Arsenal were so close to the title and in the end yet so far. They equalized their win record in the premier league - accumulated the third most points during a season in club history - lead the Premier League a record-breaking 248 days - and still came up short. Nonetheless, this bottle job might only profit Mikel Arteta and his players.
It was a strange feeling looming in the air during Arsenal’s lap of honor, concluding the 22/23 season. On one hand, the fans celebrated the players and the staff for what they had shown the entire year, but the disappointment was hanging over the Emirates Stadium like a big grey cloud. In the final game of the season, Arsenal beat Wolves convincingly 5-0 at home. Fans cheered and sang the players' names, celebrating Arsenal’s beautiful style of football. But in the end, the result didn’t mean anything. The League had already been bottled.
At one point, with 9 matches to go, Arsenal held an eight-point lead over Manchester City, which had a game in hand. Arsenal were still in full swing, having won seven straight games. Next up, Liverpool, which previously lost to Manchester City and drew a downward spiraling Chelsea within four days. Even though the Gooners were known to struggle away at Anfield, everything pointed to a positive outcome. The game started well, with a 2-0 lead after 28 minutes. But the pressure got to them and they got away with a lucky 2-2 draw. A result, that in previous years would have been celebrated. This time it felt like a loss. What followed was a meltdown that would see Arteta’s team only grab 11 from a possible 24 points during the remaining 8 games and therefore they missed out on the title by 6 points. A familiar collapse when looking back to the season before.
In the 21/22 campaign, Arsenal lost out on a pivotal Champions League spot to Tottenham, after achieving a formidable position. The Gooners had rallied back from a terrible start to the season losing their first three games, scoring no goal and conceding nine. With four games left to play, the north London side sat in fourth, which guaranteed them a spot in the Champions League. They had a two-point cushion over their local rivals Tottenham sitting in fifth. But in these remaining four games Arsenal didn’t manage to win except for the last game of the season. They beat Everton 5-1 at home, a result that no longer mattered. Tottenham had taken over fourth place and Mikel Arteta’s men missed out on the Champions League for the sixth year in a row.
Is Arsenal mentally too weak to win a major trophy?
So the question that poses itself is, are the Arsenal players mentally too weak to win a major title, let alone not to bottle a tight race over league placement?
Well on first sight yes. For the second straight year Arsenal haven’t been able to secure their position. But there is more than meets the eye here, that will show the supporters and their rivals that Arsenal has the potential not to collapse in the years to come. Here are the reasons, why Arsenal crumbled at the end of the last two seasons and why this could very possibly change:
Young Squads don't compete for titles
In the past two years, Arsenal had the youngest - 24.4 years in 21/22 - and joint youngest - 24.6 years in 22/23 - starting XI in England’s top flight. Looking through the past 12 seasons the average age of the Premier League winning sides has been 26.9. Manchester City in the 11/12 season had the youngest starting XI to host the trophy with an average age of 25.8 years.
The youngest starting XI usually finishes the season in 9th place with an average age of 24.8. This just shows how important experience is for being able to come out victorious in a title challenge or even to compete for European places.
And even though Arsenal lacked the experience needed to either secure a Champions League spot last year or the title this season, it’s been a very impressive campaign. Arsenal is the youngest squad to have been runner’s up in the Premier League era.
The depth wasn’t there
After bottling Champions League and having to settle for Europa League Arsenal were set to strengthen the squad to secure a top 4 finish in this year's campaign. With this goal in mind, they went out and got Oleksandr Zinchenko and Gabriel Jesus from Man City, as well as Fabio Vieira from Porto, in the summer. The former two were eager to join Mikel Arteta’s project, having known him from his time as an assistant coach for Pep Guardiola’s staff at City.
Even though Arsenal made the most out of their recruitment and preseason, a lot of experts, pundits, and fans thought the Gooners would finish outside the top 4.
Then after a resounding start to the season Arsenal were front runners for the title, even after the world cup break. Because of the injuries to key players and squad players like Gabriel Jesus and Mohamed Elneny, Arsenal used the winter transfer window to get more squad depth. With the acquisition of Leandro Trossard, Jorginho, and Jakub Kiwior, Mikel Arteta and sporting director Edu Gaspar hoped to have strengthened the squad enough to push through. But as we know the North London side crumbled in the deciding moments.
Even though they recruited plenty of new players it is evident that Arsenal lacked the depth needed to secure their first title in 20 years. The only backup player inching close to the minutes of the starter is Eddie Nketiah. He reached 1’000 minutes during the season only due to the three months injury of Gabriel Jesus which he picked up during the World Cup.
Mikel Arteta relied heavily on his starters. Aaron Ramsdale, Ben White, Gabriel Magalhães and Bukayo Saka played in every game. Granit Xhaka and Martin Ødegaard missed only one game due to an injury and Gabriel Martinelli missed the last two games of the season.
It is open for discussion if the Spaniard should have rotated his lineup more often, but in most cases, his decisions were justified by the players. The best example might be center-back William Saliba. He had started in all 27 games until he sustained a lower back injury in the second leg of the round of 16 in the Europa League. Arsenal were playing Sporting CP trying to advance to the quarterfinals when William Saliba had to leave the pitch after 21 minutes into the game. The young Frenchman was ruled out for the rest of the season. He had built an amazing partnership with Gabriel Magalhães, securing 12 clean sheets, allowing 25 goals and winning 21, drawing 3, and losing 3. After his injury, the defense struggled to keep up the quality in the remaining 11 games - only securing 2 clean sheets, conceding 18, winning 5, drawing 3, and losing 3.
After finishing 5th in 21/22 Arsenal’s squad was built to secure Champions League football. In the end, they overachieved and were only a couple of games, wins, and probably players away from winning the title. Now their sight is set on building a championship-winning team.
A major difference between a top 4 race and a title contention
Reading the headlines the last couple of weeks must have been painful for all Arsenal players, staff members, and players.
‘Arsenal stumbles in EPL title race to add to list of late-season collapses’ - AP News;
‘Mikel Arteta: Arsenal 'must heal' after painful collapse in Premier League title race’ - BBC
‘Arsenal break own unwanted record after latest collapse hands title to Man City’ - Mirror
And if not enough most of the pundits that had predicted Arsenal’s downfall all season were able to double down after Manchester City’s three-peat. Especially Gary Neville.
The ex-Manchester United defender had some fierce battles against Arsenal in the Ferguson-Wenger era in the early 2000s. And this season as an expert for Sky Sports he battled the Arsenal supporters all year long holding on to his prediction that Arsenal would fall off. In the end, he was right.
"When you look at the context of how poor a run in it is for Arsenal, we know last season they had the top four in their grasp and went on a really bad run towards the end of the season. I looked this morning at this graphic, this shows Arsenal have the lowest collection of points of any team in Premier League history in the last ten games that they have finished in the top three. It just tells you what Mikel Arteta is going to have to shift. It's a mentality thing in the final part of the season, it's an experience thing that in the last two seasons in the real two moments, they've not been able to handle that in the last ten games of both seasons. If they'd have got those ten games in both seasons they'd have been in the Champions League last season and they potentially could have been champions this time." - Gary Neville on Monday Night Football
As much as it hurts to admit he’s got a point there. But it’s more than unfair to compare the two seasons. Ever since the last season under Arséne Wenger in 16/17 Arsenal have not been competing for the Top 4. To suggest that Arsenal has a mentality of crumbling in the final 10 games isn’t out of the order. But to compare the last two seasons with Arsenal’s overall history isn’t fair either. They have been in a rebuilding phase, purchasing and developing young talent. In both seasons Arsenal were expected to finish lower than they did. And having the youngest, resp. joint youngest starting XI in the League over the last two years shows how much the players have grown in their mentality over the summer.
Competing for the top 4 is one thing. But competing for the title against potentially one of the best sides world football has ever seen and is about to win the treble, are two separate pairs of shoes.
How can Arsenal get to the next level?
So what has Arsenal to do to overcome the collapses experienced over the last two seasons? A lot depends on how this summer goes. There are two main concerns Edu Gaspar and Mikel Arteta have to address:
Strengthening the squad
Learn from their failures
Arsenal have built a solid foundation with a young core that has the potential to win the title. But they have to show, that this season wasn't a fluke. Balancing the squad is the first step. Mikel Arteta won't be able to rely on the same players over the entirety of a season, again. They will want to contend for the title in the upcoming 23/24 season and with Champions League returning to the Emirates Stadium this will take an even bigger toll on the Bukayo Saka and co. In the years before Arsenal frequently used the Europa League to develop young players and give rotational squad members the opportunity to gain competitive experience. This won't be possible next season.
But besides increasing the quality of the squad the Arsenal manager will have to work with his players on their mental capabilities. Of course, they are young and you can not expect them to have the experience necessary to win the Premier League but it is important that they don't get used to failing. And this might be Arteta's biggest task yet.
Arsenal now has the chance to show everybody that the bottle job wasn't fatal, but rather a painful lesson in disguise that will make them bounce back even stronger. And who knows, two years ago they missed out on the Champions League. This season they missed out on the Premier League title. Now maybe next season it's the Champions League final? Only time will tell.
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