Complete nonsense. They are where they are because of Arteta. And sure, spending a lot of money has helped, but there's plenty of other teams who do that as well without the same results.
I think they are punching well above their weight based on the quality of their team. How many players would you take from them to start for us, for example? I'm saying three or four max.
Being totally honest about the team, this is where I see us. When you get to this level, you tend to need to be a well coached team, but where are our match winners, our difference makers at the top end of the pitch. I’m not sure we are there yet. Teams we are up against have players like Mbappe, Kane, Salah, Vinicius, Haaland. We have Jesus and Havertz. Sometimes it feels like going into a gun fight with a knife. Saka and Martinelli are good, maybe very good, but looking at it without rose tinted glasses, they aren’t elite yet, certainly not in current form. A not fully fit Sane was the difference maker both legs.
We aren’t a team without flaws, we have an issue at left back, we need a long terms Rice partner, and I’m not convinced by the goalkeeper. But how we deal with that top end of the pitch will probably be the difference between turning us from nearly men, into a team that can actually get over the line in these games, and might well end up being what defines Artetas Arsenal.
