Listen to some football pundits and the Premier League title race is over. Paddy Power have even paid out already on bets for Liverpool to win the league.
The Reds opened up an 11-point lead at the top of the table at the weekend, albeit having played a game more than second-place Arsenal. Arne Slot’s team won 2-0 at Manchester City, a day after the Gunners were surprisingly beaten 1-0 at home by West Ham.
It looks a long way back for Arsenal now, who have been given opportunities by Liverpool in the last few weeks. Opportunities they have not taken.
Prior to the win over City, Liverpool had dropped points in four of their previous eight Premier League matches. Arsenal could not capitalise and in fact, the gap between the two teams has only grown in that time.
Arsenal are struggling for numbers in attacking areas, with Kai Havertz and Gabriel Jesus both ruled out for the rest of the season. Bukayo Saka remains out injured, as does Gabriel Martinelli, meaning Mikel Arteta has had to rely on young Ethan Nwaneri, the hit and miss Raheem Sterling and Leandro Trossard and makeshift striker Mikel Merino.
Despite calling for reinforcements in the January transfer window, Arsenal did not sign a single player. So who is to blame for the Gunners falling off the horse and missing out on the Premier League title for a third year in a row, if as expected Liverpool canter to the crown? We asked our football.london writers to have their say.
Tom Canton
If you had said to me at the start of the season that Arsenal would be 11 points off the lead in February, I would have been surprised – especially with how strongly they finished the previous campaign – and be asking questions of what went wrong.
Equally, if you had told me that Arsenal would be second having lost Bukayo Saka, Kai Havertz, Martin Odegaard, Gabriel Martinelli, Takehiro Tomiyasu, Gabriel Jesus, Ben White and shown me the refereeing hilarities that have peppered the campaign ahead of time… I would not quite know how the Gunners were still nine points above Manchester City and second in the table.
For what is in Arsenal’s own control, the blame is two-fold: the transfer window and the lack of clinical finishing throughout the season. Arsenal have failed to take some massive chances this season which could have transformed their outcomes across competitions – from the Carabao Cup misses at the Emirates Stadium to the mind-boggling display in the FA Cup against Manchester United, there have been some almighty howlers.
However, in the January window, knowing the injury situation of Saka and Jesus in particular, the club failed to act. Despite Mikel Arteta, Declan Rice and Martin Odegaard all coming out publicly to highlight the shortness in the side, and the manager in particular being very vocal of wanting to try to sign a striker none were signed – not even on loan – and this is where for me the biggest portion of blame lies. It must go to the leader of recruitment during that window, which in the stead of the resigned Edu Gaspar, is Jason Ayto and the board above him.
Tom Coley
Arsenal’s real problems go back to the summer and maybe a little bit further. I keep coming back to Manchester City’s relentless and unprecedented standards across the past few years.
I firmly believe that the psychological toil that has had on Arsenal has contributed to the overwhelming sense of pressure, expectation, and fatigue which has been felt throughout this season. The thought was that Arsenal would have to be near perfect from the very start to win the title and that burden has impacted Arteta and the squad in their search for total control.
The knock-on has been less rotation, a smaller squad, and Arteta going into his shell to try and eek out every last ounce from his group. The reality is that City have been too strong in the past and it was too much for Liverpool to maintain as well, they also needed a year off.
Then comes the more tangible things. The summer transfer business was weird. More defenders, no new striker, no additional cover for Saka – because Raheem Sterling doesn’t count and never really looked like he would – and only Mikel Merino added in midfield.
Arsenal didn’t improve where they needed to and it has cost them in-depth and quality. That is the sporting problem but maybe it is City that pushed them into that conservative hole in the first place.
Joe Doyle
For me, the blame falls on the recruitment side of things: that includes the hierarchy of the club, but also Mikel Arteta.
The Gunners have been hampered by their injury problems this season, there’s no question about that. Arteta was adamant on Saturday that he would ‘refuse completely’ any excuse over injuries, and the truth is it was a predictable issue that one or both of Gabriel Jesus and Kai Havertz would be out at some stage of the season – though the entire starting attack being out at the same time is an anomaly.
However, going into the year with that duo as the only real options for the central role is not good enough – especially when you consider that Havertz was signed as a midfielder.
There has been a noticeable shift since last season in terms of the attacking output. It seems the team are more geared towards domination of the ball than anything else, and when teams know they can sit back and soak up pressure for long periods of the game, it all starts to become a bit predictable – hence why set-pieces have been so important this season.
Man City’s drop off this season has been huge – but in January they took active steps to remedy it with the likes of Omar Marmoush arriving, setting themselves up for next season. It seems like there’s a lack of a killer instinct at the recruitment level for the Gunners, when you consider that they were either unable or unwilling to sign a striker in January.
Would it have brought them the Premier League title this year if they had? Possibly not, given Liverpool’s advantage. But the club were crying out for a top striker last summer, and one did not arrive. That there was no remedy in January even with the injury issue is a damning indictment.
Lee Wilmot
Arsenal needed a forward in the summer transfer window and did not sign one. If you discount Raheem Sterling on deadline day, which felt like a panic buy and has proven to be the case.
Arsenal needed a forward in the January transfer window and did not sign one. There’s a theme here.
The Gunners have finished second in each of the last two Premier League seasons and will do so again, barring a massive Liverpool collapse, this season. It’s been an excellent few campaigns under Mikel Arteta, but they cannot get over the line.
Is that an Arteta problem? Perhaps. He’s building something at Arsenal, but is he building something he can only take so far with the resources at his disposal? He needs help, he called for help, and didn’t get it.
Arsenal will maintain they worked hard to get a deal done in January but could not make it happen. But if the finances are right, clubs would sell.
When Liverpool needed big signings to go for the title they did so in signing Alisson Becker and Virgil van Dijk for a combined almost £150million. Were they worth such huge sums? Absolutely if you look at what they’ve brought to the club, but at the time you could make an argument against.
Players are worth what they bring to you and a striker could have brought Arsenal the title. And what’s that worth to supporters right now?
