Mikel Arteta has become the poster boy for owners “sticking with a manager”.
The most recent Head Coach to use Arteta as justification for remaining in their job is Graham Potter.
The Chelsea man rolled out the yarn that “two years into Mikel [Arteta’s] reign he was close to getting the sack”. At no point was Arteta close to the sack at Arsenal.
Arsenal’s ownership knew that in Arteta they had the right man, and it was just a case of needing a few transfer windows to ship out the old and bring in the new.
There have been plenty of media pundits that have also tried to compare Arteta’s early reign to Potter.
To start with, Arsenal was Mikel Arteta’s first job, whilst Graham Potter had managed for over 400 games. 135 of those matches were for Premier League side Brighton.
Chelsea were reigning “Club World Champions” when Potter took over. They had also won the Champions League just 15 months before. Arsenal meanwhile Arsenal’s only trophy in the previous 2 seasons was the Community Shield.
Potter took over a side who had made the FA Cup and League Cup final the year before and had just finished 3rd.
Arteta’s Arsenal had made (and lost) the Europa League final the previous season, with Unai Emery leaving us in 5th.
Both men’s first transfer window was January.
Arsenal spent £0 on permanent transfers, with just Pablo Mari and Cedric Soares joining on loan. Both came with loan fees and agreed to join permanently in the summer.
Chelsea meanwhile spent £285.7m on 7 players. They also bought in Joao Felix on loan.
To bring the figure Chelsea spent into perspective, under Mikel Arteta Arsenal have spent £315m across 6 transfer windows. Potter’s Chelsea have spent £30m less in just a single window.
Potter not only took over a team that had been much better in recent years than Arteta, but also superior in the season he took over.
Under Thomas Tuchel, Chelsea had won 5 of their previous 10 games. 50% win ratio.
Unai Emery and Freddie Ljungberg led Arsenal to just 2 wins in the 10 games before Arteta took over. A win ratio of just 20%.
When Potter came into Chelsea, they were 6th. Arsenal were 10th.
Arsenal were also on course to get just 49 points based on our points per game. Chelsea, under Tuchel, were on course to get 63 points.
Their post-taking over form changed dramatically.
Arteta’s PPG from when he took over on 20 December to the end of the season increased to 1.62 points. Had Arsenal averaged that over 38 games, they would have got 62 points. An increase of 13 points against how Arsenal were performing before he came in.
Tuchel’s Chelsea were averaging 1.66 PPG and on course for 63 points. Under Potter, they have averaged 1.16 PPG, the 38 game equivalent of just 44 points.
Arteta also won the FA Cup in his first season with Arsenal, beating Manchester City and Chelsea in the semi-final and final.
Chelsea were knocked out of both the Champions League and League Cup in the 3rd round and are currently behind in their Round of 16 Champions League tie.
So Arteta came into an Arsenal team that was worse, spent less, improved the team and won a trophy.
Potter came into a Chelsea team that was better, spent a lot, lot more, made the team worse and will likely finish the season trophyless.
If Chelsea do not lift a trophy this season, it will be the first year they have failed to win anything since 2013–14. They have also only once failed to make a final (or finish 2nd) since 2003.
It is not all Potter’s fault. Their owners have muddied the waters through buying so many players.
They are the equivalent of a wife sending her husband out do the Christmas dinner shopping. Despite spending £250 he does not come back with the turkey or potatoes but brings back lots of Bailey’s. That no one drinks.
Potter comparing his position to Arteta ludicrous. The situation both walked into could not have been any different.
Arteta did so much in that first 5 months which earned him the time when he had a sticky patch in early 2020/21. All Potter has done is take Chelsea backwards. And I love it.
Keenos
She Wore A Yellow Ribbon 
Potter is just a useless prick, using other names to cover for his inabilitys the worse chelsea manager in the history of the club what a prat
LikeLike