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“Th-th-th-that’s all folks!” was famously uttered by Daffy Duck at the end of all Looney Toons cartoons during the 80’s and 90’s. And the same could be said for Arsenal’s English Premier League title challenge this season.
Arsene Wenger had been in charge at Arsenal for 21 years, winning the title on three occasions and consistently finishing in the top 4 for 19 of those years. His final two years in charge saw Arsenal finish 5th and 6th respectively before Unai Emery was handed the reigns – albeit for only 18 months.
Emery, now Aston Villa’s manager – and doing an excellent job, finished 5th in his only full season before being dumped by the Arsenal board and the reigns handed to Mikel Arteta, the former assistant manager to Pep Guardiola at Manchester City.
Arteta’s first two seasons promised little, with two 8th-placed finishes before starting a rebuild and the phrase, “Trust in the process” was bandied about.
Last season, Arsenal were pushing for their first top 4 finish in six years before succumbing to the pressure and ending 5th, behind their North-London rivals, Spurs.
This season promised much, with Arsenal fighting at the top of the league all season, and still currently occupying first place with a two-point advantage over City, but with City having two games in hand.
Arsenal’s run of form over the last three games prior to the City encounter on Wednesday evening in the West of England saw the Gunners drop six points to hand the advantage to their title challengers but on Wednesday evening, the Master taught the Pupil a hard lesson!
City were far and away the better team and bossed the Gunners around the park, winning the game 4-1. Had Arsenal managed to scrape a win, the title chase would have been back in their own hands but since William Saliba’s injury, the Gunners have leaked goals worse than an old sponge.
Despite the loss – and with it the chance at winning a first Premier League title in 19 years – Arsenal fans can still hold their heads high this season. The Gunners need just seven points from their final five games to secure second place for themselves, a feat they have not achieved since the 2015/16 season.
Arsenal, with the second-youngest squad in the Premier League behind Brighton, have a bright future ahead of them. Although they will have to build their squad in the right areas.
City are able to field at least three starting XI’s that will still compete at the top of the league. Arsenal, don’t have that luxury! Now that does not mean that Arteta must go out and buy willy-nilly just to increase his squad size – like Chelsea, who have the second-biggest squad (32) behind Nottingham Forest (35).
Arsenal have a squad size one less than City’s 24 players, but the quality of players make the difference. Players like Kieran Tierney, Takehiro Tomiyasu and Rob Holding will need to be replaced with more seasoned players in defense. Fabio Vieira and Mohammad Elneny in midfield are not living up to their billings while Gabriel Jesus needs more competent opposition in attack as Eddie Nketiah is not a long-term solution.
Granit Xhaka and Thomas Partey cannot play every single game at the heart of the defensive midfield structure and this will need to be looked at despite the addition of Jorginho. Leandro Trossard’s start to his Arsenal career has been excellent, despite many criticizing his attitude at Brighton.
However, more needs to be done on the wings as Bukayo Saka looks tired since the international break, although Reiss Nelson’s bit-parts have been good.
Before the start of the City-Arsenal game, a mate of mine asked me how my nerves were. My response, “Don’t have any really. I know we are going to lose, it’s just by how much!”
That was not a “Wo is me” moment, but a reality check as I have seen over the last few weeks that the heat of battle has become too much for the limited experience of the Arsenal squad. Yet, that is nothing to be ashamed of. In fact, it is still something to smile about because of what lies ahead!
Liverpool thought this season was going to be easy, Chelsea spent a gazillion Pounds trying to buy the title and failed, Manchester United are in a rebuilding phase under Erik ten Hag while Spurs – well, are just Spurs.
My prediction is that the title race next season is going to be the closest and most open race in many years. Ten Hag is really doing something special at United while Eddie Howe has really built a solid foundation at Newcastle without using much oil money (although I am sure there were some threats of missing people used – jokes) while Arsenal can build on the last two seasons and well, City, will always just be City – unless of course, FIFA come down on them for breaching the Financial Fair Play rules over the last few years!
All in all, it is not a disappointing season – yes, we could have won the league – but to think this is the first time we have challenged for the title in so many years, and with the squad we have, is not a bad thing.
More importantly – Arsenal will be back in the Champions League next season!
