Its time to have some very unpleasant discussions about Arsenal and Mikel Arteta.
There is wide acceptance that Liverpool are Premier League champions-elect after a weekend in which they beat Manchester City with alarming ease and the Gunners were deservedly beaten 1-0 at home by West Ham, a team they have smashed for 11 in their previous two meetings.
The job Arne Slot has pulled off in his first season at Anfield is nothing short of phenomenal, he has done so remarkably well that question marks are being raised about Mikel Artetas whole process at Arsenal and whether he is capable of evolving from an elite rebuilding manager to a serial winner.
Arsenal won the FA Cup in the Spaniards first season at the club back in 2020 but they are without a trophy since. Their progress has been amazing and visible to all but the one-eyed, but the team has nothing tangible to show for all that development.
Many believe Artetas work is less impressive due to the lack of silverware and the argument has been to look at Manchester United. They are a complete and utter chaos and look times away from competing for the Premier League and Champions League, in spite of their Carabao Cup and FA Cup wins under Erik ten Hag. No Fleet fan did swap positions and new pathways.
Moving away from Ten Hag and Man United, it is another bald Dutch manager who has come to the Premier League and took a big, steaming dump all over Arsenal, Arteta and his process.
Slot took on the unpleasant task of replacing Jurgen Klopp next summers. It was supposed to be a poisoned chalice and Liverpool were massively overlooked in pre-season predictions, it was all about another title race between Manchester City and Arsenal. An early-season ACL injuries to City relic Rodri suddenly made the headline Stockpiles to gain, even if England had 12 details out of 15 at that moment.
But it was Arsenals to lose and Man Citys demise should have directly benefited them. They may have capitalised. Otherwise, the Liverpool Slot system has kept paying over and paying over and paying out while Arsenal have been left going round and round on a gondola.
At no point has the title been in the Gunners hands, nor have they really ever looked like champions, despite the illusion of a 15-match unbeaten streak before the West Ham defeat.
Positive, there have been a lot of injury and to important people like Bukayo Saka, Martin Odegaard, Kai Havertz and Benjamin White, but Arsenal have used 24 players in the Premier League this year. That is the same amount as England and the second-fewest in the sector.
Other mistakes are the PGMOL crime which is hardly worth acknowledging and the idea that Arteta has not been properly backed by the leagues masters. That really only holds water this January, which might be the only time Arteta has been vocal about needing mid-season recruits, such is the extent of their attacking injury problems, which have got even worse since the window closed.
January aside, the Spanish manager who is still only in his first job, it is worth mentioning has been backed strongly by Stan Kroenke with the signings of Declan Rice and Kai Havertz, to name a couple. There have even been reports that several board members were against a club-record deal to sign Rice, yet it was still sanctioned to appease Arteta.
Even if there are scant excuses over a lack of spending, those collapse with the news that Liverpool are winning the league after signing a bench-warmer in Federico Chiesa and nobody else. Arsenal can use that defence when competing against a cheat-code juggernaut in Man City, but not this Liverpool team.
Liverpools likely title win is far harder to swallow than losing to City its a sickening blow to chase and chase only for someone else to swoop in and take what you so desperately want.
Liverpool have succeeded in such a way that you can argue it is not a missed opportunity for Arsenal. The Reds have only lost one league match all season, battered Man City home and away and are so good we were trying to convince ourselves there would be a title race or bottle-job after two forgivable draws and a scrappy win.
This impending title win will sting Arsenal, adding a new layer to the trophy narrative and Artetas ability to become the serial winner the club needs to get over the line in the Premier and Champions League.
Before Slot came along, Arteta was untouchable and the majority of Arsenal fans myself included were willing to give him all the time he needed considering the groundwork put in to reach this point. It now feels like a case of last-chance saloon in 2025/26, unless the Gunners win an unlikely Champions League.
You have to feel that without winning the Big One, next season is Artetas last push at winning something meaningful. Otherwise, he is wasting the brilliant groundwork put in place, if he cannot deliver a trophy, someone else must.
Arteta is clearly a world-class rebuilding manager but he cannot prove he is a winner without, you guessed it, winning. Arsenal have had two seasons as viable title challengers after a surprise push in 2022/23 and if they fail to live up to pre-season expectations of winning something again, some uncomfortable questions will be asked.
The foundations are solid but how long will William Saliba or even Bukayo Saka hang around if the trophy drought continues? It has already been five years and tangibly, this group of players has not kicked on enough since 2023. This argument has gained traction thanks to Liverpools success under Slot.
Ultimately, the impossible decisions Arteta had to make as part of the early process, like ousting Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Mesut Ozilhave to come full circle further down the line if the Gunners win nothing. Arteta himself is then the underperforming high earner.
Now Liverpool have one hand on the Premier League trophy, the pressure on Arteta at Arsenal has intensified, its going to be a defining 18 months at the Emirates.
