Arsenal fan survey results: Gyokeres over Sesko? Judging the season? Full support for Arteta?

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So here we are, taking stock of a season that in years to come won’t be remembered for the details, the curiosities, the slew of problems. Some will, of course. Mikel Arteta and his players will. No doubt a surge of frustration will forever gnaw at their very souls when they think of the events of 2024-25.

Superficially, the campaign will go down as Liverpool’s easy title, Arsenal not even close enough in the end to be nearly men, while a Champions League voyage to the semi-finals was thrilling but finished with tears. Of course, there has been a lot more to it than that.

It has been a season that has thrown up quite a lot of questions, so we put some to our readers. It is the nature of these surveys that sometimes there is not the bandwidth to allow for myriad answers and all the different nuances that matter across the fanbase.

We narrowed it down to 10 questions to cover key issues around performance, the manager, transfers, and expectations for next season. We received roughly 6,000 responses, which gives an insight into the sentiment among a section of the fanbase.

Overall, even if the madness of social media (and occasionally the madness of mainstream media) suggests disaster and embarrassment is afoot, the verdict is quite supportive and understanding Arsenal’s efforts this season.

It is no surprise that the most common answer is the most rational one. The big caveat to this season — “considering injury problems” — is necessary when assessing its outcome. Losing so many important players for several months at a time has created a baseline of coping, improvising and making do in team selection.

Presumably, quite a lot of the fanbase would welcome an extra caveat to this assessment which links the injury problems to the recruitment, both in setting up the balance of the squad in pre-season and then not acting in January when it was obvious attacking reinforcements were needed.

Overall, though, given the materials Arteta had to work with, finishing around the top two (hopefully) and improving in the Champions League is testament to how much he could eke out of a squad that was invariably shorn of some of its best performers.

Those injuries really do bear breaking down. A hamstring here, a cruciate there, another hamstring… it was surgery and rehab galore. Some 27 different injuries across the squad, which included long spells out for multiple first-team starters.

Let’s look at it department by department. The defence missed Ben White for most of the season, Takehiro Tomiyasu was an even scarcer sight, Riccardo Calafiori was repeatedly on and off and, at a particularly challenging time, Gabriel, who had been a contender for player of the year.

Onto midfield, and Mikel Merino bust his shoulder before he even made his debut, Martin Odegaard missed a chunk while injured playing for Norway, and struggled to regain his most confident form since.

Attack has been the most heavily afflicted, with Bukayo Saka, Kai Havertz and Gabriel Jesus all requiring surgery. Hence, lack of attacking options garnered almost a third of the vote on this question.

Naturally, with the squad short of fit players continuously, that had a direct impact on minutes and rotation opportunities. As did the number of times Arsenal were required to play with 10 men. PGMOL (Professional Game Match Officials Board) seemingly got off lightly on this vote.

Viktor Gyokeres and Benjamin Sesko are almost neck and neck here. There is certainly a favoured profile here for a gargantuan, determined, No 9 who relishes smashing the ball into the net. It is probably not a coincidence that these two are attracting the most interest given Arsenal have been watching both closely, and the media reports have leaned into them as prospects to fill the obvious gap in Arsenal’s make-up.

Arsenal did go for Sesko last summer but that was quickly put on the back burner as the player elected to stay where he was and play for another season, rather than potentially arriving as an understudy to Havertz.

Gyokeres has been admired by sporting director Andrea Berta for some time, so that brings its own intrigue.

Ollie Watkins, a target in January which never materialised because Arsenal and Villa were too far apart in their valuations, still gets a decent amount of the vote but at this stage, rather than the desperation of a mid-season injury nightmare, it would be a surprise if the club return to that option.

The one thing that is clear is that if Arsenal get this right, and Mr New Striker comes in ready to add the missing ingredient, it will be hugely exciting for the team’s development.

It looks like an average of around 7.5 out of 10. That’s an interesting metric, particularly in the context of some of the noisy external criticism such as Gary Neville poking at the notion he is still the manager after five years without a trophy.

I suspect the value of Arteta’s input within and outside the club is not the same. Internally, there remains solid support for how he has managed the unrelenting challenges. One week a never-repeated red-card offence, the next week a player banjaxed for three months, and so on.

I can’t help wondering what mark the manager would give himself.

Almost two-thirds of the vote is focused on the purchase of a new striker, and if we add on those keen on a goalscoring winger, it’s clear Arsenal supporters cannot wait to see a refreshed front line.

That should do a lot to address some of the secondary issues this season, such as the number of points dropped from winning positions, when Arsenal’s inability to build a cushion has been punctured by an opposition break.

Berta’s summer is not just about purchasing, though. The critical issue of retention of key personnel is also vital. No rest til September, Signor.

The Champions League run shades this and it’s easy to see why. The way Arsenal conducted themselves across the competition delivered some astonishing moments. Both victories against Real Madrid will live long in the memory. But they were not the only highlights.

Way back at the start, David Raya’s exhibition of the goalkeeping arts and his double save at Atalanta demonstrated the desire not to lose underpinning the defence. Debut European matches for Myles Lewis-Skelly and Ethan Nwaneri — including the latter’s first Champions League goal — were symbolic of their wondrous promotions to first-team football. Electric performances on the road to win 5-1 at Sporting and 7-1 at PSV emphasised how differently Arsenal felt about themselves in their second season back in the competition.

The semi-finals against Paris Saint-Germain were not to be in terms of results but there were spells in both games to be proud of. All in all, it has whetted the European appetite and everyone wants more.

Recognition of the impact from the latest pair of starlets off the Hale End production line is massive, and rightly so. Both Lewis-Skelly and Nwaneri have made a momentous impact and injected an extra pride for Arsenal supporters watching their development.

Was Andrea Berta a good appointment as sporting director?

A comprehensive 77.5 per cent is a warmly generous appraisal considering his impact so far has no tangible metric. Within the club, they are optimistic that Berta brings something they did not have previously in the market and they rate his winning mentality and experience.

This summer is a heavyweight test of his ideas, his ability to complete all sorts of deals — incoming, outgoing and renewals. There is a lot to do, but it is also one of those summers without a major tournament when it will be of great benefit to complete deals quickly.

If some major players can arrive in time for a full pre-season to integrate, that will be significant to help Arsenal’s readiness to attack next season from minute one.

This is a tough one, and is impacted by market forces (clubs don’t always get the choice to sell who they want) and fitness issues.

There is a wider picture in Oleksandr Zinchenko and Gabriel Jesus being the most popular — if that is the right word — players to usher to the exit. When both arrived, it signified a big development in ambition within the Arteta project, but the overarching feeling now is that Arsenal have outgrown the new standards they initially brought.

Given the time needed for Jesus to recover from his cruciate surgery, cashing in now is wishful thinking as it’s incredibly unlikely anyone will purchase a player who has not proved their fitness after such a serious injury.

Leandro Trossard and Gabriel Martinelli’s appearance on this list is a reflection of the desire for fresh dynamism and more killer instinct down the left-hand side of the attack. Both players are valued by Arteta but in order to strengthen there, one may be sold to offset funds for a replacement.

Credit to the nearly 20 per cent who voted that challenging again would be success — some cool customers there in our instant-judgement world.

That does leave just over 80 per cent who need silverware. It seems the circumstances of this season have cut some slack but there is not so much latitude for things going wrong next time, so Arsenal need to plan properly and get a bit more rub of the green — or else!

A larger percentage will only see the Premier League or Champions League as a success, while interestingly 37.4 percent would be OK with any trophy.

I’ve always felt questions like this feel a lot more comfortable if they ask “can” rather than “will”. Without the help of a crystal ball, it is one hell of a symbol of confidence for over 90 per cent to reckon Arsenal will win the league during the Arteta era.

There is not much disputing the progress and even, to an extent, the consistency of being challengers, with two title challenges against Manchester City, one of which went to the final day, and one campaign in which they spent months in second spot as the clear best of the rest.

That last hurdle, though, is so fiendish. And of course, it is not only down to Arsenal and what they do. Liverpool will be keen to defend their title, Manchester City will be sure to not tolerate another season so far off the pace, Newcastle and Chelsea will want to go stronger…

But there is something about the attitude of the team, and how they address the frustrations they had, and whether they can turn that anger into fuel, that suggests Arsenal will be hellbent on pushing harder than ever next time around.

(Top photo: Catherine Ivill/AMA via Getty Images)

This news was originally published on this post .

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