Mikel Arteta MUST win another trophy with Arsenal - otherwise Gunners are no better than Mauricio Pochettino's Tottenham and will be remembered as 'what-ifs'

First things first, let's address the elephant in the room. Well, the two of them, actually. Arsenal have won a trophy with Arteta in the dugout, taking home the 2020 FA Cup behind closed doors against Frank Lampard's Chelsea, brilliantly and unexpectedly eliminating Manchester City along the way.

The problem is that was a completely different era for the club. That Arsenal is not the Arsenal of now, and Arteta as a coach has come a long way since hoisting that trophy aloft. The only starter remaining from that team is the outgoing Kieran Tierney, with unused substitute Saka - still only 18 at the time - the sole other member of both the 2019-20 and 2024-25 squads.

And, despite Arteta's assertions, the Community Shield - which Arsenal have lifted twice under the Spaniard - is not a major, competitive trophy. It isn't. Stop trying to convince yourself it is. We scoffed at Jose Mourinho for thinking that way, the same principle should apply for Arteta.

Amid Arsenal's slide earlier this season, Manchester United legend Patrice Evra made a snide comment which went viral on social media. "Watching Arsenal is like watching Netflix, you always wait for the next season," he proclaimed. "And trust me, every season is going to be like that."

We're not here to say that Gooners should take this criticism at valid, particularly at a time where anyone associated with United should be making sure their own house is on order first. To date, Arteta's Arsenal have had more than enough reason to believe they're on the right track, and their priority has understandably not lied in the fate of their cup exploits.

That doesn't excuse such a fruitless run of underachievement in that regard though, despite the development of the team and the club in general.

This current iteration of Arsenal, the one which has been rebuilt brick by brick since the summer of 2021, has not only failed to deliver silverware when expectations are weighing heavy on them, but they've seldom come close either. They've reached two semi-finals - the 2020-21 Europa League versus Villarreal and 2021-22 Carabao Cup against Liverpool - across 11 cup runs in the four-and-a-half years since that Wembley triumph, and on both occasions were meekly eliminated with a whimper. What's more, Arsenal have failed to even advance beyond round four of the FA Cup in the four campaigns after taking the trophy back to north London.

The European picture isn't much brighter, despite Arteta leading the Gunners to their first Champions League quarter-final in 14 years last season. That was, to their credit, a huge step forward to restoring their lost footprint on the continent, though they remain without a marquee victory in Europe and have largely scraped through any knockout battle with sides even remotely close to their reputation.

Given how many fallen giants occupy spots in this season's Champions League and a new format mixing up how the knockout rounds could play out, Arsenal should still rank among the top five or six favourites for the European Cup, but this notable lack of nous is what's preventing them from breaking into the upper tier of that select list.

Make no mistake, Arteta has completely transformed Arsenal back into a competitive club, one better than anyone had could have conceivably imagined when he first took the job. At times he's turned water into wine, and the fact we're even having these debates about the Gunners is proof of their intangible success. We only demand this much more from teams worth caring about.

Losing out to Pep Guardiola's Manchester City in back-to-back title races is nothing to be ashamed of in big-picture context, particularly last year having been within a Son Heung-min shot of finishing first. Their two-season rolling average of 86.5 points is their joint-highest by a considerable margin since wins started counting for three points, level with the 2003-04 Invincibles and following 2004-05 sides. Again, cup competitions aren't the only measure of success, and if anything league success is a better barometer of how consistently excellent a team is.

This is now an Arsenal era in complete contrast to the very end of legendary manager Arsene Wenger's tenure, a time where they won three FA Cups in four years but their Premier League form floundered and they lost their everlasting grip on Champions League qualification, despite getting over the hurdles set by stadium debt repayments. Arteta's charges are much, much better than those outfits.

But how do you turn a beloved team into an immortal one? That comes with the silverware, with the parades, with the ticker tape and the ribbons, the champagne and the championes.

It is uber-ironic, then, that Arsenal supporters have found themselves in this situation, having spent the back-end of the 2010s taunting rivals Tottenham over their inability to end their own trophy drought in spite of the clear and obvious success Mauricio Pochettino brought in every other department.

Neither end of north London will appreciate this sentiment, but there are major parallels between the two projects too. Pochettino and Arteta came into their respective clubs at a startlingly low ebb, both embraced youth and academy talent to replenish abominable squads, both smashed through what was thought to be a glass ceiling of their Premier League ambitions, and now, both are derided for their trophy-shyness.

Even after his year-long stint at Chelsea threatened to sour his perception in N17, Pochettino remains a legendary figure at Spurs. Now that he's left the Blues, he will inevitably be linked with a return to Tottenham again in the future, previously citing his desire to deliver a long overdue title and bring about closure for all involved.

Arsenal cannot let the same what-if happen with Arteta and this team, and they must make more of this golden era. If they really want to differentiate themselves with their underachieving little brother down the road, they will need to create more than simply memories.

The Arsenal of 2024-25 are unlikely to equal or better the points tallies of their previous two seasons, be that down to Saka's extended spell on the sidelines or the general malaise in their performances with more of a stretched squad this time around. They might well catch Liverpool, but it's hard to envisage that occurring even with the Reds' stumble against Manchester United over the weekend.

The cups represent Arsenal's opportunity to succeed from multiple different viewpoints. Silverware as a prize is not to be sniffed at in general, while they can also shut up some of their last remaining critics in the process. A season which ends with Arteta's idealistic version of the Gunners finally getting over that hump will set them up for future success and fuel that lust for more.

This week, Arsenal return to cup action with two matches on home soil; a Carabao Cup semi-final first leg against Newcastle followed by the visit of Manchester United in the third round of the FA Cup. The wolves of pessimism will be out to feast if these don't result in two victories.

Arsenal's window isn't closing, far from it. You could even argue that is in in fact Liverpool's which will fade from 2025-26 onward given the remarkable uncertainty over their core players. This season hasn't gone as planned for the Gunners, and yet they are still close to hitting goals for the short and long-term.

These are the luxury problems Arteta would have wanted to have, but now he must find solutions from them - does he want to be beloved, or does he want to be immortal?