Arsenal have at last stepped up and for that they deserve credit

Not too long ago this author wrote a fairly damning assessment of Arsenal. The club had just lost 2-1 to Brighton & Hove Albion and it appeared as if the issues that have plagued them over the past few years were being amplified to a worrying degree.

Now, ahead of the north London derby on Sunday, Arsenal are a club transformed. They have won four and drawn one of their last five matches and are into the semi-finals of the FA Cup. For as much as they deserved criticism after the Brighton game they deserve credit for the way they have resurrected their season.

Of course in reality that season will most likely end with a top seven finish and no trophies. Arsenal would have to go through Manchester City and then either Chelsea or Manchester United to win the FA Cup and a top-four place is ultimately going to be a bridge too far for them. Nevertheless getting back into the Europa League with a trip to Wembley is still plenty to shout about given where they were after the Brighton game.

They’ve dispatched Southampton and Norwich City, as you would expect, but it is the manner of their performances against Wolverhampton Wanderers and Leicester City that really catches the eye. Arsenal were controlled and disciplined in both matches by and large. They came with a plan, executed that plan, and probably would have had six points were it not for Eddie Nketiah’s red card.

Given that we returned from the Premier League’s suspension with Arsenal one point behind Tottenham Hotspur and we now find the Gunners one point ahead of their arch-rivals it is tempting to say that not much has changed. But even to write that out sounds ridiculous, such is the difference in atmosphere around the two clubs.

Arsenal are on the up, led by a bright young manager who makes bold decisions and has a clear blueprint of how he wants the team to play. He has ostracised Matteo Guendouzi, put his faith in Bukayo Saka and kept faith with David Luiz despite his red card against City. All three decisions have paid off. Arteta is learning on the job of course, as are the likes of Frank Lampard and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, but the performances of all three maybe suggest that this new generation coaches, with stronger connections to their clubs, are ready to be thrown in at the deep end, provided they are given sufficient time.

By contrast Tottenham, and their mercurial manager with no connection to the club, are floundering. The 0-0 draw against Bournemouth and the subsequent fall-out is the latest sign that the toxic version of Jose Mourinho is starting to rear its ugly head. As my colleague Marcus Foley wrote in November, sacking Mauricio Pochettino rather than giving him time after everything he had done for the club was a catastrophic decision and it looks no better now. With Son Heung-min and Harry Kane back after injury some were naively tipping Spurs to be the team to watch coming out of lockdown. In reality they have been anything but.

Interestingly at one stage it looked as if both North London clubs were going to fall to the same fate upon football’s return but whereas one has reacted, the other hasn’t. What has changed with Arsenal? Without being on the inside that’s very difficult to say. Full-back Kieran Tierney, however, was pretty emphatic about the reason when asked about it in the week.

“[It has come from] the boss.” Tierney said. “The boss has been brilliant, I think we had a period to work closely and obviously coming back we had a few weeks to work without games.

“We did that, we worked hard every day and continued into the games - the first few results we got weren't obviously ideal but we are building something here and it isn't going to happen overnight.

“I think everybody can see we are progressing well, we have still got on a long way to go but we are doing all we can, listening to everything he says and we all believe.”

Whatever it is, it’s working. It would be huge if Arsenal can secure Europa League qualification for next season. Not only does it bring in additional TV revenue but it offers a viable route back into the Champions League in a world where the top four in the Premier League is as competitive as ever. Also, and this really can’t be stressed enough, it is a European trophy. Franz Beckenbauer’s comments be damned, it is a European trophy that should be enough to want to win it.

Looking forward Arteta himself has admitted that there is still a lot of work to do, and he has been vocal about the importance of this summer transfer window and how the club cannot become one that sells its best players. In fact, in pretty much every department he is saying all the right things.

But he was often doing that before, and he wasn’t seeing the results. For whatever reason something has clicked with the players. Perhaps it was the banishment of Guendouzi, following Mesut Ozil, that showed them that Arteta has no patience for those who aren’t going to buy in. Or perhaps it really was that more time has allowed the players to fully understand what it is that their manager is asking.

Look, it was no surprise to anyone that Arsenal have been chaotic ever since Arsene Wenger left. It is similar to what happened at Manchester United when Sir Alex Ferguson and David Gill both retired. Yet Wenger had even more control, and such his departure and the void that was left because of it made it even more tricky for Unai Emery when he came in. Perhaps, like David Moyes, Emery was always destined to fail but unlike United Arsenal reacted intelligently and it seems as they have now got a strong structure in place, even despite concerns over the growing influence of super-agent Kia Joorabchian.

So what is Arsenal’s ceiling under Arteta? That’s hard to say. Their squad is a long way off the likes of Liverpool and Manchester City but they’re moving in the right direction. That could not have been said a few weeks ago, and it certainly cannot be said of Tottenham right now…