Forget the sob stories, five years without an Arsenal trophy means Mikel Arteta risks facing same fate as Poch at Spurs

WHEN was the last time the manager of a Big Six club was allowed to go five years without winning a trophy and stay in his job?

The answer is Mauricio Pochettino, sacked by Tottenham early in his sixth season.

Before him, it was Arsene Wenger, who already had three Premier League titles – including two Doubles – to boast about before his long eight-season trophy drought.

So unless Arsenal are going to be crowned champions of Europe this year for the first time in their history – and without a striker – Mikel Arteta is going to be entering into some pretty exclusive company.

Arteta is under no immediate threat at the Emirates.

Arsenal remain likely to finish as Premier League runners-up for a third straight season and if they defeat PSV Eindhoven, they will reach a second successive Champions League quarter-final.

But there comes a time when questions must be asked.

And five seasons without a trophy is that sort of time.

Sure, Arteta has improved Arsenal substantially but is he the man to take them over the line and win a Premier League or Champions League?

Arteta did win the FA Cup just months after succeeding Unai Emery – with the team he inherited and then comprehensively dismantled.

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Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang scored both goals in that behind-closed-doors 2-1 victory over Chelsea but was stripped of the captaincy the following year and bundled out of the door along with Mesut Ozil.

When Kieran Tierney leaves this summer, Bukayo Saka and out-on-loan Reiss Nelson will be the only remaining Arsenal players to have won a trophy at the club – although they were both unused subs in that 2020 triumph over their London neighbours.

The team Arteta subsequently built appeared young, vibrant and hungry during the previous two seasons, when they ran Manchester City close for the Premier League crown on both occasions.

This year, there has been no title race, despite City’s extraordinary implosion. Liverpool have been allowed to run away with it.

Arsenal failed to score for the third time in four matches in a God-awful goalless draw at Nottingham Forest on Wednesday.

That was a clash between the second and third teams in the table, which showcased exactly how far Arne Slot’s Reds are ahead of everybody else.

Unless Arsenal are going to be crowned champions of Europe this year for the first time in their history – and without a striker – Mikel Arteta is going to be entering into some pretty exclusive company.

Now 13 points ahead, the Merseysiders might well surpass Manchester City’s record 19-point winning margin of 2018.

Any current conversation about the Gunners has to revolve around the absence of a fit striker.

Season-ending injuries to Kai Havertz and Gabriel Jesus, as well as a long-term lay-off for Saka, represent extremely bad luck.

But then neither the German nor the Brazilian are authentic centre-forwards.

Arsenal’s need for a striker predates those injuries.

The debate was raging during the previous two seasons.

And if Arteta had prioritised a striker, the club would have signed one last summer, rather than having to leave it until late in January to make a failed bid for Aston Villa’s England international Ollie Watkins.

Havertz, who was most effective as a No 10 in his Chelsea days, has the height and ability to link up play but he is not a top-class finisher.

When Jesus was at City, Pep Guardiola preferred him as a winger and often played with false nines rather than employing the Brazilian through the middle.

Talk of former Brentford hitman Ivan Toney, Napoli’s Victor Osimhen and Sporting Lisbon’s Viktor Gyokeres came and went and RB Leipzig’s raw 21-year-old Slovenian striker Benjamin Sesko looks the most likely summer recruit.

But Arsenal’s failure to bolster their forward line has been negligent.

Still, even when Havertz and Jesus were fit, Arsenal’s playing style had clearly regressed this season.

They have become Set Piece FC, an upper-class version of Tony Pulis’ Stoke City and a difficult watch.

An image of Arsenal’s set-piece coach Nicolas Jover has been painted on to a mural near the Emirates.

The days of Wenger’s Arsenal playing eye-candy football and being obsessed with scoring the perfect goal are long gone.

Five red cards in the Premier League have cost the Gunners up to ten points.

Dark conspiracy theories among Arsenal fans cannot mask a basic lack of discipline and game-management.

Forget the sob stories, half a decade without silverware simply isn’t good enough.

Arteta has done much to foster a bond between players and supporters after years of the ‘Wenger Out, Wenger In’ civil war and the short reign of Emery.

The atmosphere at the Emirates has improved greatly — sometimes vast swathes of the crowd do not leave early to catch their trains.

But this term there have been rumblings of discontent.

Arsenal have gone backwards and most supporters recognise it.

Opposition to the ownership of ‘Silent’ Stan Kroenke has been silenced but if it kicks off again, the manager will be in danger.

Pochettino improved Spurs immeasurably, reaching a Champions League final after two successive near-misses in title races.

But even at Arsenal’s bitter rivals, five years without a trophy was enough to see the Argentinian gone.

Unless Arteta oversees a miracle in Europe – and Arsenal would probably have to beat Real Madrid in a quarter-final and Liverpool in a semi to do so – then the Spaniard will be on trial at the beginning of next term.

Forget the sob stories, half a decade without silverware simply isn’t good enough.