Daniel Storey: For how much longer can Arsenal trust Mikel Arteta's process?

Everton manager Carlo Ancelotti speaks to Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta before the Premier League match. Picture: Michael Regan/PA Wire

A result to sum up Arsenal’s season

A night on which the only obvious passion and desire was offered outside the Emirates by supporters whose anger at the European Super League proposals have fuelled lingering resentment at the manner in which their club has been run. If Mikel Arteta’s job was to switch focus from the boardroom to the pitch, he is failing. Arsenal’s performances are the embodiment of a club in stasis.

Arteta is now 16 months into his Arsenal tenure. The “trust the process” mantra has become a punchline as they continue to waste any accrued momentum. Watching them against Everton — as so often this season — it was hard to work out the strategy. The damning indictment of Arteta is that his team don’t do anything particularly well: they have faced more shots than Southampton this season and had fewer shots than Aston Villa.

The pressure on Stan Kroenke’s ownership probably eases the pressure on Arteta; the pervading narrative is that he is having to take the club forward — and learn on the job — with one hand tied behind his back.

But if Arsenal start next season slowly, inevitable questions will, and should, emerge as to whether it’s worth keeping faith in such inexperience given the diminishing returns.

Liverpool miss another chance to save themselves

If the theme of Liverpool’s first half of the season was their growing injury crisis, the second half has become defined by their concession of late goals to hamper any thoughts of saving the season with a top-four finish.

Since Christmas, Liverpool have conceded once or more in the last 15 minutes against West Brom, Burnley, Manchester City, Leicester City, Everton, Leeds, and now Newcastle United.

That cannot all be down to personnel and cannot all be down to physical fatigue, given that many of their opponents are in the same boat.

Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp. Picture: David Klein/PA Wire.

Instead it presents a case for Liverpool’s extreme mental fatigue, the result of two years of intense chasing of a realised dream that has caused subconscious complacency that is being too regularly punished.

Sadio Mane looks totally off the boil, Mohamed Salah is not quite at it, Roberto Firmino’s form has dropped off a cliff, the two full-backs are failing to create chances at their previous volume, and Alisson’s save percentage has also declined.

These are not easy problems to solve, and the summer break is not a catch-all solution given likely European Championship and Copa America commitments and the Africa Cup of Nations next season. The resentment towards the owners and Jurgen Klopp’s evident annoyance at the ESL project will further hamper an immediate response. Liverpool’s form in the early part of next season promises to be fascinating.

Potential lack of jeopardy in season’s final weeks

With the European Super League scandal causing a tidal wave of anger and — potentially — diminished interest in on-field events, the final weeks of the Premier League promise to be a period of grim lethargy. The looming European Championship, forcing a summer of Covid-19 bubbles and more physically draining football, were always likely to cause a drop off in intensity in April and May.

But now we don’t even have much on the line. The title race promises to be over as soon as Manchester City stroll to enough points to make it mathematically certain.

Fulham’s survival bid has waned over the last few weeks. The top-four race promised to keep us interested, but Chelsea’s victory over West Ham means that a three-point (plus goal difference) gap has opened up there too.

All jeopardy hasn’t quite been extinguished yet — Chelsea and Leicester could still wobble and Fulham may find some form when they need it most.

But if those things fail to materialise, we are facing the most low-key end to a Premier League season in the competition’s history. And the Championship’s automatic promotion places have already been confirmed too.

Are these the final days of Nuno at Wolves?

Nuno can reasonably claim to be a victim of his own success at Molineux, and there is no doubt that this campaign was ruined by the serious head injury sustained by Raul Jimenez against Arsenal.

But there have been murmurs of discontent amongst some Wolves supporters over the last three months. Defeats like the shambolic home loss to Burnley don’t help.

Wolves probably can’t hope to get a better manager than Nuno, but they may consider that freshness is needed to avoid this project going a little stale and there will be a list of Jorge Mendes clients lined up to replace him. Nuno still retains a high reputation in England, but he may well believe that a new project is needed and it would be foolish to stay long enough to be forcibly removed from his position.

A return for supporters at long, long last

There were plenty of conclusions to draw about the Carabao Cup final: Manchester City’s domestic dominance, Tottenham’s complete lack of attacking threat, an untried caretaker manager being given a domestic final.

CROWD PLEASING: A general view of fans in the stands during the Carabao Cup Final at Wembley Stadium, London. Picture: Adam Davy/PA Wire. 

But really the most important aspect of Sunday was the presence of rival supporters in an English football stadium for the first time in 13 months. For the first time in far too long, those of us restricted to watching the game on television heard the authentic reaction of supporters rather than a fabricated atmosphere.

Of all the signs that normality is returning in some form, this was amongst the most heart-warming.