It’s now officially five years without a trophy for Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal. 

Sure, you can count the two Community Shields that the Spaniard has won during that half-decade — Arteta himself certainly does — but most football fans recognise that Arteta’s trophy cabinet is starting to collect dust.

All that sits inside it at the moment is the 2020 FA Cup, which was won with Unai Emery’s squad. 

What’s concerning for the Gooners out there is that Arteta and Arsenal have splashed close to £650 million in the process.

Stan and Josh Kroenke have backed him all the way, the media is behind Arteta, and he’s also benefited from having connections to fellow manager Pep Guardiola, who did him a huge favour several seasons ago by effectively gifting Arsenal a cut-price deal for former Manchester City players Gabriel Jesus and Oleksandr Zinchenko. But despite all of this, Arteta has somehow failed to deliver. 

Will Arsenal Sack Arteta This Summer?

When Arsenal were eliminated by Paris Saint-Germain in the 2025 Champions League semi-finals, it meant that Arteta was once again going to finish the season trophyless.

What stung most for Arsenal fans was that Arsenal also finished 2nd in the Premier League — which is becoming something of a habit under Mikel Arteta — behind Liverpool, who new manager Arne Slot has somehow managed to drag to a first-place finish, despite being in the job for less than a year. 

However, even though there were reports of Arsenal potentially making a ‘sack decision’ following Arsenal’s elimination to PSG a few weeks ago, Arteta is in the clear. According to BettingTools, the 43-year-old won’t be sacked by Arsenal, and bookies don’t even have any available odds for him to be sacked. Simply put, he’s staying in charge – at least for another season. 

So, now that we can reflect on the 2024-25 campaign, it was once again the same old story. Ironically, this was the season where Manchester City decided to implode, going on a bizarre winless streak and opening up the opportunity for Arteta’s Arsenal to finally land that elusive Premier League title. However, it just didn’t happen, with Liverpool instead deciding to grab the bull by the horns to win it themselves. 

Slot’s success has ultimately shone a light on Arteta’s failures: there is no such thing as a “process” in modern football. You either win or you don’t, and most signs are pointing to the fact that Arteta seemingly doesn’t have what it takes to get Arsenal over the line.

Yes, the club has been playing well in both the Premier League and Champions League — it’s not often you see Real Madrid get beaten 5-1 on aggregate in the UCL — but all of it counts for nothing if there are no trophies to hold at the end — and that’s certainly been the case throughout Arteta’s reign at Arsenal. 

Initially, Arsenal fans fully got behind Arteta during his first three proper seasons in charge of the club. The squad was in need of a desperate rebuild while Manchester City and Liverpool were dominating the Premier League, so most fans were more than happy to sit back and give Arteta some time to fix things. After all, a “process” was needed, in the words of Arteta. 

The Spaniard didn’t waste any time, either, quickly booting out the likes of Aubameyang to make way for a new start. Once the foundation was laid, Arteta then stabalised Arsenal defensively, got them playing some decent football, and eventually began to splash the cash, which he’s been doing ever since courtesy of Stan Kroenke’s chequebook. £100million on Declan Rice, £65million on Kai Havertz, £50million on Ben White — the list is endless. 

All of this was well and good, as it was done under the impression that Arsenal would soon win the league (that’s what Gooners were praying for, anyway). However, despite pushing Manchester City for the league title in back-to-back seasons, fans started to lose patience at the end of the 2023-24 Premier League campaign, especially when Arteta started to wheel out his usual excuses. The message was clear from fans once that particular season wrapped up: win something next year, or you’re out. 

Understandably, the shouts for Arteta to leave are now louder than ever after Arteta did indeed fail to win again.. Arsenal fans are not happy. A growing number of them — we’re now looking at a 50/50 split fanbase — had already been on Arteta’s case all season long, with even some of the big-name fans on AFTV and other fan channels calling for the Spaniard to go. And so, once it was confirmed Arteta’s Arsenal were going trophyless again, supporters went into a meltdown. 

From their perspective, he’s had more than enough time, and the fact that Liverpool (who everyone thought would struggle under new manager Arne Slot) were the ones to stop them made it all the more painful. To add insult to injury, Spurs also beat Manchester United 1-0 in the Europa League final to win their first trophy in 17 years. It’s been a nightmare season for Gooners — or for their men’s team at least, as Arsenal women triumphantly lifted the Champions League.

Arsenal Legend Thierry Henry Goes After Arteta on “Overlap” Podcast

Last week, Thierry Henry, who many consider to be Arsenal’s greatest ever player, decided to appear on “The Overlap” to discuss all things Arsenal, from his career to how the club is currently performing. 

It got particularly interesting around halfway through when the topic of conversation shifted to Mikel Arteta’s near six-year reign at Arsenal. Gary Neville and Co. were shocked when Henry didn’t hold back his true opinion, criticising Arteta for “failing to reach a final” or “compete with Liverpool” throughout the entirety of last season. It was scathing — but not many people could disagree with what Henry had to say. 

What’s clear to see is that the goodwill towards Arteta is starting to shift now that even legends of the club are calling him out. There’ll be more to come, too, especially if Arsenal fail to make any decent signings this summer and ultimately get off to a bad start next season. 

Summary

They said the same thing last season, but it is make-or-break time for Arteta. 

Failure to bring home a trophy next season — or even reach a final — will almost certainly mean he’s shown the exit door by the Kroenkes. Sure, Arteta’s initial FA Cup win and back-to-back title challenges put credit in the bank, but that credit is now extremely close to running out, so there’s a lot riding on the upcoming 2025-26 Premier League campaign. 

It’ll be interesting to see what happens. No doubt, there’s potential here for a repeat of the end days of Arsène Wenger, where one half of fans backed him until the very end while the other was desperately calling for him to be sacked. What’s interesting looking back at Wenger now, though, is that despite it being obvious that he’d overstayed his welcome at the club after 22 years in charge, Wenger was still at least winning trophies — something that can’t be said for Mikel Arteta.