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Arsenal have become unaccustomed to being underdogs. But, for the second time in a few days, they may kick off as outsiders at the weekend. A side who were top of the table for 248 days in 2022-23 now find themselves the second club in the capital in the standings. “The way we played tonight, the team can go to Chelsea and win,” Mikel Arteta nonetheless declared after defeat to Inter Milan left him with back-to-back reverses.
The table as it stands is more likely to be an early-season anomaly rather than a sign of a decisive shift in the balance of power. And yet there is also the possibility Arsenal have peaked without quite reaching the desired heights. One interpretation of their awkward start to the season is that the effort of going toe to toe with Manchester City in successive seasons has taken its toll. It did on Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool, too, but only after they had become domestic and European champions.
For Arteta’s Arsenal, the comparisons with Anfield past could instead be with the sides of Gerard Houllier and Rafa Benitez, who seemed primed to take the final step but regressed when they needed to progress.
Arsenal’s own past has assumed a renewed significance this week. Edu’s status as an Invincible lent a romantic air to their renaissance: until, suddenly, he was gone, headhunted by Evangelos Marinakis, taking control of a broader group of clubs, maybe doubling his salary. There was no such role for the Brazilian to fill at the Emirates Stadium but, startlingly as Nottingham Forest have started, there is a temptation to think he is trading down.
Maybe Arsenal’s improvement has attracted admirers. Edu at least will leave with a Champions League club potentially able to attract a higher calibre of candidate to replace him.
Arsenal are prepared to take their time. There is little expectation his successor will be in place for the January transfer window and there’s a chance a worldwide search could take six months; certainly, if it involves taking someone from another club, with potential haggles over compensation or spells of gardening leave. In the meantime, Edu’s highly rated deputy, Jason Ayto, is in interim charge.
The club’s hierarchy will hold talks in the United States next week with transfers likely to be among the issues on the agenda. The eventual appointment will have to be acceptable to each of the other three key figures on the footballing side of the club: executive vice-chair Tim Lewis, managing director Richard Garlick and Arteta.
If one of the initial decisions for Arsenal is which type of sporting director they want, whoever they choose could shape their future. They can seem like a club at a crossroads. If the shift in Arteta’s gameplan over the last couple of years appeared an attempt to grind their way to glory, one scenario is that they displaced City at the summit of the English game by outlasting them: either when Pep Guardiola stood down or, in a very different situation, if the champions emerge significantly weakened when the result of the Premier League’s 130 charges becomes clear. Events over the last couple of months suggest that Arne Slot’s Liverpool might be the beneficiaries instead.
Again, this may be a short-term verdict whereas this is a long-term project at Arsenal. Arteta’s centrality to it seems still greater without Edu; that the next sporting director needs to meet with his approval could strengthen his power base. Almost five years since his appointment – though over four since his only major trophy – he could become the constant among elite Premier League management.
Is the task for the next sporting director to temper Arteta’s instincts or to take him further down the same path? Vindication did not come immediately with more quixotic signings like Kai Havertz and David Raya, but it has arrived.
Yet there is also a sense a squad is overloaded with certain types of players and short of others. Arsenal have failed to score in three of their last six games. Martin Odegaard’s return as an injury-time substitute at San Siro should offer a belated injection of invention, but Arsenal seem too reliant on their captain to create. Arteta has an impatience but, while Arsenal’s record in recruitment in recent years has been excellent, he can move on from supposed successes quickly: there is no pretence Gabriel Jesus or Oleksandr Zinchenko figure in the first-choice team now, while Aaron Ramsdale is no longer at the club.
Which may be a sign of perfectionism; that others are left behind as Arsenal advance. But they still create issues for a sporting director. A valid criticism of Edu was that Arsenal recouped too little money but they have begun to sell well, bringing in some £60m for Eddie Nketiah and Emile Smith Rowe in the summer. They have to be smart traders. But they have been of late.
Edu leaves a club furnished with a formidable defence, despite recent concessions in the Premier League, with a physically powerful team who have a good age profile and a sprinkling of quality attackers. It should be a platform for his successor but there is little margin for error in Arsenal’s decision-making if they are to achieve their ambitions.
