As much as Arsenal were the ‘plucky underdog’ in the Premier League title race this season, emerging from nowhere to lead the table for the majority of the campaign only to stumble at the final straight as Man City stormed past on their way to an historic treble, they arguably didn’t over-perform as much as you might think.
Sure, they haven’t won the Premier League since 2003/04, haven’t competed in the Champions League since 2016/17, and have won just two FA Cups since Jurgen Klopp took over as Liverpool manager in October 2015. But, at a time when the Reds went on to win everything under their charismatic German manager, was this not just a period in juxtaposition of the Gunners continually under-performing?
Before finishing second this season, they had three times finished fifth, once sixth, and twice eighth as their Premier League title drought reached a new low. But they haven’t spent like a side in such depths, with, according to Transfermarkt, only Chelsea (€716.06m) and Manchester United (€613m) recorded a higher net spend than the Gunners' total of €549.61m since the start of the 2018/19 season.
