TIM HOWARD: Why it WON'T be a failure if Arsenal miss out on the Premier League title again... plus why I remain a BIG fan of VAR

I have backed Arsenal to win the Premier League for two successive seasons. I was wrong last year and - even after Tuesday's demolition of Chelsea - there is a decent chance that Mikel Arteta will go without a trophy once more.

So would that represent failure for this team and this manager? I don't think so. And here's why: very few teams do what Leicester did and win the Premier League out of nowhere. Very few teams pop up all of a sudden and land a major trophy.

The vast majority have to go close and fail. Then go closer and fail again before eventually it happens. Manchester City had to do that - even after buying all these superstars and pumping all this money into the club.

It took Liverpool a long time to get back to that perch, too - they had to come close a few times. So it's not failure, it's growth, And if it's not this year, Arsenal will go close to again next year and the year after that. This squad is young and built to do that. Arteta has found a formula.

Jamie Carragher suggested recently that this Arsenal side could end up being remembered like Mauricio Pochettino’s Tottenham – a team that won admirers but not much else. I disagree - at some point they are going to get over the hump.

Arsenal are locked in a Premier League title race with Manchester City and Liverpool

DailyMail.com columnist Tim Howard has backed Arsenal to win the title for two straight years

Mikel Arteta's side fell short of landing the Premier League title after a collapse last season

Any business owner is trying to stay afloat. Any business owner is going to try to keep his team in the most lucrative market in the world. So I can understand why Evangelos Marinakis would try anything to help Nottingham Forest stay in the Premier League.

Could they have gone about this VAR complaint a different way? Could the club have avoided releasing a statement entirely? Possibly.

But Forest hired Mark Clattenburg and, ultimately, this was what he was brought in for: to make sure that when the club felt aggrieved and hard done by, there was someone on the inside who knew the ins and outs of the refereeing system.

Are Forest trying to put pressure on officials? Maybe. But you know what? Everyone is. Whether it is done publicly or privately, on the pitch or off it.

Yes it came against my former team, Everton. But I see Forest's complaint: there were three penalty claims and certainly one of them – Ashley Young’s tackle on Callum Hudson-Odoi – was a stonewall penalty.

Nottingham Forest released an explosive statement following their game against Everton

Forest owner Evangelos Marinakis has come under fire following the club's comments

The club had identified - and yes, it's accusation – that the VAR Stuart Atwell was a Luton fan and Luton are down there fighting. I understand the gripe.

Now, the question is: could they have gone about it a different way? Maybe. But I don't think we should be surprised. Because that's why Clattenburg was hired - to make it known that they were going to put pressure on referees.

So, honestly, I don't have an issue with it. I know a lot of people do. I understand that I'm in the minority on that – and in my belief that soccer is better for having VAR. I'm a big fan. 

We used to complain that the technology was there and we weren't using it. So now the question should not be: technology vs. no technology. Only: how do we make it better? 

The technology is still operated by humans and that means you're going to get wrong decisions. But for the most part VAR works. 

Forest were furious after a number of decisions went against them at Goodison Park 

The introduction of semi-automatic offsides will help speed it up and take away human error. And to me, it is low hanging fruit to complain about it all the time. We'd moan if we didn't have it!

It is obvious that the mentality at Manchester United is fragile. It was obvious even before their FA Cup collapse against Coventry City.

You just never know which United are going to turn up. There is no pattern or plan – at least from the outside. So can they play well, be 3-0 up and cruising? Yep. Can they lose that lead against a Championship side? Yep. That's who they are at the moment.

The responsibility of any manager is to get his team to mirror him. That’s what all the best coaches do. But we don’t see that with Erik ten Hag’s team at Manchester United. So he will be under a magnifying glass for the next few weeks.

Manchester United boss Erik ten Hag will be under a magnifying glass over the coming weeks

Particularly given the wholesale changes Sir Jim Ratcliffe is making high up at the club. They were needed and so is a mass exodus of players. 

Will changing the manager treat the rot that has set in around Old Trafford? Well, United don’t have a great track record with their appointments since the departure of Sir Alex Ferguson.

But Brighton have done it with Roberto De Zerbi, Aston Villa have done it with Unai Emery, it took Liverpool a long time but they found Jurgen Klopp.

There are plenty of examples of how a new manager with fresh ideas, new players and a budget can turn things around very quickly.