Why Arsenal's Europa League match against Villarreal could make or break Mikel Arteta's managerial tenure

Arsenal need to overturn a 2-1 deficit and keep alive their hopes of Champions League qualification

It is becoming an increasingly familiar season finale at the Emirates Stadium: win or bust in their pursuit of European competition. If Arsenal's recent history were the work of a scriptwriter critics would tear it apart for the bizarre plot twists in midseason that consistently contrive to end with their season teetering on the brink of glory or disaster. At least under Arsene Wenger and Unai Emery it was a case of Champions League glory versus the relatively slim pickings of Europa League. Mikel Arteta's two seasons with Arsenal have descended into all or nothing: first a late season sprint to FA Cup number 14 and qualification for Europe, now a Europa League semi-final that could be the difference between Champions League qualification or no continental football at all for the first time since 1995. That is not his fault alone. For a rookie manager at a top club, Arteta has been handed a string of off-field crises the likes of which many veterans have never navigated. The Spaniard was the one of the first high-profile figures to catch COVID-19 in the United Kingdom, presided over the final months of the Mesut Ozil schism and has managed amid executive level turbulence that has reached its pinnacle (so far) with the fallout from the Super League and the takeover bid from Daniel Ek.