Arsenal

Arsenal: Charles Watts discusses Mikel Arteta’s current situation

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Image for Arsenal: Charles Watts discusses Mikel Arteta’s current situation

Arsenal journalist Charles Watts has been sharing his thoughts on Gunners manager Mikel Arteta and his current situation at the north London club. 

This comes after Watts uploaded a video onto his YouTube channel where he spoke about a range of topics concerning the club, including their recent 1-1 draw against Slavia Prague in the Europa League.

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Nice easy one to start off with, who currently sits top of the table?

On the subject of Arteta and his current situation at the club after this midweek draw and whether or not the club should look to get rid of the Spaniard, Watts had this to say on the matter.

He said: “I think we’ve certainly got to give him to the end of the season, see what happens in this Europa League.

“I think we need to give him the summer transfer window as well. I just think you don’t want to get into that routine of just sacking managers, going through the churn, starting all over again, sacking managers, starting all over again.

“No one benefits from that, the club doesn’t benefit from that, the squad doesn’t benefit from that because you end up having about four or five different sets of players in the squad that have been brought in by different managers.

“We’ve already kind of got that at Arsenal right now. Sacking Arteta is only going to add to that, but having said that, if results don’t improve and performances don’t improve, then inevitably, questions are going to be asked and the finger is going to be pointed at him.

“I don’t think it’s anywhere near that stage yet, but the Europa League – you can’t underestimate how important it is to Mikel Arteta.

“He needs to show he can do something in this competition and last night [against Slavia Prague], I thought he got it all wrong.”

Arteta was appointed as Arsenal’s manager back in December 2019 after his leaving his role as assistant manager at fellow Premier League club Manchester City in the same month.

Since taking the reins at The Emirates, Arteta has taken charge of 75 matches with Arsenal across all competitions, winning 40, drawing 14 and losing 21 along the way (per Transfermarkt).

In the game against Slavia Prague, Arsenal took the lead in the 86th minute through Nicolas Pepe but a late injury-time goal from Tomas Holes rescued a draw for the visitors right at the death.

TIF Thoughts on Charles Watts’ comments on Arteta and his future at Arsenal…

In our view, Arsenal shouldn’t be thinking about sacking Arteta anytime soon until he gets the chance to improve the squad throughout the upcoming summer transfer window and the opportunity to progress the team further next season.

He may not have had the resources to build the team he has wanted due to the financial restraints of the pandemic, plus you could argue that last season’s FA Cup triumph and the raft of exits since his arrival suggest he is slowly moulding his team into the kind of squad he is looking for – and sacking him would turn that all to waste.

Is Mikel Arteta the right man to take Arsenal forward?

Yes

Yes

No

No

However, given the draw against Slavia Prague and the fact that Arsenal are currently in 10th place in the Premier League table on 42 points after picking up an incredibly mixed bag of results so far this season, it’s understandable why Watts has some concerns over Arteta and his future with the north London club.

In other news: Charles Watts issues Arsenal transfer update on Emi Buendia

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