How do Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal evolve?

It is the problem facing every football manager throughout the game - how do you get your team to take that next step?

It is the precise task facing Mikel Arteta as he nears the end of his second season in charge of Arsenal.

He's already arguably reached the lowest point, that came last week when he watched on as his side were dumped out of the Europa League semi-finals by Villarreal - a team led by predecessor Unai Emery no less - to all but confirm there will be no European football for the Gunners next season for the first time in 25 years.

The Spaniard has undoubtedly made improvements in his time at the helm - the way he thinks about the game and his ideas on the training field are widely praised - and the beginning of a defined way of playing is slowly but surely being implemented.

The rise of the likes of homegrown stars Bukayo Saka and Emile Smith Rowe under his stewardship has been impossible to ignore while January's clearing out of high-priced deadwood in the shape of Mesut Ozil, Shkodran Mustafi and Sokratis Papastathopoulos should be commended, too.

But with another midtable finish set to soon be confirmed and fan unrest at its highest level in years in the wake of the Super League fiasco, it's fair to ask just how much have Arsenal moved on over the last year-and-a-half? From Arteta's point of view, it's plenty.

“We have made progress in many areas, I would say performance included, and that is supported by many factors that we have looked at,” Arteta said ahead of this week's clash with London rivals Chelsea. “Results-wise, to be where we want to be, it has to be improved.

“We have already had an incredible amount of changes at the club over the past year or so, more than ever. We are looking to improve and be much closer than where we are at the moment. In order to do that there are certain things that we have to improve.

“Now it is how we evolve, there are a lot of things that had to be done and they have been done, a lot of changes to make and a lot of them have been made. Now it is time to evolve. To evolve you to have to take things so that when they are a little more settled and established, take them to the next level.

“There's great potential [with the young players], they've shown that this season. They are ready to take responsibility in important moments. They have the level to do it, they have the hunger to do it and they have the right senior players around them to help them as well. It's about how we click and how we are consistent because we've shown that on the day we can compete and beat the top teams but through 38 games, we haven't done it.

“Through the Europa League, we have done it to the point that we are so close to getting to that final, but in 38 games that's the duty that we have and the challenge ahead of us: to compete with the big teams in this league.”

One of the biggest of them all is on deck with Chelsea, a team Arteta calls "the best in the league in the last few months", next up on Wednesday evening.

In many ways, what Thomas Tuchel has achieved since arriving at Stamford Bridge in January - a secure top-four place as well as Champions League and FA Cup finals - is what Arteta himself is aiming for.

"What Thomas has been able to do since he arrived has been exceptional," he added. "He put the team in two finals, the way the team is looking, how solid they are defensively as well, how composed and regular they have been in their performance has been excellent."

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The match will again be played out against the backdrop of the failed European Super League with both clubs so infamously involved in the stalled attempt to launch a standalone breakaway competition last month.

Arsenal supporters have been vociferous in their opposition to Stan Kroenke's ownership in recent weeks, but with fans being welcomed back to the Emirates for the final league game of the season later this month, Arteta is keen to give them something to cheer about.

"They are entitled to their opinions," he said of supporters who have criticised him and his team of late. "The only way I can prove that is by having a team that performs on the pitch and makes them proud. That's the only thing that I can do. The only thing I can be judged on is do I create the necessary environment for a top, elite team to compete at the higher level and get everybody in the condition to do their best? And after that, do I get the best out of the players that I have? The maximum, whatever the level is, do I get the best out of that? This is how I judge myself and at the end, in the outside world, how I am going to be judged is just with results, nothing else. What we've done good before, in the past, in the process... it's irrelevant. It's only what you get from that result when you are on that pitch.

"We can’t wait to have them back in the stadium, with the whole stadium or whatever the capacity that we’re allowed to have in the stadium for the last game. It’s something that we’ve missed in this process to have them together, to feel what the team wants to do and create that chemistry and get them closer to what we’re trying to do."