Arsenal Europa League exit presents microcosm of club struggles

A fitting end to the worst Arsenal season in a generation. After securing a number of unconvincing victories in previous rounds of the competition, our Europa League journey drew to an anticlimactic close on Thursday night as a cagey 0-0 encounter in north London saw Villarreal progress to their first ever European final.

The midweek elimination means any chance the Gunners had of lifting silverware in the coming weeks has completely evaporated, and the club now appears condemned to a first campaign without continental football since 1995/96. Although semi-final heartbreak may take some time to recover from, our latest failure encapsulates the problems that have plagued us all season.

The result itself will be a source of much frustration among fans over the next few days, and post-mortems will be conducted to determine where it all went wrong. Obvious starting points would be the lack of quality in the final third or poor decision-making at key moments, but something that should be far more concerning is the perpetually poor attitude of the players.

Heading into the Europa League clash within reach of an all-important final in Gdansk, while simultaneously staring down the barrel of a disastrous exit, Arsenal had all the incentive they needed to produce a big performance against Unai Emery’s Yellow Submarines and finally give us something to cheer about but, as has happened so often this season, they simply never turned up.

Arsenal’s Europa League surrender against Villarreal encapsulates the problems plaguing the club this season

From careless play in possession to the infuriating passivity with which we attacked the Villarreal goal, supporters were once again let down by the team’s apparent indifference about progression and just one shot on target was registered in the first-half, while an extraordinary back-pass from Thomas Partey was about as close as we got to breaking the deadlock all evening.

In addition to the astonishing lack of enthusiasm on the pitch, questions must also be asked of Mikel Arteta and his influence in the dressing room. Not for the first time this campaign, the boss failed to get the best out of his team on the night and made some strange substitutions as we went in search of the winner, exemplified by the withdrawal of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang in the game’s closing stages.

Of course, no one can deny the scale of the job he inherited at the club and, between the pandemic, injuries to key players and regular changes at executive level and in scouting departments, he has contended with a lot in his short managerial career.

However, both results and performances indicate that little progress has been made during his tenure and, with fans returning to stadiums next season, that will have to change very quickly.

Irrespective of both this result and our struggles throughout the campaign, it seems that the club still intend on building their project around the Spaniard and his position will therefore be safe for the foreseeable future.

With that in mind, this summer will be Arsenal’s biggest transfer window in years and there is much work to be done if we are to compete for a top four spot in 12 months’ time. From now on, the ‘process’ simply must deliver, as the alternative would likely be continued residence in mid-table and perhaps even worse.