Looking ahead: Arsenal’s title hopes may have crumbled but manager Arteta will have plenty of positives to draw from.
| Photo Credit: AP
Arsenal remained on top of the Premier League table for 248 days. For eight months, it seemed that it was on its way to winning the league after nearly 20 years. Instead, that period became the most for a team which failed to win the title in English top-flight history.
Arsenal crumbled, lost steam in the crucial phase of the tournament and ultimately lost the title race to Manchester City.
Pep Guardiola’s men have been a thorn in Arsenal’s flesh, beating it in every competition since July 2020.
This season’s decline, rather a lack of success, started after the Leeds United game which Arsenal won 4-1 on April 1.
In the next three games, Arsenal dropped six points after sharing the honours with Liverpool, West Ham and Southampton.
Two of those games saw the Gunners draw from winning positions after equalisers from Roberto Firmino and Jarrod Bowen respectively.
Out of breath
Mikel Arteta’s side huffed and puffed, and somehow managed to draw against relegation-threatened Southampton. By the time it came face-to-face with City, it was out of breath.
The result: a 1-4 mauling by Manchester City.
Arsenal — still leading by two points at that stage — seemed to have moved on with wins over Chelsea and Newcastle United.
But Roberto De Zerbi’s Brighton and Hove Albion, freshly wounded after a 1-5 rout against Everton, hit back with a 3-0 win over the Gunners.
That was the ‘dementor’s kiss’ for the London-based side and its fortunes nosedived with consecutive losses.
In 32 Premier League games, Arsenal had three defeats. It had as many in its next six.
The last one, against Nottingham Forest, handed the title to City and saved Forest from relegation.
For Arsenal, it meant that the title dream was officially over.
Injury woes mid-season
To say that Arsenal stumbled just because of morale would be an oversimplification as Arteta’s boys were near-perfect for most part of the season.
The team lost its No. 9 Gabriel Jesus to a knee injury mid-season and Leandro Trossard — the former Brighton wide winger — stepped up to fill the void.
The London-based club found a leader in Martin Odegaard, who excelled in absorbing pressure and starting attacks from the No. 10 position.
Oleksandr Zinchenko combined with Gabriel Martinelli to keep it going along the left channel while Bukayo Saka and Ben White were the counterparts on the other side.
Hardly had Jesus returned after recuperating from injury that Zinchenko and Martinelli were sidelined with calf and ankle injuries respectively.
The injury list already had defenders Takehiro Tomiyasu and William Saliba while midfielder Mohamed Elneny was out the entire season.
Arteta — with a handful of games left — saw injury and confidence dent the title dream and at the City Ground in Nottinghamshire, he could just sigh and call it a “really sad day”.
The lost points
Up to the Leeds game, the Gunners earned all 21 points from their previous seven games. Off the next seven, they got to just six. Those lost points made all the difference.
This season’s dream may be over, but there are huge positives that Arsenal can build on.
It has qualified for the Champions League after six years — and for the first time under Arteta — and that will benefit it financially in the summer transfer window.
Going eye to eye
It also managed to look in the eye of a juggernaut like City — which has now won the title for the last three years — and kept it at bay for the most part.
Arsenal, after decades of heartbreaks, learnt to believe this season. Despite the agony of coming so close and failing this time, there will be belief that it can rise up, go again and realise the Premier League dream next season.
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