Following Arsenal's 2-1 Premier League defeat at Brighton, questions were raised as to whether the club were right to take a chance on Mikel Arteta in December which should not be the case.
Having only been in the job six months, this should go without saying but two defeats down [one likely ahead of kick off and one a truly freak turn of events] and the work Arteta has done up to this point seem to be forgotten.
Before his arrival, the Gunners were without direction on the pitch, had no clear way of playing and struggled tremendously at both ends of the pitch. The Spaniard may not have solved every issue the club had when he took charge but there's no doubting the side are much more organised in defence and attack, play with a clear goal in mind and have as a bare minimum, improved.
Changes that have been made to the side since returning to action, the move to a 4-3-3 for instance, may have some cause in the side's fortunes, but courage Arsenal demonstrated in appointing Arteta, which he has kept up, should not be held against them at the first roadblock.
"I knew since I joined what I was jumping into and what has happened in the past few seasons, I knew it wasn't a coincidence," Arteta told reporters on Tuesday [June 23]. "I could have waited and sat back to see if the opportunity was still [there] in the summer, or I could use this time to start the process I want and start to see where the changes have to be made.
"A lot of things have already changed at the club and are in evolution to change, even results and energy was changing just before the coronavirus, I cannot control everything.
"Now I don't have them in my hands for as long as I want in the day because they are in and out and that is not ideal for what we need as a club but it's not an excuse. We are here to win football games, that's the responsibility I take but we are assessing a lot of things to make a very clear picture of what is going to take us to the next level because right now, it's not enough."
Although from the outside accepting the role of Arsenal head coach would appear to be a no brainer to most and especially for Arteta considering his connection with the club, it wasn't the easy option.
Somewhat comfortable as Pep Guardiola's assistant manager at Manchester City, the Spaniard could well have stayed at a club he knew would be challenging for the Premier League every season. Or, as he said, he could have waited until the summer for another opportunity [unaware how 2020 would pan out in regard to the pandemic, of course]. Instead, he chose to take charge at Arsenal - a decision which has been followed by extraordinarily testing circumstances for him to overcome in his first six months of management.
Despite this, Arteta has kept his stance on taking the job when he did clear, stating how he didn't want to "waste" the time before his first full season but instead use the remainder of the 2019/20 to map out his plans for the future. Although those plans will have taken a major hit with the losses at Manchester City and Brighton, his aim of getting the absolute most he can out of this season won't change and that shouldn't be the case for fans either.
The results will make the eventual goal of returning to Champions League football that much harder but what happens in the remainder of the games will have a direct impact on the state of the club both financially and in regard to the players they can keep and obtain.
Writing the season or Arteta off would be defeat the purpose of his appointment in December and although Arsenal's return to action has been disappointing, that won't undo the work done by the Spaniard and his staff - no matter how turbulent the past week has been.
