Arsenal: 3 biggest mistakes Mikel Arteta made in 2020/21

Where are the Men in Black and their neuralyzer when we need them? Arsenal have bid a very fond farewell to the 2020/21 season and not a soul won’t be happy to see the back of a wretched year both on and off the football pitch.

Five wins to end the season does nothing to alter the course. It’s been a disaster. The post-mortem can begin as externally we try to piece together what went wrong and what can fix it, sentiments echoed internally. The squad will be gutted, reshaped and re-imagined.

As a 2-0 win over Brighton at least provided a happy note to end a hideous campaign full of anger and detachment, the hope is that final flurry will act as a taster for what is to come. Whatever that may be can’t be much worse, although one should never assume with this beloved football club of ours.

Fronted by a man without a full season in management on his CV, Mikel Arteta’s role in another eighth place finish and embarrassing exit from the Europa League at the hands of his predecessor is clear. Arsenal have made the decision to stick with the man with whom they’ve entrusted far too much responsibility, and 2021 is likely to finish with him still at the helm.

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Arsenal: 3 biggest mistakes Mikel Arteta made in 2020/21 as Premier League season draws to a close

What is expected of him is clear and there is now nowhere to hide as a first campaign without European football for 25 years will provide him with all the time he can be granted to instill his ideas. If there is no upturn next season there will be no Arteta.

Sacking him at this point will solve nothing. If he were to be relieved of his duties following the limp elimination from the Europa League there could have been no complaints, but he is here to stay and backing him in the summer transfer window is essential.

There has been undoubted positivity to draw from his maiden full term in office, and likewise detrimental mistakes.

An extensive list of both good and bad, there were three standout mistakes throughout the season where the manager could not be free from scorn. Learning from these will be essential if he is to cement his place as the manager of Arsenal for the years to come.

3. Summer Window & The No. 10

These merge together with the former being the beginning of what would become the focal point of the toughest spell of the entire season.

It does mean we need to speak about Mesut Ozil. Whatever one’s view on the German may have been, whether he needed to be integrated or he was simply not at the level or of the right profile for the side, his absence was nonetheless telling.

But not necessarily his absence, more the dearth of a creative operator within this Arsenal team. Arteta made his bed before the summer window had even began and while shifting Ozil proved fruitless for obvious reasons, you can’t cut off your nose to spite your face. If you opt against removing a No. 10 from the team, you need to replace him. Arteta never did.

Now, of course, securing that elusive player in the summer transfer window won’t have been easy. With the endless chopping and changing above him as well as the all-round inexperience and lack of funds, any signings in the window would have been tricky operations. That’s the only saving grace he gets and it’s not much.

Gabriel and Thomas Partey joined to strengthen the spine, with no No.10 following. Not securing someone to fill that void was horribly damaging. It meant the season started with a back three system, one that boasted key creators Dani Ceballos and Granit Xhaka in the engine room. Ha.

This persisted with various personnel, even briefly changing to a 4-2-3-1 with Joe Willock shoehorned into a position he struggled to nail in the Premier League as well as Bukayo Saka briefly flirting with it. The horseshoe patterned football made for excruciating viewing. Nobody in the pockets – trying this just once with Saka did not suffice – left Arsenal toothless and keeping Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang stuck out on the left exacerbated the experience.

Then along comes Emile Smith Rowe on Boxing Day. Cut a long story short, Arsenal were comfortably a top four side from the point of his arrival.

While injury and match fitness prevented his integration from coming much sooner, it could still have arrived earlier than it had. Once it did Arsenal were a different side on the eye and on the scoreboard. Notable about his inclusion, too, is that Smith Rowe didn’t even have to play well to have an impact, such is the importance of someone in that position – even to occupy space, draw others out, it made Arsenal more fluent in attack.

Not seeing to that in the transfer window, persisting with the system at hand and leaving it until the last minute to play someone, anyone, in the No. 10 role hamstrung the season as a whole.

2. Timing

Timing. If there is one word to encapsulate the weaknesses Arteta has shown in a managerial sense this season, it’s timing. And, starting from the top, the slowness to react to William Saliba’s situation set the ball in motion. There are other ways of framing his handling of it – some harsh but completely justified – yet sending him out on loan six months after a decision had been made not to play him in 2020/21 was mistake.

There were circumstances around his personal life that had an impact that can’t be fully calculated, yet for half the season he played Under-23 matches. Those should have been spent at another club, be it in France or even the Championship.

As for in-game decisions, Arteta’s tardiness came to the fore across the whole season. A regular disgruntlement was his reaction times to matters on the pitch. Substitutions took to long to make; tactical deficiencies were allowed to play out over weeks on end without alteration; the misuse of certain players in certain positions detracting from what he was trying to create on the pitch.

This includes the avoidance of a playmaker in the team and the 3-4-3, as well as trying to cover up the attacking fallacies by implementing other foolish methods like churning out cross after cross with nobody to aim for, another ploy he granted too much air time.

Of course, nowhere else was his poor timing more clear than in the Europa League. Starting with Slavia Prague at home, the team selection and setup was wildly inaccurate for the manner the Czech side played and while even tactical novices like this writer could see the need for runners in behind, it took Arteta until the 78th minute to change things. It worked almost immediately.

In between that game and the semi-final came the introduction of Granit Xhaka at left-back and Thomas Partey as a single pivot. This was a left-field move that worked superbly, showed Arteta’s mind at work and elevated his standing as a fine technician. Yet it was rinse and repeat with the timing as it should have been put to bed after (during) the Everton game.

It did not (there is undoubted arrogance in Arteta’s stubborness) and then Smith Rowe in the false nine away at Villarreal happened and it was an unmitigated disaster. It was more shooting himself in the head as opposed to the foot. Half-time came and nothing changed, except for how many people there were on the pitch as Arteta dallied on what he should have done with Dani Ceballos.

Decisions made too slow. Answers provided too late.

Much of this is due to the manager being so inexperienced, completely new to the job. He is learning as he goes and the issue is that he hasn’t learnt quick enough. These are mistakes to eradicate next season.

1. Willian

Number one on the list funnily enough has traits of both the former points. It’s also simply titled ‘Willian’ since selecting one issue with his being at Arsenal would be unfair on all the other issues. It’s a whole package.

Willian being what he has become at Arsenal is a genuine shame, and shock. Ignoring finance and form and what have you, he seems like a really lovely bloke and it would have been nice for a change if someone going from west London to north London turned out alright for once.

Nope.

Everything about Willian joining Arsenal has been a downright catastrophe from the moment he walked through the doors stating how he can’t wait to win the Champions League and put pen to paper on a three-year contract worth anywhere between £150-£200k-per-week. Even the bottom end, and indeed lower, is inexplicable. It also welcomed more Kia Joorabchian into Arsenal.

Chelsea wanted to hand him two more years. He said no. The only way Arsenal could win this rotten egg and spoon race would be to go with three. He’s 32. You have to question a player’s commitment at this stage with seven years across the city behind him.

Arteta should never have signed him in the first place. Furthermore, he should never started him for 12 of the opening 14 Premier League games. Not when Nicolas Pepe had just finished last season so strongly with his best performance in an Arsenal shirt being, quite literally, the last one he played.

Here we are at the end of the season and Pepe is playing his best football to date for the club. In truth the entirety of 2021 has been an upward trajectory for the Ivorian. We shouldn’t, however, ignore the fact he was pretty atrocious for most of the start of the season. This can’t be brushed under the carpet.

What we can do is question whether Arteta exempting him from the team for the first third of the season didn’t have a significant impact on that form. It took him time to find his feet and here he is now. Willian seemed to get progressively worse. Who knows where Arsenal could have been at this stage. Even when Pepe is rubbish at least he has some moments in the final third. A modicum of goal threat.

14 games into the season with Willian somehow stealing a living as well as minutes from others who were far more deserving of them, it was him being ill for the Boxing Day clash with Chelsea where it all changed. Following on from then he started only four Premier League matches. We needn’t revise the form table for this one.

Then, at the 37th attempt, Willian scored his first Arsenal goal against West Brom. That was his third shot on target. His third, in 37 matches. As far as his conversion rate goes it’s….not half bad, but in a season where Arsenal mustered the fewest number of goals at home since 1973/94 and the fewest overall since 1995/96, forwards not scoring is thrust into the limelight. Arteta failed to see this sooner.

Everton away will remain one of the most infuriating performances from any individual for many years.

So here we are, with Willian earning quite outstanding sums of money for another two years, and Arsenal faced with one hell of a job shifting him.

• Arteta gave the all-clear for this transfer – mistake one.
• Arteta persisted with Willian despite him being utterly hopeless – mistake two.
• Arteta opted to punish him for a trip to Dubai by playing him as soon as he got back – mistake three.
• Arteta wasted the vast majority of 1,900 minutes that should have been dished out elsewhere – mistake four.
• Arteta is now stuck with Willian – mistake five.

For all of the points above, what is most encouraging is that it appears Arteta has learned from them. The No. 10 situation has been seen to with Smith Rowe and Martin Odegaard, who may return but if he doesn’t will be replaced. As for timing he is beginning to make the right choices on personnel with some semblance of bidding farewell to his failed ploys. Simplistic decisions with his own touch.

And in regards to Willian, he does not factor in to the equation anymore. He’s finally lost the faith of Arteta and there is no doubt he will try to sell him this summer if at all possible. There is no role for him this team.

Progress, you could say. One thing is for sure, the pitchforks will be out if similar mistakes rear their ugly heads next season. They shouldn’t, though.