After an undeniably tumultuous season, this transfer window looks to be the biggest in Arteta’s time as manager at Arsenal. While some fans argue he should have been fired months or even years ago, what appears to be the majority of Gooners now believe that Arteta is the right man for the job after an unbelievable change in the club atmosphere and fan culture this season.
After a century of games in charge, Arteta can boast a higher success rate than the legend Arsène Wenger, having won 54 games in comparison to Wenger’s 51. This was accomplished with a squad that wasn’t of Arteta’s own choosing and most of which have now moved on from the club, with Arteta proving himself with his major rebuild focused around Hale End graduates and younger players, such as Smith Rowe, Martinelli, and of course our Starboy Bukayo Saka. For the first time in a long time, it felt as if we really had a team to be proud of. The signings of Aaron Ramsdale and Martin Ødegaard added to this ‘Teamgeist’, and you cannot deny that Ramsdale’s celebrations have been a highlight this season.
Even in the 2021/22 season Arteta proved himself after we looked set for 8th place (if we were being optimistic), having started the season with three straight defeats. Despite the odds we managed to claw our way to 5th place without a real striker after the Aubazette era came to an end with both players unfortunately losing their form this season. His decision making skills with the integration of Martinelli and Nketiah into the first team squad are, in my opinion, a big reason for this, with both of them proving vital, especially Nketiah at the end of the season. These were controversial decisions when Arteta first implemented them, but his faith in his young squad inevitably paid off with the progress made this season.
As well as his controversial decisions of playing a very youthful team, Arteta has faced a lot of backlash for his prioritising of clearing deadwood instead of making new signings. This brings me up to the present day, with Arsenal being uncharacteristically active this early on in the transfer window. I for one am excited to see how this window plays out, with the signings of Marquinhos and Vieira already announced, Jesus’ announcement now supposedly imminent and the prospect of seeing Tielemans and Raphinha in our starting XI next season, it really feels as if us Gooners have something to look forward to. It feels as if we will avoid the familiar scrabble for players we don’t really want at the end of the window to fill gaps that should’ve really been filled much earlier.
However, I’m not blindly Arteta In. This season will be huge with us being favourites to win the Europa League and really needing a return to finishing in the top 4. If this doesn’t happen I struggle to see how Arteta’s future at Arsenal will be guaranteed after he seems to have been entirely backed this transfer window. Having said all this, I truly believe this season will be a good one for us Gooners with so much new talent to look forward to and the best club atmosphere in a long time now Arteta and his team finally have the support of us fans.
Written by: Abby Goodson (@_abbygoodson)
The Arsenal Therapy Podcast 