A year and seven days ago, Arsenal head coach Mikel Arteta suffered a defeat against Manchester City that many managers would struggle to recover from.
What made it worse was that it came at the hands of his close friend and guiding hand, Pep Guardiola, who was reluctant to dance on the grave on his protege — but the scoreline was damaging enough.
There is no other way to describe the way the Gunners played in their heavy 4-1 loss against Manchester City other than dreadful. From top to bottom, this Arsenal side were taken apart from a second-string Man City team barely moving out of second gear.
The Carabao Cup felt like a winnable competition for Arteta and it could have been a moral-booster for his squad, so to be humiliated at the Emirates Stadium was devastating. At this point, with Arsenal were 15th in the Premier League and struggling for form. The 39-year-old was on his last lifeline.
But Guardiola, knowing the man he worked with and taught him everything he knew as a coach, felt differently. He begged for mercy, making an impassioned plea to the Arsenal board to hand the Spaniard time to fulfil his vision at the club.
“They will do a huge, big mistake if they [sack Arteta],” he told BBC Radio 5 Live. “I’m pretty sure they are going to trust him.
“I understand that the analysts analyse the results. But I was with him many years and I know his incredible quality as a human being and especially as a manager, how he is involved in everything. It’s just a question of time and he will do well.”
No one knows if Guardiola’s comments had any sway on the Arsenal’s board’s decision to keep or sack Arteta, but there is no way having one of the best coaches in the game in his corner did him any harm.
There is no doubt the Catalan would have been happy for Arteta to continue working as his assistant at Man City. The pair had celebrated back-to-back Premier League title successes in 2017-18 and 2018-19. But when Arsenal came calling to bring their former captain home, he could not stand in his way.
In the end, Arsenal kept faith in Arteta. Perhaps they weighed up the cost, the reputation damage the club would take and having to find a successor — and simply decided Arteta deserved a genuine second chance.
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It has been a turbulent ride over the past year, but as Guardiola correctly predicted, the poor run of form was only temporary for Arteta and Arsenal.
The Gunners recovered in the second part of the season to take eighth spot in the Premier League. In doing so, they missed out on European football for the first time since 1996, but considering their position at Christmas, it could be viewed as a respectable outcome.
The club saw it as an opportunity to hit the reset button, with some money in the club coffers to overhaul the team. In came six signings — all aged 23 and under — to the tune of £150million.
In Arteta’s eyes, Aaron Ramsdale, Ben White and Martin Odegaard could form the backbone of his Arsenal side for years to come, much like how Arsene Wenger depended on the same players from the Double success in 2001-02 to the Champions League final in 2006.
With the highest expenditure in the Premier League, Arteta would be afforded no more room for excuses. This was his Arsenal side, assembled to carry out his blueprint, and if it failed, he would take the fall.
So when Arsenal lost their first three league matches with an aggregate score of 0-9 — including a 5-0 thrashing against Guardiola’s City — it did not represent the new dawn the Spanish boss was hoping to bring in north London.
But as his new arrivals started to gel, the Gunners embarked on a run of 10 games unbeaten in all competitions and quick recovered from their unacceptable blip. The fact his signings such as Takehiro Tomiyasu and academy graduates Emile Smith Rowe and Bukayo Saka were thriving got the fans on his side.
The added bonus that he has managed to offload flops such as David Luiz, Willian and Shkodran Mustafi, addition to booting out bad boys Mesut Ozii and Matteo Guendouzi, has made for a more harmonious atmosphere at the Emirates.
His decision to drop Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and strip the Gabonese striker of the captaincy was viewed as a huge gamble, given the 32-year-old’s importance to the club since joining in 2018. But by showing that no player is bigger than the club, Arteta has gained a sense of authority.
Indeed, it feels like the dark cloud of uncertainty that had overshadowed the club has been lifted. Aubameyang has not been seen since and is expected to leave after returning from the Africa Cup of Nations. Meanwhile, Arsenal are thumping teams with their new-found confidence, spearheaded by Smith Rowe and Saka.
They now sit fourth in the standings, above West Ham, Tottenham and Manchester United, and the Champions League suddenly looks a realistic target for the reinvigorated Gunners.
Of course, there are tough tests to come, as they face Man City at home on New Year’s Day. But Arsenal go into the game having won four consecutive games in the league, scoring 14 and conceding just once.
Guardiola may boast a 100 per cent record over Arteta since the latter turned to management, and yet the 50-year-old had every reason to be wary of the threat they possess in such a rich vein of form.
“We have a game in London against Arsenal, maybe one of the top teams right now. The best Arsenal in the last four or five years,” he said.
“I cannot say more than congratulations to the team, but we must focus.”
Unfortunately for Arteta, he will be watching from afar after a positive Covid test for a second time. But perhaps the absence of their inspirational coach, who has been passionately cheerleading for his side on the touchline, will only give them further motivation for victory.
It was only a year ago Arsenal and Arteta were the butt of the joke, languishing down in the lower half of the Premier League and talk of relegation haunted the fans. Now, they can look forward to a more promising future, just as Guardiola promised.
