Arsenal Loses its Firepower

There is a saying that you cannot win a championship without defense. Well, you sure as hell cannot defend the seat as king of the hill without defense. Arsenal had a very interesting season, and Today I am going to go into what happened with them and how one should look at what this season was for them. They were the closest but far from close to Manchester City. This is a two-part feature that will discuss Arsenal and how they are where they are right now and same with Manchester City.

Tottenham Hotspur:

Where we will start three games following the resumption of play after the World Cup. Arsenal was playing Tottenham in the derby of North London and had a solid five-point lead over defending champion, Manchester City. Spurs had started off the season on fire but were struggling coming into the derby and had lost three of the previous four. The game was at Tottenham which meant regardless of Arsenal being in form and Spurs being out of form, it would be a difficult match for the Gunners.

Arsenal as we have seen City do so many times to their opponents, frustrated Spurs by overpowering them. The interesting thing about this match was the possession was even and Spurs had more shots on net. The first goal of Arsenal’s was an own goal thanks to a great hit from the young phenom Bukayo Saka. It showed the magic that Arsenal seemed to possess this season and they won the game by two goals and opened an eight-point lead on the defending champions. Heading into another big game against Manchester United, things could not be better. Or so we thought.

Manchester United:

The following week they hosted Manchester United in the hopes of sustaining their lead and extending their dominance in the league. Manchester United at the time was fourth in the league but looking for a way to sneak into the title race. Arsenal won this game very late, and their magical season continued. At this point in time, they were twenty games into the campaign and were up five points on Manchester City with a game in hand. Win the following weekend against bottom of the table Everton and they would have an eight-point lead. Hence the ball would be put in the hands of Manchester City who were playing Spurs. Going into the game against Everton the question started to be not if they would win the Premier League, but by how much? Even though it was early, many just didn’t see Arsenal slowing down including myself.

Away from the matches now, many pundits of football were saying that Arsenal had won the league at this point with Manchester City needing to make up eight points and a match coming between the two sides in Arsenal. Arsenal was in the highest form whereas Manchester City had dropped points in two of its last five including a controversial loss to in city Manchester United. Very few people were saying City would win the league, hell people were asking could they win the league. The coming weeks could be decisive depending on how these teams’ fair. They would play Manchester City in the round in the FA Cup and lose, which made their upcoming match against City more intriguing.

Everton:

When Arsenal went to see Everton following their FA Cup loss, many looked at this game as a chance to get back in form. Everton had just brought in a new manager so they knew it would be a difficult three points to gain, but they are also playing the second-worst team in the league. If you didn’t know what the standings were before the game, you would have thought that Everton was a top five team the way they were playing. Everton had less than 30% possession but had more shots on goal than Arsenal and were a lot more threatening in the attacking third. This was the game where I personally said that Arsenal started to doubt that they would win the league because there was just too much time left in the year that City would catch them. I know it was a big 360 compared to what I was thinking the week before but if a team can’t face the pressure against the worst team in the league, how were they going to face the pressure the rest of the year?

The biggest reason I thought there was too much time left was because Arsenal had to play Manchester City twice and for the first time they looked like they could shake when Manchester City, the two-time defending champs have proven how clutch they are going down the stretch. At this point in the season, there were three months left and Arsenal had just drawn against Brentford, meaning Manchester City and Arsenal were separated by three points atop the league with two matches to play against each other. Arsenal still had a game in hand but now there was very little room for error moving forward.

Manchester City:

At the end of the first half the game was tied. Manchester City had their chances but couldn’t break the tie at the end of the half. The game was still a stale mate until late in the second half when midfielder Jack Grealish of Manchester City delivered a beautiful strike to put Manchester City in front of Arsenal in London. Less than two minutes later, Manchester City’s striker Erling Haaland (strong candidate for World MVP) sealed the deal with a world class finish. This gave Manchester City the lead on goal differential and really put the pressure on Arsenal to not slip up. If there wasn’t already a lot of conversations from Premier League fans about a title race, now there was surely many discussions around who was going to win it. And as the coming weeks went on to Manchester United was added to that conversation although they did not stay for long. Arsenal was finally looking vulnerable, and Manchester City was starting to look invincible again.

Fullham:

They have had a stellar season up until that point, even looking like they could compete for a spot in a Europe Competition. They were five points back of fifth place in the Premier League and a win against Arsenal at home could really make their Europe dreams a reality. Unfortunately, Arsenal had other things on their mind and pounded Fullham by a score of three to nothing. Arsenal later that week got knocked out of the Europa League and led many to believe with just the Premier League to focus on compared to Manchester City’s two other competitions, they will be able to get the job done. The title race became a lot more interesting now because City has proven themselves to get to the finish line, but Arsenal is starting to look like they can go the distance too. They had bounced back from their disappointing losses to City and Fullham and regained their earlier form.

In the following weeks, they won both their games, giving themselves an eight-point lead although Manchester City had a game in hand. Their schedule coming up before the Manchester City game was, a struggling Liverpool on the road, a poor West Ham United side on the road and an awful Southampton squad at home. If you do the math, this means they should have nine points following these games although Anfield (at Liverpool) is a daunting task, so we will say they should have gained seven points by the time they play Manchester City. Just remember this because it will be the key to a question that has been asked about Arsenal’s season.

Liverpool:

Arsenal blew this game. I know what I said about Anfield, but they blew this game. They were in total control for most of the first half because the two goals Arsenal scored took the lively crowd of Anfield out of the game. That is until left midfielder Granit lost his composure by stepping on Liverpool’s Trent Alexander-Arnold’s foot. With this, Alexander-Arnold got a dead crowd to come alive with the yellow card Xhaka earned for his lack of discipline. Anfield is a bear and probably the biggest bear in terms of crowds and Xhaka decided to poke it. Just mere moments later, Mohamed Salah, Liverpool’s main man brought Liverpool back into the game by making it a one goal game right before the half.

This is where defense comes in. In the second half, Aaron Ramsdale, Arsenal’s goalie put on a masterclass, but he alone was not going to be able to be Arsenal’s defense for the rest of the season. Arsenal gave up a penalty to Liverpool not even ten minutes into the second half, on which Liverpool could not convert. Liverpool ended up scoring on an amazing cross from Alexander-Arnold on which Firminho put the ball into the back of the net. I really do not know how Liverpool did not win that game and from that game on I said Arsenal did not have the composure to win the league because of their lack of discipline when leading. It was a bold take and a little bit unfair at the time because Anfield is a different beast, but in the coming weeks there were more questions asked than answers found.

After this game, I was left asking myself the same question I had after the Everton loss, which was could they go the distance? It was a question that was soon to be answered but now I as many others couldn’t figure out what Arsenal was going to do and what they were made of.

West Ham

At this point the lead for Arsenal was just six points and Manchester City had two games in hand. This meant that Arsenal needed to keep pace so that when they traveled to Manchester they could still be in firm control of their destiny. Unfortunately, West Ham had much different plans than Arsenal and made an interesting season of the Premier League even more interesting. West Ham was still three points within relegation so they could really use some space between them, and 18th place as well as the momentum it would build to get even just a point from a match against the Premier League’s best side.

Arsenal once again came out firing on all cylinders. They were up one goal within six minutes of the game thanks to an in-form Gabriel Jesus, who strikes early. Within the first ten minutes they were up two goals thanks to a lovely hit from Martin Odegaard, who is a wonderful striker. This game looked like it was going to be a landslide victory for Arsenal as they have dominated teams in London all year. Once again though, Arsenal made a huge mistake in the defending third that led to West Ham having a penalty and bringing the fans back into the game. Gabriel made a very poor challenge on the gifted Lucas Pacqueta who got a penalty and from that Said Benrahma cut the lead in half. West Ham continued to look threatening and from that point on it was known that there was going to be a battle in the second half.

Five minutes in to the second half there was a hand ball on Michail Antonio which put Bukayo Saka at the spot to make the lead three to one. He missed the goal entirely, going wide to the left despite being an almost sure thing from the spot. Not two minutes later Jarrod Bowen knocks one home when left alone from a delicious cross by Thilo Kehrer for West Ham to tie the game up. The rest of the game stayed tied but West Ham had more chances than one would have expected. West Ham had more shots total but less on target. They were precise with their opportunities and made the most of poor defending from Arsenal once again. The front runners were looking fatigued, and it was really starting to show.

Southampton:

The lead for Arsenal was now five points but City had two games in hand and a game to play against Arsenal at home. Surely though this would be the game where they could get back on track and see if they can show why they have been in front of the league for so much of the season. Southampton who needed a point to stay alive in the relegation fight, were going to give everything they had but the question was how much of a fight would that be, considering Arsenal was in a title race and was at home.

Within the first thirty seconds, goalie Aaron Ramsdale of Arsenal gave the ball away to Carlos Alcaraz of Southampton who buried the first shot of the game to put Southampton up a goal. An awful start to the game but it got so much worse when Arsenal once again had a turnover and got caught playing too far forward and couldn’t defend a counterattack in which they outnumbered Southampton four to three. Theo Walcott finished the counter and put Southampton up two goals not even fifteen minutes into the game. Five minutes following the second goal, Saka had a lovely assist to Gabriel Martenelli to cut Southampton’s lead to one and show their true form again. Throughout the remainder of the first half, they looked quite threatening, and it is a wonder how they didn’t score a second in the first half.

Arsenal opened the second half looking quite threatening again but failing to capitalize on their early opportunities in the second half. They came oh so close though, but they were not able to score before Southampton’s Duje Caleta-Car finished on a corner where the defense was wide open. Yet again, the defense of Arsenal collapses and puts the offense in a position where they must score not one or two goals but three just to keep pace with Manchester City. They would end up getting their goals, the first was a smasher from Martin Odegaard and the second not ninety seconds later was Bukayo Saka finishing on a rebound and tied the game up. They had eight minutes to get another in additional time but just could not pull in front and left the door open for Manchester City to claim control they saw them the following Wednesday. Shots total were twenty-five to eight in favor of Arsenal but shots on target were a dead even six to six which is very poor from Arsenal.

This was a very similar result to the one they had at Everton back in January. All the weaknesses they had shown against Liverpool, West Ham and Everton were exploited by Southampton who are soon to be relegated. It all goes back to defending because if you are a title frontrunner and you score three goals in a game that should be good enough to win the game. This showed that the youth was getting to Arsenal and the fatigue they were showing answered the question of can they get to the finish line. How close could they make it was the new question.

Arsenal had dropped six points in their previous three games. If they had one just one of those games the league would still be in their hands. All three of those games were winnable for them and all three of them were games against far fewer superior teams that capitalized on poor defending from Arsenal. Arsenal was two goals behind Manchester City on goal differential which is the tiebreaker behind points before their previous three games and were seven goals behind Manchester City afterwards despite them only playing two games. At the Etihad would determine if Arsenal could save their title hopes but few thought they could compete considering their recent form.

Manchester City (on the road):

This game was close for all of six minutes. Kevin De Bruyne put away a strike from right outside the penalty box. John Stones, defender for Manchester City made it two nothing right before the half to pretty much seal the deal. Manchester City added two goals later in the game, one from Erling Haaland and a second from Kevin De Bruyne. Arsenal had two shots on net with just one goal total despite being almost even with City in possession. The lead following this game in the standings was two points, Arsenal ahead but Manchester City still had two games in hand. What you are about to see is this wasn’t officially the overtaking of Arsenal.

Brighton:

At this point in the season, which was two weeks ago; Arsenal trailed Manchester City by a point and had played one more game than them. As you will see that game in hand didn’t make all that much of a difference, but this game made all the difference. Brighton went to London to play Arsenal and it really looked like only one team showed up.

Now Brighton has a great midfield, but they have struggled with discipline throughout the entire season. In this game they committed seventeen fouls and got caught offside four times. They gave up five corners and many chances, but Arsenal failed to convert on any of them. At home, it is a mystery how a team comes in and beats a road opponent on possession by eighteen percentage points. It is even more mind boggling that a team could come out with a title on the line and be so lack-a-daisical in defense. Arsenal gave up a goal by not having anybody marking Julio Enciso who buried a header to give Brighton the lead. Arsenal got caught being lazy again in defense for the second goal, when Deniz Undav put away a costly turnover from Arsenal Striker Leandro Trossard. For the third goal, Brighton just ran past Arsenal to put the game away with less than two minutes to play. Brighton dominated this game on stats and in the scoreline in London.

I would go in depth about their loss to Nottingham Forest, but it was already clear that the race was over since all Manchester City needed to do was win and the title they had already won four out of the previous five years was theirs. Nottingham was playing to secure a spot in the Premier League next season and played with more urgency and clinicism despite Arsenal having led the Premier League for two-hundred-forty-seven days. They looked a lot like they did against Southampton in both last two games and I think the lesson learned this season is that a great offense must be supported by a great defense.

Was this season a success for Arsenal?

Yes. Only because they made the Champions League for the first time since 2016. They pushed a team that had won back-to-back Premier Leagues to a late title race. It is far from sunshine and rainbows for Arsenal though given how the season ended. For the record, they were my preseason pick to win the league, so I expected big things from them which they did achieve.

Did Arsenal blow it or did City just overpower them?

Both. Arsenal shouldn’t have let up as big a lead as they did, and this should still be a race going down to the wire given the teams they lost against. City is currently in the running to win the FA Cup and the Champions League so that should tell you where they are. They are competing with the best team in the world but that doesn't mean they couldn't have won the league, especially with the advantage that they had.

What was the main reason Arsenal blew it?

Defense. Also, youth but time and time again as you see, their defense from Liverpool to the game against Brighton cost them much-needed points. Their defense early in the season helped seal many crucial victories but it just was not proven and experienced enough to get them to the finish line. They will be back though and sometime soon, I will say in the next five years, they will win the Premier League.

Where does Arsenal go from here?

They have many of the right pieces, I just think they need more time. Two of the biggest pieces of their team, Alex Zinchenko and Gabriel Jesus just arrived this season, so with time they will be able to build the chemistry that so many of the other top teams in the league including Newcastle have. Prepare for the Champions League which I believe they will find success in and get stronger in defense in the transfer market so they will be able to truly make a run at the title.

People keep asking if Arsenal needs another forward, but the answer is no. Do not get me wrong, by no imagination am I saying their defense is poor. I am just saying it is not a clutch and has crumbled under pressure. This team needs somebody like Casemiro a great CDM who can hold the fort down as he did when Real Madrid won the Champions League last year, as well as La Liga. Same can be said for a player like Rodri, who has helped City immensely in their race for the treble (three trophies in one season). They need to rebuild the defense while keeping the attack intact which is no easy feat but one they will have to make if they want to close the gap between them and Manchester City.

The biggest question from the season, is in the next article I will release which is, is the Premier League a farmer’s league? Farmer’s league means that one team always wins the title and nobody else has a shot.