I find myself feeling totally gutted and at the same time emboldened by the season. Arsenal’s defeat to Brighton represents everything that has befallen the club in the final part of the season.
It is often tricky to not sound like a sore loser when highlighting injuries or officiating decisions when talking about a title race that can be won by our rivals Manchester City with just one win from their last three games but it’s the truth… and I am a sore loser. For me, there are two (or three depending on how you view it) key reasons why Arsenal are, beyond a miracle, not going to win the title and both lay somewhat out of the Gunners’ control.
The first is the injuries to both William Saliba and Tomiyasu. Talk about misfortune, the two players that provide the greatest support to the defence’s right-hand side, outside of Ben White, both out in the very same game.
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Saliba had been, despite some less impressive displays post-World Cup, the most transformative figure of the Arsenal eleven. Arsenal conceded 26 goals in the 34 games prior to Saliba’s injury; and then 16 in the last eight.
Tomiyasu’s absence made it impossible to move Ben White back into the centre of defence. Some might say one of two things should have happened to prevent Rob Holding, who has been highlighted as a key reason for many dropped points despite his zero minutes in the 3-0 Brighton loss, from coming in.
Either Arsenal should have moved Holding on by now and signed a replacement, or, Jakub Kiwior should have been chosen by Mikel Arteta earlier in the season.
On the first note, the irony is Arsenal have spent over £100million on White, Saliba and Tomiyasu so that Holding’s inclusion was only ever going to be in a worst-case scenario. It’s gutting that very situation reared its head at the worst time possible but then a further invested £20million-plus investment was brought in and still the Gunners conceded three at home to Brighton to all but end their hopes.
Kiwior has been good, definitely better from a technical standpoint and improved the teams' performance against Chelsea and Newcastle. But until his first start in the league against Chelsea, all we’d seen was a disaster debut in a half-full Sporting CP stadium and an equally worrying cameo at Anfield overseeing the arguable start of Arsenal’s title ambitions crumbling away as far as results on the field were concerned.
The second reason Arsenal find the league still too far away is their opponents. Manchester City are a behemoth of a footballing institution that just bakes wins, sprinkled with victory and a side order of mechanical consistency.
The reality is should Man City go on to beat Chelsea, Brighton and Brentford in their final three games, which is very possible, even had Arsenal beaten West Ham, Southampton and Brighton then Pep Guardiola’s side still would have likely won the league with a superior goal difference. That is what Arsenal are up against.
And what’s so crazy about this season perhaps more than anything is that it has given me the belief that we, Arsenal, can do it. Remember all those years when we said the Gunners were two world-class players away from something special?
In reality, the benefit of hindsight tells us that were probably six, seven or even eight great players away. Man City have shown it’s not just eleven top-quality cogs in the machine to be systematically addicted to winning football matches, you need eighteen. It’s why players like Kieran Tierney and Granit Xhaka shouldn’t be sold in the summer.
Mikel Arteta faces criticism and some of the time it is warranted. Some of the time it is me dishing out that criticism which in relation to his in-game management, rotation and team selections I think are justified.
Of course, some of it goes way too far and those still questioning whether the man who has taken us from eleventh, when he was appointed, to a title challenge in three years… I have little in a way of convincing you otherwise beyond asking you to just have a long hard think about where we’ve come and how it’s been done. This club has a backbone and I can certainly get behind that.
The ruthlessness is infectious and I want to see it this summer. We all know that the squad still has some trimming to do and sporting director Edu Gaspar will be under the microscope not just with who comes in but who leaves and for how much.
For the past two seasons despite my pre-season expectations, I’ve wound up disappointed despite both times those initial aims being exceeded. What’s exciting is that the only way up from second is first.
This team has shown no sign that it plans on slowing down. It’s not perfect, and to beat Man City you have to be nearly faultless.
The Champions League also returns and seeing Arteta take on what has been a difficult record on the continent is an intrigue too with the group stage having the potential to see the likes of both Bayern Munich and Real Madrid pop up in our group.
We’re not going to Athens anymore… *checks the Greek Super League table *. Okay, maybe we might still be in Athens but the soundtrack is going to be different and the challenge across those six pre-Christmas matches several levels above.
The season might peter out now and that final game against Wolves is a chance for the fans to say thank you to the side’s efforts across this surprising season. But what that game isn’t is an end.
The Premier League needs to know that this is no one-off. Arsenal are back, we’re here to challenge and we have the manager, the players and the means to go even harder next season.
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