Arsenal didn’t win the Premier League title this season because of a number of factors. Mikel Arteta made some mistakes, Manchester City are a winning behemoth of unparalleled proportions and there has been some misfortune too.
However, one area of misfortune beyond refereeing calls, deflections and tight offside calls is a genuine reason, not an excuse, for the club’s collapse at the end of the campaign. Arsenal managed to ride the storm of Gabriel Jesus’ absence thanks to more than just the contribution of his replacement, Eddie Nketiah.
Arsenal have been in an exclusive club to have four players get into double digits for goals in the league. Jesus joined Martin Odegaard, Bukayo Saka and Gabriel Martinelli when he returned to score after his knee surgery.
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However, when both William Saliba and Takehiro Tomiyasu joined the injury list and were followed by the likes of Oleksandr Zinchenko, bigger problems arose. Arsenal have spent just less than £400million on players since Mikel Arteta took over and yet the depth still wasn’t there to cover for these players’ absences.
Is that and should that come down hard on the club? Actually, not particularly.
When you look at what has happened to the team since Arteta took over it becomes very clear. Just two players of Mikel Arteta’s first Arsenal XI remain in his current best team he could field when everyone is fully fit.
Arteta has integrated an entirely new back five, two new midfielders to join Granit Xhaka, who will also be replaced this summer, and a new front three which includes the promotion of Saka from the left-back role Arteta inherited him in. Not to mention further depth with signings like Leandro Trossard, Jorginho, Takehiro Tomiyasu and Jakub Kiwior.
Last season Arsenal lost critical players in the squad and their hopes of Champions League qualification fell away to Tottenham. This season, Man City’s 12-game winning run secured them the league as Arsenal won just two games in eight Premier League matches.
Absent for all of those games were Saliba and Tomiyasu, with Zinchenko missing for nearly half of them. To lose those players and point to it as a genuine reason for the Gunners' form dropping so significantly is completely fair and certainly no excuse.
Imagine having Saliba in the side, or at the very least Tomiyasu at right-back to shift White back into the middle. Zinchenko’s absence has unveiled the importance of the Ukrainian and whilst many of us, me included, might point to the defensive vulnerabilities of his inclusion, the benefits of his selection have proven to far outweigh the drawbacks.
The amount of money therefore spent showed to be still not enough to both overhaul and transform the starting XI in a side that could compete with Man City, but to keep it up when key players were lost. More is needed.
Scoring goals was never a problem for Arsenal, but conceding them has been. Without their key defenders, it allowed more opportunities for the opposition both in chance creation and possession turnover.
City have scored three times the number of goals, 93, compared to how many they have conceded, 31. Whereas Arsenal haven’t been able to score double what they’ve conceded, 83 to 43.
It’s helped that City’s injury record this season has been much more fortunate than the Gunners but their established depth from years and years of smart and quality recruitment has got them there. Although question marks around the methodology remain whilst the investigation behind the Premier League charges goes on.
It’s easy to say that a better coach might have taken Arsenal to the title instead of falling back on injuries being the reason for the Gunners’ fall. But the reality is that perhaps the only coach to have done a better job for Arsenal than Arteta has is Pep Guardiola himself.
Arteta is up against the best manager in the world, the best team in the world, supported by a decade’s worth of investment. What the club have done under the Spaniard this season has surprised many and undermined the views of plenty in the watchful eye of supporters on different media and channels.
It’s not a surprise therefore to see Arsenal suddenly getting a kicking from all corners. Let them have their time because Arsenal’s hasn’t even arrived and look where this club is now, renewing their greatest youngster since the eighties instead of seeing their best players leave.
But it means nothing unless the club takes this foundation it has built and continues to reinforce it with quality additions and smart decision-making behind the scenes. Arteta’s ruthlessness, principles and vision give me the confidence that this will be the case.
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