The questions Arsenal now face after lost 2020/2021 season

The season had so much promise to it. Coming off of two trophy earning victories against Chelsea and Liverpool in the FA Cup Final and Community Shield, a major step seemed possible as Arsenal had Mikel Arteta, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, young players and savvy veterans as well; trophies can add fuel to a burning fire, or relight the embers of a dying one.

Yet few could’ve suspected that the team would feel choked across much of this season. While many of the same players remained from last year’s shock, last minute run at the end of the season, some new faces came in the summer, as well as January for the Gunners. Thomas Partey and Martin Odegaard should’ve been enough for a team full of emerging talent, as well as more famous and well known names; it never fully came together however, and this is what has left us in this current spot.

From coaching to playing, nothing ever seemed to really click this season. Maybe another off-season, more transfers, and some tinkering and rethinking could do the trick; I am not personally ready to fire Arteta, as I believe his trophies have earned him more time than was afforded to Unai Emery. In hindsight, it was regrettable that Emery was fired and not given more time to improve his English and the squad of his Arsenal side; that was a reactionary, knee-jerk decision and should not be repeated this time with Arteta.

Yet Arsenal do sit out of a top five finish on the Premier League table. They were knocked out of the Europa League by Unai Emery and Villarreal by virtue of an embarrassing 0-0 draw in the second leg of the Europa League semi-finals at the Emirates last week, and the club has no means to qualify for any European competition next year unless they luck out(?) and happen to fall into the UEFA European Conference League. The 1-0 win over Chelsea strengthens such a possibility.

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The questions Arsenal and Mikel Arteta now face after lost 2020/2021 Premier League and Europa League seasons

It will be difficult for Arsenal to get into European football in the coming years and could prove difficult to build and curate a team capable of even making it into the top six with the rise of other clubs like West Ham, Everton and maybe even Aston Villa next year.

Meanwhile, the teams above the Gunners are substantially deeper in terms of team depth and pocketbook. Manchester City and Manchester United spend all of the money and look as appealing as any club across the globe; Liverpool has a great history and has just recently been a world beater under Jurgen Klopp; Chelsea looks back on track with Thomas Tuchel despite losing to Arsenal in shock fashion in the second of two league victories for the Gunners this season.

Even with this fresh loss to Arsenal, I will be the first to suggest that it remains unlikely that Roman Abramovich, despite his reputation, will do anything other than praise the German skipper at this point of his career on Stamford Bridge.

Leicester City, meanwhile, are attempting to hold on to a top four position after the folly at the end of last season that saw them slip from Champions League to Europa League on the final day of the season. They have shown themselves a tough side who seems here to stay amongst the better of the Premier League just the same as anyone else. Yet Tottenham in juxtaposition to many of these teams, might find themselves another odd man out alongside their north London rivals.

So where does this all leave Arsenal? What should fans be hoping for and believing in regards to the possible and implausible?

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.