Now or never for Arsenal? Why Mikel Arteta must get the job done in 2025/26 Premier League

Now or never for Arsenal? Why Mikel Arteta must get the job done in 2025/26 Premier League originally appeared on The Sporting News

It's become an easy line of online mockery to ask what phase Mikel Arteta is up to at Arsenal.

After taking the reins in December 2019, the Gunners' former captain set out a blueprint to restore them to their former glories. The five phases were initially shrouded in secrecy but became an open secret. 

Perhaps weary of the jibes as Liverpool galloped over the horizon in March last season, Arteta placed his team explicitly on his predefined path.

"Phase four to five: establishing yourself at the highest level in the Champions League," he said. "Consistently perform with a lot of unity and being very close to touching big trophies."

Runners-up in the Premier League for three years in succession and beaten Champions League semifinalists last year... it's pretty close to touching trophies without doing so.

MORE:What went wrong for Jack Grealish at Man City? Everton-bound star's difficulties, worst Pep Guardiola signings

In truth, Arteta doesn't make himself difficult to mock. Take the now-infamous ploy of playing 'You'll Never Walk Alone' through huge speakers on Arsenal's training pitches prior to a trip to play Liverpool at Anfield, as captured by Amazon Prime's 'All or Nothing' cameras. The Gunners lost the game 4-0.

That was in November 2021, and since then, Arteta has more than proved his chops as an elite tactician. That doesn't mean he's beyond flights of fancy in search of little one percents here and there. Most recently, there was the unusual absence of an extendable players' tunnel awning at Arsenal's home preseason friendlies. This is reportedly another Arteta flight of fancy: he wants players from the opposition to have no shelter from the pre-match din. A centrepiece of that is 'North London Forever', the stirring or mawkish club anthem, depending on your tastes. Adopting that was Arteta's idea, too.

Of course, the idiosyncrasies of clubs and the people who represent them are there to be mocked by the wider football public. That's par for the course and doesn't matter so long as any scheme — from a hybrid pressing structure to woo-woo nonsense — has the buy-in of the players and supporters it aims to elevate.

Arteta has unquestionably restored pride and purpose to Arsenal following the drift of the late Arsene Wenger era and the resulting hospital pass to Unai Emery. If you'd peeled away the tunnel in those days, opposing players would have seen a load of seats that season-ticket holders hadn't bothered to fill amid a soundtrack of assorted grumbling. The notion of Emirates Stadium being a bear pit would have been laughed at — unless it was one for stuffed teddies.

But on Arteta's best days there, it has been truly febrile, with a sense of players and supporters all pulling in the same direction and propelling one another further. Take last season's 5-1 evisceration of bedraggled reigning champions Manchester City, or the riotous 3-0 win over Real Madrid, where Declan Rice audaciously turned into Juninho Pernambucano. Arteta's men were ominously warned that 90 minutes at the Santiago Bernabeu were a very long time heading into the return leg. It turned out it was about an hour and a half, and Arsenal won 2-1.

Are Arsenal the best team in England?

Those wins over City and Madrid were the best performances by any English team last season. Although Liverpool marched imperiously to the title under Arne Slot, they never scaled those heights over 90 minutes. The fact they were never forced to, as the title race became a procession, gets to the heart of the curiously muted conversation around Arsenal heading into a blockbuster season opener at Manchester United.

Despite those dazzling peaks, Arsenal's season became a fog of points thrown away and gripes with officials. The latter element found form in Arteta's passive-aggressive funks in post-match interviews and a fringe of online supporters coming to view PGMOL as a sinister fifth column. 

When the campaign limped to a close, Paris Saint-Germain having come through a thorough examination from Arsenal in the Champions League semifinals, it was easy to spot cracks in the facade. When Arteta said his team had been "100% the best in the competition", Gunners fans were among those rolling their eyes. To sanitise an incredibly unsanitary truism, you can't relieve yourself on people's heads and tell them that it's raining.

At their worst, Arsenal looked like a team so keen to prove they weren't soft that they forgot the perils of indiscipline; a side so in love with their attacking set-piece ingenuity that they forgot invention from open play. In the latter aspect, they were far too reliant on a weary Martin Odegaard and a Bukayo Saka running on fumes.

Arsenal FC

And yet, quietly if not cheaply, they've had a good summer. Martin Zubimendi is an upgrade on Thomas Partey in a purely footballing sense before we even acknowledge the grim subtext. Noni Madueke's arrival from Chelsea received a lukewarm reception, but he gives Arsenal a new threat running in behind defences and means Saka can occasionally put his feet up. Additionally, it means Ethan Nwaneri can be redeployed infield a little more often, giving Odegaard both respite and competition.

Cristhian Mosquera and Christian Norgaard add further heft to well-stocked defensive and central midfield options. Concerns remain over the frequency of sparks in attack, especially off the left flank, where Gabriel Martinelli and Leandro Trossard exemplified a team on a plateau last term. But Arteta will hope Viktor Gyokores is the game-changer.: a prolific natural striker from Sporting CP and, at 27, a 'win now' signing — not typically a feature of the Arteta project but emblematic of where the club are at right now.

All of that business done means Arsenal feel detached from the maelstrom of a transfer window off the rails. Liverpool are at the heart of the summer's main saga, Manchester City are continuing a churn of player turnover unprecedented in the Pep Guardiola era and Manchester United could fly past a £300 million spend after upgrading their entire forward line. Winning the Club World Cup has not curbed Chelsea's perpetual pursuit of shiny new things.

Arsenal, by contrast, feel settled. For all the vogue talk of players and teams' "ceilings", Arteta's men almost certainly have the highest floor. They're the team you can rely upon most to hit at least 7/10 each week. City and Liverpool will thrill with their upholstered attacks, but they could be cut through and collapse in a way Arsenal won't.

Will that be enough? If Gyokeres can stick the landing that many don't from the Primeira Liga to the Premier League and be a reliable source of goals, there's every chance that it will. Stability and commitment to a plan are virtues when chasing the biggest prizes. Arteta might finally reach phase five, and he has to after five and a half years at the helm. It's all been building to this. If it's not phase five, it's the final phase, with Arteta and his marginal gains going the same way as the Emirates Stadium tunnel.