Outlook: 5 reasons why sacking Mikel Arteta would be a big mistake for Arsenal

With six games in hand and nine points clear at the top of the table, Arsenal fans are booing their team off the pitch at the Emirates Stadium – of course there is more to this than that, but it serves as a reminder to the Gunners not to overreact.

There is bound to be talk of Mikel Arteta’s future as Arsenal manager right now. It’s more or less already decided by everyone that the club will end up without a trophy again, so it’s natural that the next question will be on the manager and whether his project has run out of steam.

However, the season isn’t over yet, so let’s stop, take a deep breath, and take a closer look at Arsenal’s situation.

I’m sure the Gooners have experienced this exact same scenario, but every season is different, and even though being second for three years in a row is starting to feel pretty similar, it’s safe to say they’ve only been ‘battered’ once in those three years, and even then it was arguably only William Saliba’s serious injury that saw Manchester City’s treble-winning side overtake them.

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Are talks of Arteta being sacked justified? Here are five reasons why we think Arsenal should stick with him…

The title is still in Arsenal’s hands

It goes without saying that Arsenal’s season isn’t over yet. Far from it. We’ll get to the Champions League soon, but first of all remember that the title is still in their hands.

Manchester City will face Chelsea at Stamford Bridge later today. Just a few hours later they could have dropped another point to maintain Arsenal’s lead.

Nor can it be taken for granted that Man City will beat Arsenal at the Etihad Stadium next weekend. Pep Guardiola’s side desperately need three points from this game, but they have drawn their last two games against North Londoners at the Etihad and have won just one of their last seven games against them.

After that it’s unpredictable. This season we’ve seen both teams drop points in games they were expected to win, so those rooting for City on their old winning streak probably haven’t seen much of them this term.

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Bournemouth is a tougher game than it looks

Generally considered to be one of the most competitive Premier League games of all time, it’s easy to forget just how grueling Arsenal’s schedule has been this season.

So, while Arsenal were playing their third game in a week, was anyone surprised that Arteta’s side looked relatively slow and lackluster when Bournemouth went into yesterday’s match after a 22-day break since their last game?

Of course there are not many excuses in the title race and you just have to win games like this, but even the best teams make mistakes and this was an underrated mid-table team who had played good football all season and were likely to pick up more points against the big teams by the end of the campaign.

Meanwhile, their manager, Andoni Iraola, is becoming widely known as one of the top coaches in the game, and he could very well be in the slot if the likes of Manchester United and Liverpool decide to make a managerial change this summer. Perhaps if Pep settles, he will lead Man City’s next title challenge.

injury

This has been a season-long theme for Arsenal, and while everyone may be tired of hearing it, that doesn’t mean it doesn’t matter.

In yesterday’s game against Bournemouth, Arsenal started on the bench without Martin Odegaard, Bukayo Saka, Julian Timber, Riccardo Calafioli, Mikel Merino, as well as Ebelesi Eze and Piero Hincapie.

Arteta has been criticized for overusing certain players and under-rotating them, which may well have contributed to the decline in form of players like Martin Zvimendi, but most players at top clubs will be well aware that they are expected to perform at the highest level every few days. This is especially not the case for Odegaard and Calafioli, and there are clearly some injury-prone players in this squad, and it is impossible to put the blame solely on the manager.

High possibility of qualifying for the Champions League semi-finals

Just a few days ago, Arsenal beat Sporting Lisbon 1-0 away, becoming the first team to win at Portugal’s Giants Stadium since August. For the most part they are the better team and that should go down as a great result.

Barring the disaster in the second leg, Arsenal would have been guaranteed a place in the Champions League semi-finals for the second consecutive season. For those with a misty-eyed look at the Arsene Wenger era and all the great football those teams played, it’s worth remembering that this is a club that has never appeared in back-to-back Champions League semi-finals and would have played exactly half of them at this stage of the competition under Arteta.

No guaranteed upgrades

Hiring managers is hard, so if you’re going to fire the best manager in Europe, you’d better make sure you get an upgrade.

Who is there? Guardiola will not and almost certainly will not take part. Manager Jurgen Klopp is essentially retired and will not be managing another Premier League club anyway. Thomas Tuchel only recently signed a new contract with England, so unless the World Cup goes much worse than expected, he will certainly stay for the next few years. Carlo Ancelotti will likely retire at the end of his spell with the Brazil national team.

So if you don’t have a proven winner, you’ll be betting on someone like Enzo Maresca or Ruben Amorim, or maybe you’ll be lucky and get Arne’s slot, but you’ll probably have to think about replacing him again in just a few years.

Firing Arteta sounds like the obvious solution until you actually think about it a bit. He’s not going anywhere unless he decides enough is enough. That way he can pick all the top jobs out there for himself. you just have to wait.