Arsenal face worrying Mikel Arteta reality as Liverpool and Manchester City pray for decision

As Arsenal’s title challenge has fallen away, as the injury situation at the club bites and the failure to act in the January window to solve those issues, Mikel Arteta's position at the club simply cannot seem to escape scrutiny. The work done by the Spaniard at Arsenal has seen the club rise again into relevancy regarding the title.

For those who view football through binary spectacles though, they will look at the record of trophies won since the FA Cup and spy the big, fat zero alongside it and label that, therefore, failure. To the rest of us, this is of course rather silly when you look at the picture as a whole.

Breaking win records and goal records not even the mighty Invincibles could accomplish is not worthless, even if no silverware was won. These are indicators that something is going right and that the direction is a positive one.

Yes, hopes for this season were big after the previous campaign; but sometimes teams do not have the rub of the green, and from an Arsenal perspective they have had a run of fortune quite the opposite to a lucky rabbit's foot. Mikel Arteta listed off the injuries in a press conference in February, well abreast of what he is having to deal with.

He could scarcely have been more vocal in the January transfer window about how short his side are, about the desire to sign a forward particularly after Gabriel Jesus' injury; nothing came in. The club failed to find the solution within their means.

So when any discussion of Arteta leaving Arsenal comes up, it should never be about the club or even fans being unhappy with the work he is doing; the concern should be about him taking the role into his own hands. If indeed he can take a team who have dealt with what the Gunners have faced this season and still manage to batter Manchester City 5-1, go on a 15-league match unbeaten run and maintain second place. Frankly, that in itself is quite the achievement.

The disappointment of not being top has overshadowed this, naturally, alongside the frustrations of January. Yet, when the May comes and we look back – if Arsenal do indeed stick it out as runners-up – it would be some feat.

Then comes the summer transfer window. Arteta knows, I know, and you know that this Arsenal side is in need of a top quality striker; a player and profile that has eluded the club in recent years despite keen interest in potential candidates.

If Arteta is not delivered that game-changer, and is left with plan C, D, E and so on after failing to get the priority targets, why should he stick around? If Arteta was to leave tomorrow, his representative's phone would not stop ringing with elite clubs trying to persuade him from taking on their challenge.

He, alongside Xabi Alonso, is the best coach in early 40s bracket and his work at Arsenal showcases what he can do while still working within certain means. His critics often like to use the hundreds of millions spent during his time at the club as some sort of stick to beat him with.

Were it literal, it would be more like one of those bendy school rulers than anything of substance. Because when you compare the spending to that of Liverpool through Jurgen Klopp’s tenure, or Pep Guardiola throughout his tenure and even Chelsea of, well maybe just yesterday, then the bigger context shows that comparatively what he has had access to is simply not the same.

Then this is only half the story. The money Arteta has spent has taken three core very young players: Bukayo Saka, William Saliba and Gabriel Martinelli and built everything else from scratch, because it had to be.

Whereas Klopp’s Liverpool only just missed out on the title themselves and had players like Philippe Coutinho at his disposal before selling for huge money to reinvest smartly. Guardiola, not taking away his achievements, but joined a City side that had the likes of Sergio Aguero, Kevin De Bruyne, David Silva, Vincent Kompany, Yaya Toure, I could go on… and then spent what they've spent on top of that.

Even Slot this season; the work he has done has been great, take nothing away from that. But this was not a Liverpool squad like Arsenal’s was in 2019, nowhere near.

Arteta has watched his rivals spend and enjoy fortunes he wished he could have or could have had from the start. But he didn't, and he has taken Arsenal to where we find ourselves now.

Arsenal need to back their coach, because if they are not careful, they risk not only wasting these years, but losing the best thing that has happened to them since the arrival of Arsene Wenger at the club nearly three decades ago. Should that day come, Liverpool and Manchester City and others will be rejoicing at his exit – and that tells you everything.