Tough questions for Mikel Arteta about Arsenal’s progress after early FA Cup exit at Nottingham Forest

NOTTINGHAM, England — The FA Cup was Mikel Arteta’s making as a manager. Now he has to prove it doesn’t matter.

Arsenal’s abject 1-0 third-round exit to Nottingham Forest on Sunday was precisely the sort of performance he had hoped to consign to history, riddled with indifference and lacking the focus their hosts had in abundance throughout. Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang has gone from talisman to outcast because, according to Arteta, he failed to show the “commitment and passion” required — but if that is the benchmark, then several of the line-up here are in danger of their own spell in the wilderness after this.

Even accounting for the missing personnel — which almost ran into double-digits through a mixture of COVID-19, injury and absentees at the Africa Cup of Nations — this felt like a real step backwards in Arteta’s mission of establishing a high base-level of performance from which Arsenal can rediscover former glories.

Arteta won this competition in 2020 through a series of resolutely determined and clinical performances, validating the methods of a first-time manager. Arsenal have subsequently underscored that verdict by climbing into the Premier League’s top four with half of the current season played. This progress has created genuine optimism they can soon return to the Champions League, elevating themselves to the status that renders the FA Cup a trivial pursuit rather than a defining event.

But this is the kind of fundamentally flawed outing that poses awkward questions about the strength of that progress. They failed to register a single shot on target and their all-white kit, a one-off as part of an initiative to tackle knife crime, was the best thing about them at the City Ground.

“I’m really disappointed with the performance, first of all,” Arteta said afterward. “Not with the attitude, but how much purpose we have and what determination we showed to change the game when it’s difficult to play against and the way they play. But [we needed]…