Arsenal probably thought they would need to search far and wide to find a successor for the irreplaceable Arsene Wenger. As it happened, Mikel Arteta had been waiting there all along.
On the two-year anniversary of his hiring, the irony may not be lost on the north London club that, after two consecutive seasons finishing outside the top-six, they may have finally found the man to steer them back to Europe.
The Spaniard had made 150 appearances for the Gunners between 2011 and 2016 and captained the side, demonstrating the knowledge of what the club expected both on and off the pitch. He had Wenger’s trust and backing.
But the board, knowing that a manager with experience was required to follow in Wenger’s footsteps, opted to hire Unai Emery.
It soon became clear that Emery’s philosophy for football was not quite a perfect fit, no matter how hard he tried to make it work. And with Arsenal down in 10th place just before Christmas, few disagreed that a change was required after 18 months in charge.
Having been snubbed the first time around, Arteta still had no managerial experience. But crucially, he could now boast having 18 months of experience working as Pep Guardiola’s assistant under his belt.
Arteta was handed a deal until the end of 2023 and with it, a long-term mandate to get Arsenal back into the Champions League. But by the end of year one in December 2020, Arsenal were winless in seven games, 15th in the Premier League and Arteta one defeat away from the sack.
Asked if he would resign, he said at the time: ”I don't like to think about those steps [walking away] because then I will be thinking in a negative way and I cannot do that.
He eventually turned the situation on its head and guided Arsenal to another eighth-placed finish. Still, that was not deemed as acceptable for a club that used to regard finishing fourth as a prerequisite.
Some believe Arteta should be grateful that he has been afforded more patience and faith than some of his managerial counterparts. On the other hand, he may feel he deserves it after being forced into eradicating the work of his predecessors.
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One can point to the club’s recent contractual business as a marker for how Arsenal rarely do anything with a clear mindset — and Arteta has had to grind through each issue one by one.
The most obvious case in point was the handling of Mesut Ozil’s future. Handed a three-year deal worth £250,000-a-week, the playmaker fell out of favour with Arteta only 18 months later after questionable absences and abject performances from a player once considered a mainstay at the Emirates.
Arteta wanted to make a statement and show that players who didn’t work hard for the team would be left out. It was a page ripped out of the Guardiola textbook, but executing it at Arsenal would take some finesse.
The German’s exclusion from the playing squad for the best part of five months may have been an expensive ploy. Yet it was entirely necessary for the Arsenal boss to display his authority and set this example.
And when the playmaker departed in January this year to join Fenerbahce, it was viewed as a victory on Arteta’s side in succeeding where Wenger and Emery failed by showing Ozil the door.
The same could be said for how Matteo Guendouzi was pushed out after goading the opposition in a fiery match against Brighton. Arteta saw something he didn’t like and the Frenchman was farmed out on loan to Hertha Berlin in 2020-21. He has not played a game for Arsenal since.
Willian also got the same length of a deal when signing from Chelsea, but the Brazilian tore up his contract a year later after a dismal 12-month spell in north London which rendered only three goals in total.
David Luiz left after two years at the club, Shkodran Mustafi had his deal terminated and Sokratis Papastathopoulos went to Italy. Those transfer failures had been carted off in the blink of an eye.
All the while, Arteta has focused on bringing through some of the exciting academy graduates the club have produced, chiefly Bukayo Saka and Emile Smith Rowe. The pair may have made their debuts under Emery but under Arteta, they have been chiseled into two of the Premier League’s most consistent attacking talents.
Of course, no upheaval is complete without significant backing from the board. Thomas Partey, Gabriel Magalhaes and Pablo Mari arrived in the summer of 2020 for a total £73m spend.
He followed that with a £150m spending spree this summer — the most by any Premier League manager — to begin piecing together his Arsenal vision. At first, many questioned whether those signings would give Arsenal any improvement at all.
Aaron Ramsdale had been relegated in two successive seasons, Ben White was relatively unproven at the top level and Martin Odegaard was unwanted at Real Madrid. Yet the three had cost £109m between them.
Five months down the line, the trio and Arteta have silenced his doubters.
It is telling that only four starters from Arteta's first game, a 1-1 draw away at Bournemouth on Boxing Day in 2019, are still at the club. They are Bernd Leno, Saka, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Alexandre Lacazette —and only Saka’s future is safe at the club as it stands.
Fast forward to December 18, 2021, and there was a sense of pride in the way Arteta’s young Gunners dismantled an injury-hit Leeds side 4-1 at Elland Road. Even the fact the manager had stripped Aubameyang of the captaincy — a story that would have previously derailed Arsenal — was seen as nothing more than a minor inconvenience.
The key decisions that have occurred in his first two years in charge may well determine how the remaining 18 months of his contract turn out. And it remains to be seen whether the club will hand Arteta a new contract, with no discussions yet in the pipeline.
But with Arsenal now fourth in the Premier League, on a run of 10 wins in their last 15 league matches and thriving with a young English core, they have become a likeable team again.
Considering how there had been calls for Arteta to follow Wenger and Emery out at several moments in his two-year reign, to achieve that is cause for celebration.
