Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta can only afford one more trophyless season before serious questions are asked about his future in North London, Gunners expert Charles Watts believes.
The Spaniard's side are virtually guaranteed to finish second in the Premier League table for the third year running thanks to Sunday's 1-0 win over Newcastle United, having officially been eliminated from title contention almost a month ago while losing to Paris Saint-Germain in the semi-finals of the Champions League.
While Arteta has now had five full seasons in management without a Premier League honour, Arne Slot won the crown in his first year as Liverpool boss, becoming just the fifth head coach to lead his side to a first-placed finish in his first season in English football.
Few will deny that Arteta has overseen monumental progress since replacing Unai Emery in 2019, but the ex-Arsenal midfielder has been warned that "patience is wearing thin", and the pressure to finally achieve English or European stardom next season will hit new heights.
"Everyone wants to win trophies, but the Champions League and Premier League, it's very hard to get over the line for that," Watts told Sports Mole. "It's not been great from Arsenal. But whenever you start saying this, everyone accuses you of excuses. It's not excuses. I just think it's only fair that you do put it into context.
"It's been incredibly difficult for Arsenal to win the Premier League. I just don't think they had the tools because the injuries have hit them so, so hard. You can point to the lack of recruitment in the summer, in January. But in terms of the squad and the injuries, it's made it very, very hard.
"But patience is wearing thin. I was interested to see how many people were going to stick around for the lap of appreciation and what the atmosphere was going to be like, but I thought the fans in the stadium were really, really supportive. His [Arteta's] popularity is still very, very high with the matchgoing fan.
'Questions will have to be raised over Arteta future'
"Online it's a bit different and that's understandable. I think he's definitely got one more season and then the pressure will really start to increase. He says it himself; when you've raised expectations to the level that Arteta has, you've got to get yourself over the line. If you're not able to do that, questions are going to have to be raised.
"He'll ask himself those questions. Everyone will have a long, hard look at things at the end of next season and try and work out why trophies aren't coming if they don't. But things just have not gone their way at key moments. Some of that's their fault, some misfortune, some injuries, but they've been incredibly consistent and are more than capable of winning major trophies."
After being forced to witness Liverpool bask in title glory, sealing a Champions League place for next season was the overriding goal for the Gunners, who made harder work of wrapping up a top-five finish than they should have done.
Arteta's side had failed to win any of their previous three Premier League games before the visit of third-placed Newcastle, who were only denied a half-time lead at the Emirates by a string of terrific David Raya saves.
However, Arsenal came out fighting in the second period, where Declan Rice once again made himself the hero with a sumptuous first-time finish, his ninth goal of the season across all competitions.
Rice was a surprise starter after missing the 2-2 draw with Liverpool with a hamstring injury, and the 26-year-old has been single-handedly keeping Arsenal in second place in the second half of the campaign, Watts feels.
"The way he stepped up in the last few months, he's basically been carrying the team this second half of the season," he added. "He actually didn't start the season that well. I think he had the after effects of the Euros, like a lot of those players who went deep in that competition.
'Rice has carried Arsenal in second half of season'
© Imago
"But the second half of the season, he's really found his form again. And he's delivering, Nine goals, 10 assists, 19 goal involvements, that's a really, really good return on a season where he's not been 100% the whole way through it as well.
"It was a lovely goal. You could just see as soon as he hit it, it was absolutely perfect and curled away from Nick Pope, who's a massive goalkeeper. It had to be perfect in that side netting, and it was.
"He got the job done for Arsenal. It wasn't pretty. First half, they weren't great at all, but they hung in there. They found a way to win. And that was all that mattered."
Sunday's victory was another case of Arsenal flattering to deceive in the first half before atoning for their mistakes in the second period, just as they did in their eye-catching comeback draw at Anfield.
That 2-2 stalemate marked just the third time in Premier League history that Liverpool had failed to win a home game when leading by at least two goals at half time, although Arteta was hardly in a jovial mood after the match.
The Gunners boss stressed that he 'hates reaction' and 'wants action' from his side, although the victory over Newcastle was another reactionary display, even if Raya's heroics managed to keep the Magpies at bay.
Asked whether Arsenal's recent slow starts are down to tiredness or something deeper at play, Watts responded: "If you put it down to fatigue, you'd think it'd be the other way around.
Why have Arsenal been starting slowly?
© Imago
"You'd start quickly first half, then run out of steam, and the second wouldn't be as good. But I think that's why Arteta was so angry against Liverpool; he believed it wasn't fatigue, because how could it be if you perform like that in the second half?
"I just think mentally, everyone's ready for this season to end. The overriding feeling now is everyone's just done with this season and just wants to get on the beach and put it in the rearview mirror. The players are the same, I thought Newcastle were the same.
"Two very tired teams going at it and nowhere near their best. But it was just about the result. Second was on the line, Champions League qualification needed to be secured, so it didn't really matter how you did it at the end of the day.
"And Arsenal, let's not forget, had lost three times in a row to Newcastle. Arsenal are always going to have that scar tissue. They hung in there in the first half, David Raya was superb. When he was called upon, he did exactly what he had to do, and that gave Arsenal the foundation to ultimately get the goal."
Arsenal conclude a topsy-turvy campaign away to 20th-placed Southampton on Sunday afternoon, after which Andrea Berta and co will get down to business in the transfer market as the Gunners seek at least three transformative signings for 2025-26.
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Ben Knapton
