There is a loud minority of Arsenal fans who are making the claim that if Mikel Arteta fails to win the league this season, he should be sacked. Absolutely ludicrous.

Some media pundits have also jumped on the bandwagon, claiming that after 6 years at Arsenal (although it has only actually been 5 full season), Arteta is a man under pressure.

Firstly, it will be interesting to see if the same fans and pundits also think Arne Slott should be sacked if Liverpool do not win the league this season. After all, he took Jurgen Klopp’s team to the title, and has since spent close over £250m on his players. That could end up closer to £400m if Liverpool sign Alexander Isak.

Surely if Liverpool spend £400m in a single summer after winning the league and fail to do back-to-back, then Slott has failed with his rebuild and should be sacked?

Likewise, Pep Guardiola should be a man under pressure if Manchester City fail to win the league for the 2nd season in a row.

After winning the treble, and then making it four league titles in a row, no league title in two years should be considered a catastrophic failure. Especially after spending nearly £400m in a little more than 12 months.

Rightly so, neither of these men will be under pressure if they fail to win the league. So why is it only for Mikel Arteta where “anything under champions is a failure and he should be sacked”. If that is the case and we finish 2nd, then every manager who finishes below us should also lose their job.

To repeat above, the viewpoint that a manager should be sacked because all he is doing is competing for major honours is ludicrous.

There is a stark warning for Arsenal and Arsenal fans just up the Seven Sisters Road.

When Mauricio Pochettino came into Tottenham in 2014, their highest league position in 24 years was 4th – a position they had achieved just twice during that period.

On the 5-years in charge of Tottenham, he took them from the “Big 6” side that rarely qualified for the Champions League to title contenders and Champions League finalists. But after 5-years at the club, he was sacked.

Following the Champions League defeat and having not won anything during his time at Tottenham, fan pressure was increasing on Pochettino. Eventually, Daniel Levy bowed down to this fan pressure and the man that made Spurs contenders was sacked.

Four full seasons in charge saw Tottenham finish 5th, 3rd, 2nd and 3rd and make the Champions League final. That was deemed not good enough for Spurs fans and Levy. And you have to wonder if they now regret getting rid of the man with the clubs highest win percentage of any manager managing over 80 games.

Since sacking Pochettino, Tottenham have failed to challenge for major honours. A League Cup runners up and winning the Europa League are not top tier achievements. They have also only finished top 4 just once.

The 6 seasons since Pochettino left has seen them finish outside of the top 6 3 times, with an average finish of 8th. Last season the Europa League victory massively papered over the cracks of finishing 17th.

Thomas Frank becomes the 5th man to manage Tottenham since Pochettino left (excluding caretaker managers):

Mauricio Pochettino – 54.27% win ratio
Antonio Conte – 53.95%
Jose Mourinho – 51.16%
Nuno Espírito Santo – 47.06%
Ange Postecoglou – 46.53%

There is no debate that Tottenham have been a worse team since Pochettino left. And what he was doing at Tottenham was overachieving.

The best comparator to establish what a teams “par finish” should be in the league is the wage bill. It is a fairly simple equation that the more you spend on salaries, the higher up in the league you tend to finish. Wage bill is a much bigger factor than transfer spend (net or otherwise).

Pochettino took Tottenham, who consistently had the 6th highest wage bill in the league to finishing top 3 and challenging for the biggest honours domestically and in Europe. When he left, Tottenham “returned to par” after nearly half a decade of overachieving in the league based on wage bill.

And Mikel Arteta is doing the same at Arsenal. Throughout his time so far, the Spanaird has overachieved with Arsenal.

Whilst some look back on 3 top 2 finishes as a failure, we did this whilst having the 4th or 5th highest wage bill in the league.

What Arteta has done is spend wisely, recruit well, and coach lesser players to be better and compete with teams who are spending £100m+ a year on wages more than us. To bring that into perspective, a £100m difference is basically £2m a week. That is an extra 10 players earning £200k.

Now give Arteta 10 new signings who are in that category of player to justify earning £200k+ and we win the league.

So Arteta is being painted as a man under pressure, when quite frankly, us finishing consistently above Manchester United and Chelsea, above Liverpool twice and Man City once is an achievement.

And if you are wanting Arteta out, just look at Tottenham for what could happen.

Arteta, like Pochettino, is overachieving at Arsenal. There is no guarantee that a replacement manager will also overachieve and the evidence is there that a new manager will actually take the club back to its par position, which right now is 4th.

Yes, Slott has come in for Liverpool. But he has essentially taken the team with the 2nd highest wage bill to 1st. A 1 place overachievement. Arteta is overachieving by 3 or 4 positions.

So before you start calling for Arteta’s head, look at Tottenham since Pochettino left. At Manchester United since Sir Alex Ferguson left. Both clubs have gone massively backwards and look no where near ending their negative spiral.

I remember during the Wenger days “be careful what you wish for” was often seen online. And I feel the same with Arteta.

Want him out? Be careful what you wish for. Arsenal will likely go backwards and he will likely join Manchester City where, with the biggest budget in world football, he will clean up.

Keenos