Arsenal’s demise in the Premier League championship battle shown that they lacked the attitude and depth to dethrone Manchester City as champions of the league. However, if there is any consolation that Mikel Arteta can take from the season, it is that they now have a team that has the potential to be title challengers.
Arsenal’s defeat at Nottingham Forest, 1-0, on Saturday brought an early conclusion to the two-horse race. As a result, Pep Guardiola’s City were named champions with three games to spare, completing the first half of a possible triple.
Arsenal’s championship quest fell apart in the face of a relentless, well-oiled winning machine that had been constructed and polished over a number of years by Guardiola. Having been atop the league for almost 250 days, Arsenal was unable to compete against the formidable opponent.
Although Arteta and his players denied that there was any possibility of “bottling” the championship race, there is a shattering feeling of what might have been for their fans.
Two months ago, Arsenal had a lead of eight points in the league standings and seemed to be well on their way to winning their first league title since Arsene Wenger’s ‘Invincibles’ squad of 2003–2004.
But the eight-point deficit was an illusion since City always had games in hand while Guardiola played mind games, effusively praising Arsenal and Arteta, who had been his assistant at City. Arteta had been Guardiola’s assistant while he was at City.
The challenge we have is that Arsenal has been amazing thus far. They are really successful,” Guardiola had stated of the team in April. “We are still there, but there is somebody else who is superior to you.” You have to come to terms with it, acknowledge it, and carry on.”
In the previous month, as Arsenal struggled with three consecutive draws, they distracted themselves by looking in the rearview mirror and took their eyes off the road.
What began with Roberto Firmino scoring a late equalizer in Arsenal’s 2-2 draw with Liverpool at Anfield continued on Saturday with Taiwo Awoniyi scoring the game-winning goal as Arsenal dropped 15 points in eight games.
Even though Arsenal still had three games to play for the title, Guardiola continued to subtly increase the pressure on them. He has been through his fair share of tough championship battles.
“There is no question that they will prevail in all three of their contests. “If I’m being completely honest, I would prefer it if they lost points, but I think they’ll end up with nine points,” he added with a knowing smirk on his face.
Arsenal was defeated in each of those games without scoring a goal, first falling to Brighton & Hove Albion 3-0 at home and then falling to Forest away.
City, on the other hand, was able to win all of their games by relying on their previous expertise in title run-ins. Along the process, City even managed to defeat European powerhouses like Bayern Munich and Real Madrid in the Champions League.
As Guardiola’s team won their fifth league title in the last six years, the master had outperformed the trainee.
No outfield player for City has clocked more than 3,000 minutes in an entire league season, but Arsenal has had three players do so, headed by Gabriel, Bukayo Saka, and Martin Odegaard. This has been a big talking point about the enviable depth of City’s team.
Although Arteta possessed a starting line-up that could compete with the finest in the industry, long-term injuries to important players, like as defensive lynchpin William Saliba, revealed that the team did not have enough quality backup players who could step in and do the job.
After pushing themselves to the limit up until April, Arsenal just ran out of steam and had no room for player rotation, which led to their loss.
According to what Arteta said, the team’s objective was to “squeeze everything that we had out of that group” as well as “find alternatives and ways to reach certain levels.”
“We did not meet the goal, and it is both my duty and my obligation to make up the difference. I have to investigate and reflect on that.