Journalist gives Mikel Arteta sack update if Arsenal fail to win silverware this season

Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta has not been given a “stated goal” this campaign and will be judged at the club’s end-of-season review instead.

The Gunners have made a solid start to the season with three wins from four Premier League matches with the only blemish a 1-0 loss to champions Liverpool at Anfield.

That means Arsenal are already three points behind the Reds, who they will be hoping to beat to the Premier League title, after being runners-up for the last three years on the spin.

The Gunners’ last major trophy came under Arteta in 2020 and, despite coming close to silverware on multiple occasions, it feels like the Arsenal boss must start to deliver trophies after another big summer spend.

Former Liverpool striker Stan Collymore reckons Arsenal will replace Arteta if he doesn’t win the Premier League or Champion League this season.

Collymore told 10bet Casino earlier this week: “Does Arteta need to get his hand on silverware this season? Without a doubt. The pressure is on Mikel Arteta and Arsenal to win something.

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“When I say win something, he’d be able to limp on if he won one or both League Cup and FA Cups, that would be taken as some kind of proof of a change. But really, he’s got to get his hands on the Premier League or the Champions League this season.

“With the amount of investment they’ve put into the squad, there’s no other option. You look at Unai Emery at Aston Villa and most of his team is made up of players bought by Dean Smith. Arteta on the other hand has had it all his own way. He’s brought in his players, some haven’t worked, and he’s decided who to let go.”

Collymore added: “To be blunt, if Mikel Arteta doesn’t win the Premier League or the Champions League then, I think that Arsenal may look elsewhere because it’s been half a decade now. That was what managers used to get in the distant past, so Arteta is now well into that zone where it’s the time to deliver a major trophy.”

But journalist Ben Jacobs has revealed that there is “no suggestion that he is going to go” if he doesn’t win a trophy at Arsenal this season.

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Jacobs told GiveMeSport: “What I’m told will basically happen is Arteta will be backed. There is no suggestion that he is going to go. There is no pressure on him at the moment in terms of a stated goal of ‘win or you’re going to lose your job’.

“But, naturally, Andrea Berta will quite dispassionately look at whether Mikel Arteta has got the best out of the resources made available to him. There will be an end-of-season review. That is not a case of will he or won’t he keep his job. It’s just to be constructive, critical and work out exactly where this Arsenal project is.

“Suggestions that Mikel Arteta is under job pressure, rather than just pressure to win, are wide of the mark. Those two things should be distinguished. The project warrants Arteta winning but, if he doesn’t, that doesn’t necessarily mean that he is going to be out of a job.”