Arsenal: 5 reasons Mikel Arteta and Edu deserve praise

This where the alarms start ringing and calls to seek shelter in underground bunkers ring out through the tannoys. Mikel Arteta and Edu? Deserving of praise? At Arsenal? Surely not.

Where this club has gone wrong is a list that would stretch the length of the Emirates. From Clock End to the North Bank. Amid a summer transfer window like no other where Arsenal need to significantly raise the ceiling and clean up the floor, what is going on in between that needs highlighting.

It’s all about who Arsenal can bring in and how many they can ship out for fees as reasonable as can be accrued. Konstantinos Mavropanos and Matteo Guendouzi are both leaving on deals that look terrible on the club’s part, while Ben White is due to arrive for an astounding amount of money at time where it was felt £50m was insurmountable.

But that isn’t everything this window.

More from Pain in the Arsenal

• 3 standout players from 1-0 victory over Everton
• 3 positives & negatives from Goodison Park victory
• Arsenal vs PSV preview: Prediction, team news & lineups
• 3 talking points from Arsenal’s victory at Goodison Park
• Mikel Arteta provides Gabriel Martinelli injury update after Everton win

Arsenal: 5 reasons Mikel Arteta and Edu deserve praise amid a summer transfer window of wholesale change with both under stinging criticism

Arsenal have a core of players that will excite, delight and lead this club into what is hoped to be a new era; a positive shift towards competing at the top end of the Premier League table and returning to elite European competition.

Keeping hold of them is what matters.

Looking at all the fair criticisms Edu and Arteta deserve means it’s easy to lose sight of the opposite. Edu, for example, was key in bringing Kia Joorabchian into this football club. That’s unforgivable.

Arteta, on the other hand, oversaw a campaign of misery littered with mistakes of his own doing that hampered the team’s progress and contributed to some painfully damaging defeats. Both are walking on thin ice.

While this window is underway and already the pitchforks are out ready to lambaste every failed transfer pursuit and questionable deal, all judgement must be spared until August 31. Only then can fans fairly conclude whether it has been a successful summer or not.

Where we can, and should, stop to praise is clear though.

There are five reasons Edu and Mikel Arteta should be highlighted. Their names are Bukayo Saka, Gabriel Martinelli, Folarin Balogun, Kieran Tierney and Emile Smith Rowe.

Five of the biggest talents this club is lucky to have in their ranks and they’re all here to stay.

Last summer Martinelli and Saka penned long-term contracts amid admiring glances across Europe; this year Balogun has followed suit despite huge interest; Tierney signed his own extension without any fuss and Smith Rowe is due to join the group imminently.

This is where the club is going right.

Continued…

Arteta and Edu Are Building Arsenal’s Future

It didn’t require a rocket scientist to pinpoint where the future of Arsenal lay. After a dire season the only shining lights were impossible to miss.

This also shouldn’t be shouted from the top of any rooftops and labelled as genius. At the end of the day this is Edu’s job. But having spent years of seeing Aaron Ramsey, Alexis Sanchez, Robin van Persie et al all depart for free or pittance, the value of the club’s future is being protected. At last.

Everything positive will be tempered by the mistakes made elsewhere, like the obvious one, Willian, but this is the most important business Arsenal will do. More so than signing a central defender on a club-record fee.

Credit where it’s due. Nobody is pulling up trees here, but there right steps are being taken. We hope not, but Gabriel Martinelli may leave in two years’ time. If he does, at least Arsenal will get full value for him.

As for Arteta, upon signing new contracts the players have praised the man at the helm. Not just the usual routine stuff, picked him out and listed him, and Edu, as key components of the reason to extend.

It’s not bad going for a manager who just oversaw an atrocious season – one with plenty of mitigation – to be seen as the right person for these exceptionally talented players to develop under.

As a pair, Arteta and Edu have got a lot wrong. As a pair and individually, there is every chance they will get more wrong. This doesn’t excuse them of other fallacies. While getting your best young players tied down and convincing them of the path ahead may not be a masterstroke, in among all the uncertainty and lack of trust, it warrants being mentioned for praise.