn't have the belief of champions and it showed in the way they played. Even this Arsenal team completely dominated them but then Tuchel came in and the mentality changed. Chelsea became monsters again, with the same players as under Lampard.
To stop transitioning, Arsenal needs to show ambition and intent. You may ask how they are going to do that. So far in the transfer window, Arsenal has only invested in the future, the mentality is still "we are a work in progress".
To change that mentality, they need an intent signing, a signing for the now and not the future. A Ronaldo kind of signing would do wonders to the mentality around the squad. It doesn't have to be Ronaldo but you get what I mean. A player with a massive winning mentality.
The current Arsenal squad isn't as bad as the media highlights, they currently have some of the most talented and exciting talents in the league in Saka, Odegaard, Pepe, Martinelli. These names might not sound so heavyweight at the moment because they need bigger names and experience alongside them. They need some kind of hype within and around the team to kickstart the revival.
Arteta knows how to talk and what to talk but his philosophy is yet to be imprinted on the team, so for now it's just talking, but, I guess 2 years is still a short time to judge a new project right?
Having said all that, I believe showing ambition or the lack of it starts from the owners and it is no coincidence that Arsenal's decline started with the Kroenke era.