Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal side lost to Liverpool last weekend. (Photo by Alex Pantling/Getty Images, Jon Hobley/MI News/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
Arsenal had started their season with two victories out of two, but last weekend’s defeat at rivals Liverpool was a big blow for Mikel Arteta’s side. And it means that already, they are playing catch-up to the reigning Premier League champions.
This season is seen as a massive one for Arsenal – and particularly Mikel Arteta, who has still only won one FA Cup since taking over as manager. And according to one pundit, this is simply not good enough.
Collymore believes Mikel Arteta should be under big pressure
Ibrahima Konate and Viktor Gyokeres in action (Photo by Alex Pantling/Getty Images)
Speaking in his exclusive CaughtOffside column, Stan Collymore gave his thoughts on Arteta’s position as manager of Arsenal.
“I find it quite startling that Mikel Arteta isn’t under pressure at Arsenal. Every season I’ve written this column, I always say at some time in the season: when will the criticism of Mikel Arteta happen? And the only reason I can think why he doesn’t criticise is because he has this uncanny ability to go into his next press conference with a big, beaming smile, as if he’s just put out a team that’s beaten Real Madrid 6-0.
“It’s remarkable. Every press conference, he looks confident. And I think to myself, that’s quite bold for a manager that’s only won one major trophy. The reality is if he was a golfer, and we kept on talking about him as an elite golfer, but in the last five years he hadn’t won a major, would be saying, well, he’s not an elite golfer. And I think you could say the same about him as an elite manager.
“It feels like there is a force-fed mythology that he had to turn around Arsenal that were finishing out at the top 10 all the time. They weren’t bottom half of the table, they were firmly 6th, 7th, 8th. And all they needed was somebody to come in and buy two or three players. It wasn’t major surgery that was needed where they were finished 16th or 17th, like a Man United or a Spurs
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