On the eve of Man City’s crucial game against Spurs, with the majority of the Arsenal fans rooting for our White Lily neighbors for the first time, this is the time for an annual reminiscence. Arsenal has competed for the Premier League title till the last day. And this is an achievement regardless of what other fans says. Seasons like the Leicester winning the PL in 2015/2016 or Leverkusen winning the Bundesliga this year (congrats Xhaka, you deserve it), are exceptions that will get rarer as the disparity of spending between the top teams and the bottom increases. Pep has proven to be the manager that you can trust with an unlimited budget, and he will build a team that is almost impossible to beat in a 38-game season. Excellence and consistency are no longer enough, perfection is the only way to win a Premier League title. I won’t be surprised if the 115 charges against City are not proven, this gap will continue to remain.
Arteta has learnt his lessons from the 2022-2023 season. Rice has proven to be a game changer in our team. Kai Havertz has grown in stature and is an important member of the team. Trossard has still been only of the shrewdest piece of business done by us in recent times. And Raya has proven why he was preferred over the mostly excellent Ramsdale. Our playing 10 bar the one partnering Rice is one of the best, and I wouldn’t change anything. We have not lost against the traditional big 6 this season, and we have finally managed to defeat City in a big game. We lost by the narrowest of margins against Bayern in the CL where previously we were used to regular 5-0 thumping. The Arteta project is finally showing results that many of us doubted in his first full season.
However, our bench strength has still been a point of contention. The subtle drop of form of Saka and Martinelli, and the hot and cold performance of Partey, Jesus and Zinchenko, along with the season long injury to Timber, no winter transfer activities and hardly any game time to youth players meant we could go forward with 1 effective offensive and 2-3 defensive substitutions per game, which hurt us in games like Villa and Fulham where we were chasing for a win. Saying that, it is easy to drop points against any opposition in the PL, so using these losses to malign an otherwise excellent season will be counterproductive.
Going forward, we should try to get a core of 15-16 players onboard as soon as possible. This also means we will let go of some brilliant players who have perhaps not got the chance they deserve and would be better off playing for another team where they will get more opportunities. If we are to compete in multiple tournaments at once, Arteta needs to handle the rotations more effectively. Expecting Saliba and Gabriel to carry us defensively throughout an entire season again will be too much of wishful thinking and a recipe for a spectacular, avoidable disaster. Saka cannot continue to run throughout the season without rest. Rice might be undroppable, but we do need an alternative in terms of player or strategy. And the youth does need games, which means we probably need to try to keep at the Carabao and F.A cup for a longer period.
In conclusion, this has been an excellent season with or without a trophy. Finally watching Arsenal play is not a heart attack a minute game. Arteta has vindicated our trust in him. If the financial landscape around the football world is made more equitable, he will certainly shine in the very near future.
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