"Coach Arteta is afraid of having to play offensively", AFTV channel, a large fanpage with more than one million followers of the Arsenal fan community, once posted criticism from many "gunner" fans.

That would be in late 2024, when Arsenal would be far behind Liverpool in the Premier League title race, and Arsenal would also face the clear prospect of going empty-handed for the third consecutive year under Arteta.

Arsenal won the Community Shield at the start of the 2023-24 season. But that was largely a friendly trophy. The last time they won a truly significant trophy was the 2021 FA Cup. That was also Arteta's first official season as Arsenal manager.

Over the past 4 years, Arteta has gradually brought Arsenal back to its former glory. In his first season, Arsenal only finished 8th in the Premier League. And if nothing unexpected happens, the Gunners will have their 3rd consecutive year of... second place in the most exciting tournament on the planet.

The progress is clear. But football is a more complicated story. In Arteta’s five years in charge, Arsenal’s board have spent more than £500m on players.

That is a level of investment that "professor" Wenger has never had in the 2 decades he led the "gunners".

During the second half of Wenger's reign, Gunners fans accepted a bitter truth: their team played well and beautifully, but was not strong enough to compete for major titles due to limited funds.

By Arteta's time, the American owners were willing to spend much more. They turned Arsenal into a powerful financial force in European football.

During his reign, coach Arteta was approved by the owners to spend hundreds of millions of pounds to bring in real "blockbuster" contracts, such as Declan Rice, Kai Havertz... That level of investment, even more successful teams like Liverpool, Inter Milan, Barca cannot compare.

But the title, in the end, was nowhere to be seen. Arsenal now repeated the problem that Brazil had at the 2010 World Cup. That year, coach Carlos Dunga caused controversy by building a tight defensive style of football for Brazil. That style of play completely went against the tradition of the "Samba dancers".

Experts had warned early on that the price to pay for this style of play would be Dunga's dismissal if Brazil failed to win the championship. As a result, they lost to the Netherlands in the quarterfinals, and Dunga resigned.

The same story is happening at Arsenal, at club level. The Emirates board have clearly given Arteta a good start. But he has opted for a solid defensive counter-attacking style of football.

However, over the past 3 years, Arsenal has only been content to finish second. And that was the last straw for the fans' patience.

A decade ago, Gunners fans tried to be patient with coach Wenger because of the romanticism he created. A team with little investment, trying to overcome difficulties, playing beautifully and not winning a title was the obvious outcome for that artistry.

But now, the football Arsenal show their fans is just hopeless long passes, like in the 0-1 loss to PSG this morning.

The Gunners did not show any other attacking mindset other than long balls and waiting for the opponent's defense to make a mistake. PSG also had a few gaps in their defensive structure. But Arsenal's attack was not good enough to take advantage of them to score.

Even with their emphasis on efficiency, Arsenal's problem is... efficiency. They are both boring in attack and lack good strikers.

Watching a team like that play is really tiring for fans. No trophies, no spectacular play...