Quote Originally Posted by Marc Overmars View Post
With Willian, I think it is just a case of Arteta being desperate for him to have an impact because he’s carrying the can for the signing. Maybe he’ll reevaluate in the summer but Willian getting undeserved minutes will be a recurring thing for the remainder of the season.
It's exactly that. Arteta and Edu 100% own that signing, so it's gonna be on them to sit down in front of the owners at the end of the season and justify it. At some point though the cost of poor results and the threat of a lower-than-expected finishing position will start to outweigh the chewing out that's coming over the wasted investment and self-preservation will have to kick in. Arguably we've already seen the beginnings of this with Willian's demotion to the bench and 'cup team', which happened around boxing day - now we just need Arteta to swallow his pride and accept that he's not even useful off the bench. I just hope it doesn't require too sharp a lesson to drive home the point...