Cost Arsenal ‘a lot of money’: Alan Smith names two big mistakes Mikel Arteta made this year

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Arsenal legend Alan Smith believes Mikel Arteta has made two notable mistakes in his first year at the helm of the Gunners.

After Arsenal parted company with Unai Emery last November, they brought Arteta in a month later as their new permanent head coach, snapping him up from Manchester City.

The Gunners have since won two trophies – the FA Cup and Community Shield – and have bolstered their ranks, but it’s not quite been plain sailing performance-wise and results-wise.

Although Arsenal made it six wins out of six in their Europa League group, they’ve struggled in the Premier League, sitting 15th in the table with six losses from 11 games and just 10 goals scored.

Summer signing Willian, in particular, has come under criticism lately for a number of poor displays, failing to live up to his impressive debut against Fulham in September.

Smith, writing in his Evening Standard column, suggested that Arsenal’s “expensive acquisition” of Willian has been a mistake, along with extending David Luiz’s contract.

I said last week Arteta is bound to make mistakes as a rookie manager,” wrote the Gunners icon. “And he has.

“Extending David Luiz’s contract cost the club a lot of money without giving the team anything extra.

“Likewise, the expensive acquisition of Willian didn’t look good business at the time.

“It looks even worse now following several anonymous outings that reek of a player with little to prove or achieve towards the end of his career.”

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It’s hard to argue against the Willian point – Fulham game aside, he simply hasn’t delivered for Arsenal this season, and his reported £220,000-a-week, three-year contract is looking like a huge mistake now.

That said, Luiz’s new contract is only until next summer, and his contributions aren’t just on the pitch, but also off it – Bukayo Saka couldn’t sing the Brazilian’s praises highly enough in terms of the help he’s given him and other young players.