The 2020-21 season was a tough one for Arsenal and Mikel Arteta, but the Gunners boss has led his team up the table while offloading three men who, according to pundit Roy Keane, were at the heart of the London side's struggles in the Spaniard's first full campaign.
Arteta took over from Unai Emery midway through the 2019-20 season with the team down in 10th, leading them to an eventual eighth-place finish. They finished eighth in Arteta's first full campaign as well, before climbing to fifth in 2021-22 and second last term.
The Spaniard is looking to go one better this term, with victory over Manchester City on Sunday seeing Arsenal enter the international break level on points with league leaders Tottenham. A lot of the rise can be put down to the manager's signings, with the likes of Martin Odegaard and Gabriel Jesus having a part to play, but there's plenty to be said for how Arteta and sporting director Edu have trimmed the fat after years of less successful signings under Emery and Arsene Wenger.
Arsenal won their first two games in the 2020-21 season before falling to a 3-1 defeat at Liverpool, and a run of eight defeats in the first 14 matches left the Gunners down in 15th. The Liverpool loss prompted pundit Keane to take aim at defenders Rob Holding, David Luiz and Kieran Tierney, all of whom featured to varying degrees early in Arteta's reign before being cast aside.
"There's no getting away from that but he will still want some improvement," Keane said of Arteta after the 3-1 reverse at Anfield. "His hands are tied which is a big problem because he still needs a couple more players in.
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"We saw again tonight that defensively – I still think David Luiz, Kieran Tierney and Rob Holding, there's big question marks over them. Luiz still has that mistake in him."
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David Luiz came in for criticism during his time at Arsenal (Peter Powell/POOL/EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock)David Luiz was the first of the trio to leave. He was a regular in his first Arsenal season after joining under Emery but found opportunities harder to come by after the arrival of compatriot Gabriel Magalhaes, and returned to his native Brazil to join Flamengo in 2021.
The 2020-21 season was Holding's most productive, with the centre-back making a career-high 30 Premier League appearances. Arsenal have since upgraded in defence, though, with Ben White joining from Brighton and William Saliba returning from loan to take his place in the starting XI, and former Bolton man Holding joined Crystal Palace on transfer deadline day.
A few days before Holding's exit, Tierney completed a season-long loan move to Real Sociedad after losing his starting spot to Oleksandr Zinchenko. The Scotland international stressed the move was purely to allow him to play regular football, saying "I don’t have any problem with Arsenal".
Despite those question marks, Keane has been one of the pundits to argue for Arteta to be given time to work his magic. Patience has paid off, with Arsenal returning to the Champions League and challenging at the sharp end domestically.
"Arteta's had 20 months. I'd give him a bit longer, you have to give the manager longer," the Irishman said early in the 2021-22 season. "We see Ole [Gunnar Solskjaer] having two or three years before he made progress, Jurgen Klopp too, but it takes a little bit of time. Arsenal have a lot of very good potential young players, but it's just potential.
"It won't happen overnight, but the fans want to see signs of progress. Sometimes the fans want to hear 'We've got a project and we'll be good in two years' time' or whatever, and if that is what the club are doing buying young players, then you have to give them a chance."
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