Arteta is gambling with his Arsenal future as manager

Just a few weeks ago there were aspects of Arsenal that offered motivation as fans. The team had a structure, an injection of youth, longer sustained spells of pressure and points on the board.

Now everything is being questioned again. The previously dormant aspects of Arsenal are bubbling to the surface and clouds have covered the sun. It’s all dark.

As bitterly disappointing as the Manchester United defeat was, losing away from home to a billion pound squad is at least vaguely more palatable solely due to the quality of players faced. A minor salvation on a painful evening.

Falling short at Everton was, somewhat impressively, even worse. From back to front and from the first minute to the last, Arsenal contrived to provide another helping hand to a team in crisis hopelessly scrambling for some reprieve.

https://twitter.com/Arsenal/status/1467976216057679880

Mikel Arteta is gambling with his Arsenal future as manager as he continues to make tactical decisions that cost the team

That’s two matches in succession where Arsenal have faced poor opposition at times of weakness and unearthed methods of gifting them victories by fault of their own.

Having worked on a system that brought successful results, the rulebook has been torn up by the manager over the past 180 minutes in favour. Mikel Arteta gets himself into a position of strength, only to go for glory by putting all his winnings on black.

Establishing something that can be put to good use elsewhere, there is this burning desire to top it all off with the spectacular. Showing clever management by handing Sambi Lokonga the chance to respond to his Anfield setback and being rewarded with a man of the match performance against Newcastle, he felt he had to go one better.

Selecting the ’59 minutes of Premier League football’ Mohamed Elneny at Old Trafford was part of a longing to project himself as superior. ‘He played well here last season’, Arteta said. Even the least informed football supporter knows full well that what happened last season against different players and a different manager in an empty stadium has precious little bearing on the game in front of you.

If it had have worked he would have been heralded as a genius. Sparing the legs of his new signings by fielding a peripheral figure on his way out of the club, the world would have stood in awe over how expertly he manages his squad and can circumnavigate his way through hundreds of millions of pounds of talent on their own back garden with a 29-year-old who wouldn’t start for most teams in the division.

This is not an isolated incident, and it got worse at Goodison Park.

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