Was Arteta fired? Arsenal's five illogical reasons include academy snubs, Odegaard and lemons

In what we might even suggest as a reaction to a few poor results and a few unconvincing performances, the Mailbox has been the scene of heated debate over Mikel Arteta’s future at Arsenal.

It would be madness to fire him now, but in an effort to understand the #ArtetaOut crazies, we’ve come up with five reasons they could use to prove the Spaniard’s inadequacy in debates with sane individuals.

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Too defensive
Arteta wasn’t bothered by the comparison and even claimed to welcome it, but there are plenty of Arsenal fans who also like the comparison. Jamie Carragher compares Arteta’s football to Jose Mourinho’s It will really hurt.

They have endured Chelsea’s rise under Mourinho by seizing the footballing high ground and extolling the virtues of their team, self-appointed guardians of the Beautiful Game who do not stoop to dominating football based primarily on physicality.

But after two close but cigar-free seasons that saw Arteta’s side at least nod to the Arsenal Way, they are now in a win-at-all-costs crunch, a long way from Arsene’s free-flowing football. Wenger has been in the same situation since leaving the club.

As Mikel Merino said when he joined, Arsenal are “like a basketball team”.

Although, as Carragher points out, we are a little surprised at the speed of the transition to this defensive, pragmatic style of football, there is no shame in it if it works. The problem is that it will become an even bigger problem as long as this remains a philosophy, it has to work.

Although Arsenal fans can afford to lose while having fun, they will not be able to stand to fail to win with four defenders on the field.

Trust Martin Odegaard/Bukayo Saka
Manchester City are struggling without Rodri. A Liverpool without Mohamed Salah could make a very different offer; The same can be said for Chelsea without Cole Palmer. No matter how much depth a team has, the best players will always be missed. Otherwise they wouldn’t be top players.

In this respect, it makes little sense to criticize Arsenal for not being as good without Martin Odegaard. It was always going to be like this. It is more logical to criticize them for sacking two players (Fabio Vieira and Emile Smith Rowe) who could have been in a good position in his absence. But even that would be too harsh. They wanted to leave and the club took the reasonable view that it wasn’t worth keeping unhappy players who wouldn’t play enough unless Odegaard got injured. Unfortunately he did.

But it is reasonable to find fault with Arteta’s attempts to cope without Odegaard; This has left the playmaker behind Kai Havertz and the woefully out-of-form Leandro Trossard in nine of the 12 Premier League and Champions League games since his injury.

Odegaard’s absence was not initially felt that much, thanks to Saka’s brilliance, but opposing teams quickly realized that stopping him meant stopping Arsenal as well. Trossard, Gabriel Martinelli, Kai Havertz, Gabriel Jesus and Raheem Sterling looked isolated and helpless after Saka’s goals, assists and equalizer were nullified.

But these are not bad actors. They were all great before. And his absences over the last few months do not reflect well on Arteta, who now relies on Odegaard to shoulder the attacking burden that his teammates have failed to share in his absence.

Not getting the most out of the academy
It feels wrong to say this Only Bukayo Saka managed to establish himself in the first team during Mikel Arteta’s time at Arsenal – something that puts Bukayo Saka to shame – but this only serves to demonstrate the manager’s lack of confidence in and use of the Gunners academy.

There’s not much that can be done if young players aren’t good enough, but we could argue that Arteta doesn’t really know if that’s the case because he hasn’t given them enough opportunities to prove themselves.

Myles Lewis-Skelly and Ethan Nwaneri have been given several chances this season, but the latter in particular exemplifies Arteta’s reluctance to put academy players in challenging but enriching circumstances. I’m old enough.

The youngster is likely to be disappointed that a promising spell at Arsenal that could have been his Big Break is almost over, given Martin Odegaard’s imminent return and his only start that term being in the League Cup.

Nwaneri has scored three goals in those two games and his cameos in the Premier League and Champions League have almost always drawn rave reviews from pundits and fans, along with questions as to why Arteta hasn’t given him more game time. He watches those who started ahead of him, thinking that they deserve one more place.

Pickpockets, lemons and light bulbs
Nothing matures Arteta like his commitment to encouraging sacking tactics.

A light bulb as a prop to encourage the “electricity” between players and fans, in a speech in which Arteta knowingly pointed to Thomas Edison “without this man everything would be dark”. Lemons, Arteta’s “juice is our team magic”, took a lemon from a player who said he squeezed all the juice just for his manager to show “you can always squeeze more”. Hiring a pickpocket to steal from your own players – Including someone fighting a baseball bat-wielding thief in real life – to teach them a lesson in ‘the importance of being prepared and alert’.

This is all very strange, a little funny, and a huge red flag for the 90 percent of the population who dread the days when a team leader opens a seminar with a smile and a promise to make the experience as interactive as possible.

‘Failure expert’
Mourinho’s It’s an infamous line about Arsene Wenger and one he will no doubt use against Arteta if he gets his wish and replaces Eddie Howe at Newcastle. Winning one FA Cup in five seasons as manager of Arsenal is not a good record.

The focus on the Premier League is understandable and two second-place finishes are to be applauded, but they ultimately mean nothing unless they are a precursor to winning the title and they already look like they’ve missed their chance. During Pep Guardiola’s time in the Premier League, the team was able to continue competing for more than two seasons.

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