Quotable

I subscribed to The Athletic and posted a comment which got quoted in a survey! Whoo hoo!!

==============================================================

Mikel Arteta has just completed his first full season in charge of Arsenal. An eighth-place finish, a Europa League semi-finals exit to eventual winners Villarreal and a failure to secure any kind of European football for 2021-22 is not quite what he or his staff would have hoped for.

The picture, however, is not altogether bleak.

The team’s form improved considerably from the season’s halfway point. They spent Christmas Day in 15th, just four points clear of the relegation zone. Across the remaining matches, however, only eventual champions Manchester City accumulated more points per game than them.

So, is this a time for despondency or optimism? Now feels like an appropriate moment to take the temperature among Arsenal supporters — to see how the team, staff and club are perceived.

The Athletic asked subscribers to respond to a survey, featuring 13 of the major questions facing Arsenal this summer. You responded in your thousands, providing us with an insight into the sentiment among a section of the fanbase.

Here are the results, interspersed with some of your thoughts from the comments section and the assessments of two of our Arsenal writers, James McNicholas and Art de Roche.

Does manager Mikel Arteta deserve to be in charge of Arsenal next season?

It is clear from everything we understand that Arteta will remain at the helm next season. So discussion of whether he will or won’t be in charge is, effectively, moot. Therefore the question becomes: Should he be?

Some supporters clearly still feel unsure — while the survey offered a binary choice, several subscribers told us they wanted a “don’t know” option.

In all three questions regarding senior staff at Arsenal, we felt sufficient time has passed for supporters to be able to make a judgement.

In Arteta’s case, we got one — 79.2 per cent of respondents felt he had done enough to deserve being in charge again next season. That may appear paradoxical, given the level of disappointment in the team’s performance. Some of that can be attributed to the fact he finished the league campaign with five consecutive wins. It also perhaps speaks to a club where the issues extend far beyond the manager.

“In any other circumstances, I would say Arteta has to go,” says Dylan A. “However, it’s impossible to cast an honest judgment on this manager because his failings are so interwoven with poor management further up the Arsenal hierarchy from people, some of which aren’t even here anymore. Ultimately, the failings up top make it hard to judge Arteta fairly.”

“Don’t mind Arteta at the helm another year with a full pre-season and, hopefully, a trimmed and refreshed squad,” adds Chad N. “That being said, everyone above him in the club can leave and Arsenal would likely be the better for it.”

Around a fifth of Arsenal fans, however, feel the Spaniard should not be in charge when the games begin again in August. “The biggest issue next season is Arteta,” says KC A. “It is unrealistic to expect transformative signings, so the burden is on him to make the most of what he has. He needs to learn faster.”

The Athletic verdict: There’s no doubt Arteta has fallen beneath expectations this season, but it’s also reasonable to expect that a young coach may learn from his mistakes. What’s clear is that of the inexperienced trio leading Arsenal — technical director Edu, chief executive Vinai Venkatesham and himself — Arteta is the one who retains the most trust.