Mikel Arteta's Arsenal: Trust the process

If you are not an Arsenal fan, I will bet you all the money in the world that you cannot guess where they are now in the PL table.

Go ahead. Close your eyes. Make a guess. And then check the table.

That's right. Arsenal are fifth. Fifth.

6 points off the top. 2 points off 4th place and the accompanying UEFA Champions League berth. 3 points clear of Manchester United below them. And 4 points ahead of their bitter North London rivals Tottenham.

This, after everyone was sure Mikel Arteta was out of his depth. After everyone was sure he was going to be sacked halfway through the season. Just as they were sure of that fact last season too. And the season before that.

To be fair, there were moments where he looked clueless early on in his managerial career - as does every manager at the beginning of their career. Hell, even experienced managers look cluless every now and then at some point during every season.

Pep Guardiola looked clueless only last week against Crystal Palace. Arsene Wenger lost his 1000th game 0-6 against Mourinho. Mourinho lost his 1013th game only last week with Roma against Venezia.

The thing is, every manager will have bad moments. It is what happens after them and before them that counts. It counts what they do in between all those bad moments. Mikel Arteta has done exceedingly well in that regard.

Arsenal's results in the first 3 games were:

Brentford 2-0 Arsenal

Arsenal 0-2 Chelsea

Manchester City 5-0 Arsenal

Except that first game hiccup against Brentford, the other two matches were games one would reasonably expect Arsenal to lose. Mainly because Chelsea and Manchester City were title favorites to begin with, and have ridiculously good squad depth.

And as people have learnt about Brentford over the season, they are not pushovers by any chance.

But going into the international break with 0 wins from the first 3 games, everyone was confident Arsenal and Arteta were done. Some even seemed to believe - actually believe - that they could get relegated.

Arsenal v Aston Villa - Premier League

Arsenal's road to redemption

From that international break to the current one, Arsenal have played 8 games. 6 wins and 2 draws. They have beaten Tottenham in the derby and Leicester City, who are another pesky side to face for the so-called top 6.

And here is the interesting part - 3 of those wins have been 1-0 victories for the Gunners. Burnley, Norwich and Watford have all been seen off, wins ground out without being flashy.

The other 3 wins have come with a margin of 2 goals to spare - against Tottenham, Aston Villa and Leicester. The Brighton and Crystal Palace games could yield only a point each.

Their last game against Watford was Arteta's 100th game in charge of them. All in all, it is 54 wins for the Spaniard against 26 losses. Over the course of it, he has made mistakes, changed and adapted, and is now consistently making his team punch above their weight.

In the 0-5 defeat to City, Arsenal played Leno in goal with Holding, Chambers and Kolasinac forming 3 at the back. Tierney and Soares were the wingbacks. Against Watford? Not a single one of them played.

Arsenal - The rebuild

Yes, Arsenal have revamped their entire backline. They brought in Ben White from Brighton for £50 million, Aaron Ramsdale from Sheffield United for £30 million. Right back Takehiro Tomiyasu arrived from Bologna for £23 million and left back Nuno Tavares came from Benfica for £8 million. And none of them are older than 23.

With Emile Smith-Rowe in the form of his life, Arsenal are suddenly a completely new team in both senses of the word. All this, without their primary goal scorers Alexander Lacazette and Pierre Emerick Aubameyang yet to find solid footing.

After the international break, Arsenal will face Liverpool at Anfield in a major but unexpectedly huge game in deciding the top 4. The schedule has been kind to them so far, but credit must be given where credit is due.

Arteta was given a sufficiently long rope during the rollercoaster early years and as of this moment, that looks worth it. Sometimes, you just have to trust the process.