Mikel Arteta, pressure and a season that will define his time at Arsenal

Is this the year Mikel Arteta finally strikes gold?

The season, which starts away to Manchester United on Sunday, will be the Arsenal manager’s fifth full campaign at the helm, his sixth in charge of the club overall. In each of the past three seasons, Arsenal have been title contenders, finishing as runners-up on each occasion. After the year that might have been, the year that nearly was, and the year that perhaps ought to have been, will this be the year in which they end their wait for a major trophy?

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“You keep digging, digging, digging, and you have to be digging, because, one day, the gold is going to be there,” Arteta told his first pre-match press conference of the campaign on Friday afternoon.

The Spaniard has won silverware as Arsenal boss — the FA Cup in 2020, having been appointed the previous December — but it is now 21 years since the club’s most recent league title, and 31 since they lifted a European trophy.

Their gaze is now set upon the very top of football’s ladder. Winning another domestic cup next spring would make for a side quest, but it’s the Premier League and Champions League which are of paramount importance.

The level of expectation around the club and their unconsummated progress during his reign has inevitably led to the suggestion that Arteta now finds himself under pressure. Thus far, he has welcomed the scrutiny.

“Pressure, I think, is a great word, and I think that means that there is belief in our ability to achieve what we want to achieve,” said the 43-year-old, during Arsenal’s three-game pre-season tour to Singapore and Hong Kong.

Arteta on the touchline during the club’s recent Asian tour (Yu Chun Christopher Wong/Eurasia Sport Images/Getty Images)

It is a sentiment echoed by the Arsenal players.

Speaking after they beat Newcastle 3-2 in the second match of their Asian trip, centre-back William Saliba said: “Pressure is good, that means we are in a good place. We need to keep going like this. If we are not good, we don’t have pressure… We play football to have pressure.”

Arteta is determined that the real pressure starts with the culture at the club — that it emanates from within the dressing room.

“We have to make sure that we don’t lose sight of what we have to do daily, to get to the levels that we want, to set the demands that we want within the squad, because that’s the most important (thing),” he explained during the tour. “The internal demands have to be always exceeding any external demand, and that’s what we are trying to achieve every single day.”

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But what is the temperature elsewhere?

If Arteta is under any pressure, that’s a consequence of raised expectations. He has elevated Arsenal to the point where anything but an open-top bus parade next May or June will feel underwhelming.

The idea that he is under significant pressure from Arsenal’s board or owners, or that his job is in some kind of jeopardy, is not credible. It is less than a year since he signed a new contract running to 2027 that made him one of the highest-paid managers in world football. The club has been remodelled around him. His bosses are unlikely to dismantle the project because of another year as the best of the rest.

The greatest pressure Arteta faces will come from outside the club. He has never been the most popular manager among the wider football media. His press-conference persona is not designed to make friends. There will doubtless be a whole crew of pundits hoping to see the Arsenal manager walk the plank in the months ahead.

That doesn’t seem reflective of the mood among Arsenal fans. In The Athletic’s survey of supporters in May, 43 per cent of the Arsenal followers who responded said winning the Premier League or the Champions League was the minimum requirement if 2025-26 was to be considered a success.

The vast majority still think Arsenal’s faith in Arteta will be rewarded, with a massive 91 per cent saying they believe the club will win the Premier League under his management.

But as in any fanbase, there are dissenters. Even some Arsenal icons, such as Thierry Henry and Tony Adams, have appeared to question the Spaniard’s capacity to take the club that final step.

Grievances with the manager vary: some date back to his treatment of popular players, including Mesut Ozil or Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, ruthlessly sacrificed on the altar of progress. Others harbour misgivings over the club’s handling of the Thomas Partey allegations.

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Some have stylistic concerns: he has shown he can make Arsenal hard to beat, but some still have questions over his ability to coordinate a devastating attack.

Arteta’s greatest enemy is the immutable law of time. Expectations get higher, and the range of acceptable outcomes narrows. Goodwill wears thin. Familiarity can lead to friction. The narratives around his man-management, tactical preferences and inability to get over the finishing line are pre-established, and will bubble to the surface every time Arsenal lose a big game.

Arteta, his staff and players watch on during the recent friendly against Villarreal (Justin Setterfield/Getty Images)

The tension is fuelled by anxiety. The clock is ticking. How many more ‘almosts’ can this Arsenal side afford? Are they in danger of missing their window?

Football history is not replete with stories of teams that take the best part of a decade to come to fruition. Keeping a group of players together for that long is difficult. Keeping them motivated is harder. Arteta needs to sustain belief, and somehow stave off the fatigue caused by successive disappointments.

Keep digging, keep digging, keep digging. Arteta will be hoping that if Arsenal can be there or thereabouts come the end of the season, the margins will this time fall in their favour.

One of the sticks Arteta’s detractors beat him with is how much money Arsenal have spent in pursuit of success. They’ve continued that trend this summer, investing nearly £200million ($271m) in six new signings.

Arteta now has Martin Zubimendi, the holding midfielder he has pursued for years. In Viktor Gyokeres, he has the pure No 9 Arsenal have desperately lacked. Noni Madueke provides a persuasive rotation option on the flanks. Kepa Arrizabalaga, Cristhian Mosquera and Christian Norgaard improve squad depth. With the possible exception of a new left-winger — something Arsenal may address in the remaining two weeks of this window — he should have everything he needs.

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By and large, those signings are experienced players, ready to hit the ground running when the matches start to count this weekend. They are symbolic of a club with a ‘Win now’ mentality.

That brings a kind of pressure, too.

Never mind ‘Win now’, for some, this is the ‘No excuses’ season. And if Arsenal do fall short again, certain supporters will lay the blame at Arteta’s door.

But others will keep the faith. Many recognise how far Arsenal have come under Arteta’s stewardship. The esteem in which he is held by those above him in the club’s hierarchy is evident. Few managers in England have his degree of power and job security. It would take a calamitous season for that to change.

There is, of course, one indisputable way to answer any doubters, to silence the critics and change the narrative. Win.

If Arteta lifts either of the two big prizes, everything changes. It would take the club, and his tenure, into a new era.

For now, the message is simple: just keep digging.

(Top photo: Stuart MacFarlane/Arsenal FC via Getty Images)

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