Arsenal journalist Charles Watts has been sharing his thoughts on Gunners manager Mikel Arteta and his future at the north London club.
This comes after Watts uploaded a video onto his YouTube channel where he spoke about a number of topics concerning the club, including their recent 0-0 draw against Villarreal in their semi-final second leg Europa League clash that saw them knocked out of the competition.
On the subject of Arteta and his future at the club, which has now been called into question after this latest match, Watts had this to say on the matter.
He said: “I like Mikel. I’ve always been a supporter of Mikel, I kind of liked what I was seeing from him, certainly last season, but it is impossible to sit there now and just think that a lot of this season has to fall on his shoulders.
“How many games have Arsenal lost season? How many times have they failed to score? How dull is the football at times? How under-performing are some of the players and ultimately that comes down to the manager?
“I can see he’s saying the right things here and he’s accepting responsibility and fair enough for that, but I’m struggling to see where Arsenal go under Mikel Arteta at the moment and that is a real shame because like I said, I like him and I think he’ll probably going to go on, and he’s going to be a good manager somewhere else, but I’m just struggling to see if he can do that Arsenal.
“I think he will get time; I think it’s unlikely that Arsenal are going to pull the trigger and sack him on this, but they probably should given the results that have gone their way. I think the one thing that’s in his favour is Arsenal see this is a big project and a big rebuild and they really bought into the whole Arteta thing. They gave him the promotion to manager last season after the FA Cup win, was that a mistake looking like it is now but really invested in this project and I think that’s probably what keeps him in a job.”
Arsenal appointed Arteta as their permanent manager back in December 2019. Since then, the Spaniard has taken charge of 82 matches with the north London club across all competitions in which they have won 43, drawn 16 and lost 23 along the way (per Transfermarkt).
TIF Thoughts on Charles Watts’ comments on Arteta…
Given how Arteta has only taken Arsenal to ninth place in the Premier League table at this moment in time and now failed to take them to the Europa League final, it’s understandable why he is now under pressure and why his future and ability to take Arsenal forward has been brought into question, in our view.
Should Arsenal sack Arteta?
Yes
No
With Watts under the impression that the north London club won’t sack Arteta because of this latest disappointment in midweek, the best thing he can don now would be to make sure the team picks up as many points as possible in their remaining league fixtures and finish as high up the table as they can.
In other news: ‘100%’ – Fabrizio Romano issues big update on Arsenal star