Mikel Arteta is not the next Pep Guardiola OR Jose Mourinho: Arsenal won’t start winning trophies again until enigmatic coach carves out his own identity

“They have pushed every limit and every margin that we could to try to win this Premier League. They (Manchester City) took it away from us. This is the second season. There’s only one way to do it – you have to be more determined, you have to be more ambitious, you have to have a lot of courage and push every limit in everything that we have. That’s the next step,” Mikel Arteta said after Arsenal were pipped to the 2023-24 title by two points, despite a final-day victory against Everton.

“If we do what we have to do, we’re going to be closer and at the end we’ll win it. When? I don’t know, but if we keep knocking and being that close, in the end it will happen.”

Arteta also insisted his team are “on the right path” and “evolving so quickly”, striking the perfect tone to keep a disappointed fanbase on side for at least one more year. Arsenal have come a long way since Arteta’s appointment in December 2019, but the FA Cup crown he delivered at the end of that season remains the only trophy on his CV.

Arsenal must complete their evolution by next May, because going five years without any tangible success cannot be tolerated at such a big club. If the Gunners fail to dethrone Manchester City again, it will be impossible for Arteta to keep claiming he is making progress at the Emirates Stadium.

Unfortunately, as it stands, the ultimate dream of Premier League glory is fading further into the distance. Just 10 games into the new campaign, Arsenal find themselves seven points adrift of leaders Liverpool and five behind reigning champions City. Arteta isn’t even knocking at the door anymore, and while there is plenty of time to change that, it will only happen if the coach starts carving out his own identity.

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  Creativity sorely lacking

  Arsenal’s latest setback came at St James’ Park, the scene of their controversial 1-0 defeat to Newcastle 12 months earlier. Arteta called VAR an “absolute disgrace” for allowing Anthony Gordon’s winner to stand that day, and he had a point, with the Gunners seeing strong calls for a foul, an offside and a goal-kick all ignored.

  But Arteta could offer no excuses on Saturday after Alexander Isak’s 12th-minute header gave Newcastle another narrow victory over his toothless side. “We deserved to lose today,” the Arsenal boss said. “I thought we started really well and were really dominant. We didn’t defend the box well enough. Credit to them. They scored a great goal with a good ball. Then the game changes and you start to play a different game. You have to adapt and we didn’t do that well enough. I am very frustrated. We got dragged into a game they are looking for constantly and we couldn’t play the game that we wanted.”

  The Gunners bossed possession and more than held their own physically, but rarely posed any real threat to the Newcastle defence. This version of Arsenal is not short on steel, but is sorely lacking in creativity. Kai Havertz cut an isolated figure upfront, while Leandro Trossard was worryingly sloppy with his passing and Gabriel Martinelli couldn’t find a way past Tino Livramento.

  Being well organised without the ball counts for little if there is no spark with it. Martin Odegaard’s continued absence is undoubtedly hampering Arsenal, but Arteta’s overly pragmatic tactics are the biggest issue. He’s stopped taking risks, and there is no Plan B when Arsenal concede the first goal.

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    ‘Morphing into Mourinho’

    It was a similar story for Arsenal when they went down 2-0 at Bournemouth on October 19. Arteta is setting up to win games by the odd goal without conceding, placing an emphasis on maximising set-piece opportunities instead of breaking through in open play.

    The Gunners have ditched their expansive style for a more cautious one, and stick to it even after taking the lead. Valuable points have been dropped against Brighton, Manchester City and Liverpool after scoring first, with Arteta turning to the ‘dark arts’ of time-wasting to see out games.

    “Mikel Arteta is slowly morphing into a Jose Mourinho-type of manager and no one really thought that would happen,” Jamie Carragher told Sky Sports after Liverpool’s 2-2 draw with Arsenal at the Emirates last month. “They were 2-1 up, pressing Liverpool, on top and playing really well, but they retreated in the second half. I know they had a couple of injuries at the back, but they still got the midfield players and some attackers who you think you can get on the ball and go forward and try and take the sting out of the pressure you’re under. That instinct to protect comes from the manager, but it happens too often.”

    Mourinho prioritised defence over attack in both his spells at Chelsea, but also had match-winners like Didier Drogba, Frank Lampard, Eden Hazard and Diego Costa to rely on. Arsenal don’t have the same strength in depth under Arteta, which is why his decision to sacrifice self-expression for efficiency is not paying off.

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      ‘Gone backwards’

      “Arsenal have gone backwards since last season,” notorious Talk TV presenter and die-hard Gunners fan Piers Morgan wrote on X after Arsenal’s loss to Newcastle. “Arteta’s failure to have proper creative back-up for Odegaard, and inexplicable refusal to buy a proper world-class striker, have come back to haunt us. Very depressing.”

      Morgan is by no means an authority on football, but it’s difficult to disagree with any of those points. Arsenal are not winning as many games and that’s a direct consequence of Arteta’s dealings in the last transfer window.

      He sold Emile Smith Rowe to Fulham and loaned Fabio Vieira back to Porto, which left Odegaard as the only natural playmaker left in the squad. Arteta also invested a combined £72 million ($93m) in versatile defender Riccardo Calafiori and holding midfielder Mikel Merino, instead of bringing in a proper No.9.

      Havertz has led the line admirably for Arsenal so far this term with seven goals in 15 appearances, but he’ll never be a prolific marksman, and back-up striker Gabriel Jesus has only found the net once in his last 26 games.

      Over the summer, it was reported that the Gunners held an interest in Isak, who at the very least would have given the Gunners a different option. But Arteta doesn’t regret not going all out for the Swede. “I love my players, and I wouldn’t swap them for anyone else,” he told reporters at the weekend. Because of the manager’s stubbornness, Havertz and Bukayo Saka are still shouldering the main scoring burden for Arsenal.

      Martinelli and Trossard only chip in sporadically, while loan signing Raheem Sterling has yet to make any kind of meaningful impact. Arteta’s attempts to turn the Gunners into a rock-solid winning machine have backfired, and he needs to let the shackles off again to inspire a quick turnaround in fortunes.

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      Trying too hard

      Of course, this isn’t the first time that Arteta has borrowed from the playbook of a Premier League title-winner. Guardiola has long been his main role model, with Arteta having served as the Catalan coach’s assistant at City between 2016 and 2019.

      Arteta followed Guardiola’s core principles right from the off at Arsenal, aiming to create a numerical advantage with intelligent ball circulation and fluid movement while implementing a relentless high press out of possession. The use of inverted full-backs has been vital to that approach, which Arteta has openly admitted was a ploy he “took from” Guardiola.

      But the former Barcelona manager’s influence on Arteta goes far beyond just the tactical board. Arteta has also seemingly tried to copy the eccentricities that have made Guardiola such an endearing and unique figure in football.

      At the start of the season, The Athletic reported that Arteta had hired pickpockets to steal from his players during a squad dinner. The exercise was supposedly designed to teach them to be alert at all times, but as club legend David Seaman later opined, it just came off “weird”. According to Oleksandr Zinchenko, a similar stunt was once pulled during a pre-match meal, as Arteta deployed a professional freestyler as an undercover waiter to give his players more “energy”, but instead just left the Ukrainian in “deep shock”.

      And who could forget when Arteta blasted Liverpool’s iconic ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’ anthem in training before Arsenal’s 4-0 drubbing at Anfield in 2022. Experimenting with different motivational tools should be encouraged, but these feel more like self-indulgent acts concocted purely to try and invite adulation.

      Arteta wants to be considered a genius in the same mould as a Guardiola, or indeed a Mourinho, but that won’t happen for as long as he keeps trying way too hard to be something he’s not.
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      Failing to capitalise

      For as close as Arsenal got in terms of points over the last two seasons, it never really felt like City’s dominion over English football was under real threat. Guardiola’s men kicked into top gear when it mattered to get over the line, much like the iconic American racehorse Seabiscuit, who used to lull rivals into a false sense of security by holding back until the finishing straight, before then exploding into life.

      There has long been a sense of inevitably around City’s success, with five of the last six titles going back to the Etihad Stadium. But their next coronation doesn’t appear to be guaranteed this time around. City opened their campaign with four successive wins, but haven’t been the same since snatching a 2-2 draw at home to Arsenal in stoppage-time. That is mainly because all-conquering midfield lynchpin Rodri, who picked up the 2024 Ballon d’Or last week, tore his ACL in that contest and was subsequently ruled out of action for the remainder of the season.

      The champions simply do not function at optimal capacity without Rodri, despite having Mateo Kovacic and Matheus Nunes on hand to cover for the Spaniard. City have also lost Kevin De Bruyne, Kyle Walker, Jeremy Doku, Jack Grealish, Ruben Dias, John Stones and Manuel Akanji to injuries in recent weeks, forcing Guardiola to stretch his squad to the limit.

      Bournemouth handed City their first league loss of 2024-25 on Saturday, and the 2-1 scoreline was a fair result. It had been coming too, with City only scraping past Fulham, Southampton and Wolves in previous weeks, after slumping to a draw at Newcastle.

      Arsenal should have been there to capitalise on City’s drop-off in form. Instead, it’s Arne Slot’s resurgent Liverpool leading the way, while the Gunners are looking up at both clubs, along with Nottingham Forest and Chelsea, from outside the Champions League places.

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      What’s next?

      Arsenal have only won three of their last eight Premier League games. That’s more than just a blip. We won’t be hearing ‘One-nil to the Arsenal’ ringing around the Emirates again anytime soon either. No clean sheets in six games and 10 goals conceded is evidence that Arsenal are getting worse defensively, not better. If Arteta doesn’t rethink his strategy, the Gunners could be out of the title picture before Christmas.

      The manager’s position would have to come under scrutiny in that scenario. Has he taken Arsenal as far as he possibly can? Do they need to bring in a proven winner with more experience at the top level to take the next step?

      Those questions could even be answered by the end of the month, as the Gunners face a daunting five-match run that could go a long way to defining their whole season. First up is a trip to Serie A champions Inter in the Champions League, before a blockbuster clash with Chelsea at Stamford Bridge that Arsenal simply cannot afford to lose.

      They will then have to negotiate a visit from high-flying Forest to the Emirates, another tricky European test against Sporting CP and a London derby against West Ham. Arsenal could be facing a full-blown crisis if Arteta doesn’t find the balance that has been missing up until now.

      It’s a necessity for the Gunners to stop treading water and step their foot on the gas, otherwise Patrice Evra’s viral quip on Rio Ferdinand’s YouTube channel that “watching Arsenal is like watching Netflix, you always wait for the next season” will be proven true once again. We’re about to learn what Arteta is really made of.