Arsenal — top of the
Manager
It wasn't so long ago that
Lured from City in 2019, when he was
Three straight defeats at the start of the following season included a 5-0 rout at City and calls for Arteta to be fired. Arsenal blew the chance of
The jury was out on Arteta but Arsenal backed his methods and proved its faith in him by giving him the power to dispose of highly paid players like Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and
They led the league for 248 days last season but another collapse was a cause for criticism. However, the manner in which Arteta has transformed a club that hadn't qualified for the
How Ten Hag will hope United follow Arsenal's lead.
The Dutchman has repeatedly called for trust in his process in the face of ever-worsening results.
United's 13 league defeats are its most in the
United has won only one of its last seven league games, against last-placed Sheffield United. At eighth in the standings, it is on course for its lowest finish of the era.
Such damning numbers are the reason there is so much uncertainty around Ten Hag's position, even with the chance of silverware.
He has pointed to a debilitating injury list all season, and if he can defy the odds in the FA Cup final, he can point to consecutive campaigns with a trophy which no United manager has achieved since
Having also secured a top-four finish in his first season, Ten Hag could make the case that his second season is an outlier.
Ferguson, himself, believed he needed the FA Cup in 1990 to take the pressure off after a 13th-place finish in the division.
But Ten Hag's squad looks unbalanced. United appears tactically naive and has conceded 81 goals in all competitions so far, the most since 1976-77.
United supporters are more hopeful than confident their team can spoil Arsenal's title chase this weekend.
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