I think this is pretty much dead accurate.
One additional thing about Arteta that doesn't get emphasized enough is that he was very honest with the fanbase, the players, and the club ownership from the beginning. In so many words, from the beginning he basically said that the club was a total mess that needed radical changes at every level. Even when we had good moments during his first year, like beating Liverpool in their title winning season, his post-match message was that we did well to match their hunger but were nowhere near their level and that nobody should expect those kinds of results to be repeatable. When he was asked during his lowest point during the fall of 2020 how many new starting players he would need to really implement his football, he said nine!
He always stressed that it was a long term job that needed to be done the right way and he never resorted to making cheap promises just to make supporters or ownership feel better or claimed that his team was better than his results and was being hard done.
I'm not saying that saved him from the sack. But I think on the margin it probably helped, just by bringing expectations closer to reality and because his brutal honesty probably helped build trust with Edu and the Kroenkes.
