No loss is easy to take. As an Arsenal fan, it seems like each loss grows more and more painful than the last. However, amid all the hard times, lessons can be learnt. After all, when you hit rock bottom, you learn lessons that being at the top will never teach you. This time frame may not seem like it, but it is indicative to Arsenal’s future. Whatever decisions they choose to make now will have a butterfly effect on the future of the football club.

I have a lot of confidence in Mikel Arteta guiding us in this time. The Spanish manager only wants the best for the club and he will put his neck on the line to get it. He’ll know that the project rebuild is not an easy take to take on. He made this clear to the media when he was first unveiled as manager.

This is what makes him a great manager for the future. For too long, Arsenal have relied on managers that tend to rest on their laurels or pass the blame onto external forces outside of their control. Arteta is not like this; Arteta takes on full responsibility and he’ll know that the fans are on his side to overturn this poor run of form that’s lasted the last few seasons.

The Brighton and Manchester City losses will flick a switch in Arteta’s brain, I’m sure. He needs to be tougher on his players and he needs to demand more, otherwise he’s never going to get it. The results after the break will only reinforce his point that it is a marathon, and not a sprint.

Obviously, the transfer window being complicated doesn’t help with matters. However, if Arteta can make use of the players he does have at his disposal, then he should be dandy. The good performances of Bukayo Saka and Nicolas Pepe will serve him well, particularly the latter since he was struggling for confidence.

Arteta wants the best for his players, and the foundations are in the right place. We just need to focus on maintaining the tempo throughout all of the match, and not just the early stages.