The questions Arsenal now face after lost 2020/2021 season

Arsenal: The possible, the implausible and what can be hoped for

It is possible that Arsenal can bounce back next year and show better discipline, form, fluidity and efficiency with the help of young players and old players alike. It is possible that Aubameyang plays like the player of years past, that Alexandre Lacazette plays well or is sold to accommodate fresh midfield or wing assistance for the club, and that with just a name like Julian Brandt or Yves Bissouma, the club might function like older fans are more used to witnessing.

Is it reasonable to expect this? Perhaps. But what feels more reasonable is that Arsenal could very well struggle once again. They might need to go through their summer and winter windows before, alongside natural team progress, where change is felt in such a way that other teams would fear the Gunners consistently.

The team needs help on the wings and in the heart of the squad. The team requires left and right-backs to protect the interior of the defense and offer proper service to whomever sits in the attacking positions. While Nicolas Pepe has come on as the season has continued, Willian has been an unmitigated disaster who must produce better next season or risk replacement.

Furthermore, a maestro of men, a real number ten, has to come to Arsenal, or must be found walking round the training grounds. The team has no heart to keep the rhythm of the game. Without that metronome of football, it is easy for a team to get off of schedule and start making errors.

Right now, every team knows that Arsenal is the epitome of consistently inconsistent; it comes across from the players, the manager and the way in which matches take shape across the weeks. They are the surest bet to be unsure each week and they are only certain in their uncertainty. With such existential issues plaguing the team, is it fair to ask whether these are natural growing pains or something more serious.

I think that Mikel Arteta can steady the ship, and so I tend to say it is a team’s natural growing pains, combined with a manager’s natural growing pains. While some colleagues believe he should be sacked, I am more cautious towards this reaction. When one takes into account the mix of natural injuries, the intensity of the COVID-19 season and its standards, as well as COVID-19 illnesses, this season must be understood as quite the different campaign for any coach, let alone a young one.

Yet Arteta will not get more than another season of this type of play without consequence; he could easily fall victim should he have even a half season like this in fact, as Unai Emery received before his time came to an end. He must find results and progress in the coming season or risk being remembered as a spot holder between Arsene Wenger and the next great manager at Arsenal.

This team, like many others during this pandemic, have found their worlds turned upside down. Lack of training, traveling, quality time and, of course, relaxation time, has meant that some outfits that do not know one another as well as some others might not have developed as quickly or efficiently as in previous campaigns. As we continue to try to transition back to some semblance of normalcy, football mirrors this social exercise; when the world returns to developing similarly to how it once did, then so will football.

The future will likely be a mixture of the past with the present, as it always eternally is, yet the struggles of this season will have taught each human on this planet how to overcome with just a bit more perseverance; they will know how hard things were, and how much they need one another to attain these goals.

For Arsenal, it will be no different. They will have to have taken what they learned, extrapolated it, and improved as people and as footballers, for their boss, their fans and of course, for themselves.