What Does Success Look Like For Arsenal This Season?

There’s been plenty of debate in pre-season as to what would actually be success for Arsenal this season.

The responses from fans and pundits alike has been quite varied as well, ranging from simple responses like “top 4 is a must!”, to “finishing 10th and the Europa League trophy!” being considered success. I think there is a little more intricacy involved than that.

Arsenal have been on a so-called “planned trajectory” since Mikel Arteta took the helm, with Edu saying as much to explain the work done in the background. There has been a consistent flow of finance both to augment the existing talent as well as a financial sacrifice to move players onto pastures new.

I think we are finally beginning to see the team in his image and the slow and steady progress steps are looking like gathering a little more pace.

That of course comes with the pressure of delivering the holy grail of Champions League football, which the fans and I’m sure the board will be demanding of Arteta this coming season.

A lot of people might suggest that football is all about trophies and that’s the currency on which fans live on, which I would say is true of 8/10 seasons you come across in football. This is one of the 2/10 instances, however, on which progress in the right direction is more important than anything else.

For Arsenal, it has been about redefining their identity since Arsene Wenger left the club. There hasn’t been anything close to a consistent pattern, not only in how the club wants to operate on the field, but in the total chaos surrounding the ongoings off the field.

Ivan Gazidis didn’t even want to stick around as he knew that it would most definitely get worse before getting better.

It looks like the darkest phase of transition has been navigated (not with complete success I might add) and with that comes a new opportunity.

The style of play has now been clear for a consistent period of 7 months. The off-field on-goings have never been so coherent and transparent to the fans. All of the things needed to pull together in the same direction simultaneously from the players, the board, the staff, and most importantly, the fans. 

So what does success look like for Arsenal this season? For the Gunners, the challenge will be to maintain that consistent playing style and match it with a top 4 finish, else the jury will well and truly be out on Arteta. The transfer backing is there, and there is very little room for error.

The consistent message has been that “we are here to compete and win at the top level”, which strikes me very much as an ideology that has to work today rather than tomorrow, however, the planning has all been with tomorrow in mind.

That’s the real positive about the current setup. If for some reason things aren’t going the way they should be, a new manager could come in and the structure will help them to hit the ground running.

Equally, as it is a vision the entirety of the club seems to be on board with, it’s safe to say that it will take a lot more to rock a traditionally unsteady ship (in recent history at least). 

Success for Arsenal in the 2022/23 season will very much be about that. Being good enough to beat 70% of the league with their own style and approach very much gets you into the top-4 conversation, and beyond that, it’s about taking points of their rivals.

This is, of course, the blueprint of getting to the Champions League. But the playing style being fun to watch as well as progressive and front-foot focused will be what sets the club up to get to their goals.

Arteta has spoken a lot about the non-negotiables as well as being the protagonist when they play football. He wants control off the pitch and looks to have it, but he also wants to have control on it. The technical players brought in point to this, so the playing style is very much high on his agenda too.

It looks like the two goals of the club are in alignment at the same time, and it’s now a question of whether they can deliver.

Will they get there? Do they have enough? We’re all about to find out very, very soon.