Posted by Once again Arsenal will be looking back on a Premier League season and wondering what might have been.
The Gunners squandered a healthy lead at the top of the table to see Manchester City leapfrog them to the title and now the North London outfit is preparing to go again next season.
Gunners Forming Troubling Pattern
At one stage holding an eight-point lead at the top of the standings, Arsenal fell away in the final few weeks of the season to see City crowned champions again. The Gunners, who are +750 in the outright market when betting on football to win the Premier League title next season, struggled under the pressure as they did the previous season. Football tips for today will have City at -163 to be crowned champions again next term and Arsenal will have to break a trend of seemingly succumbing to the pressure when it counts to beat Pep Guardiola’s side to the title.
In the 2021/22 season, Arsenal had their destiny in their own hands as they looked to secure fourth spot in the table and secure a return to the Champions League. However, dropping crucial points in the final weeks, local rivals Tottenham Hotspur leapfrogged their neighbors into that last Champions League place.
Arsenal has come on leaps and bounds since then but they still showed that tendency to fall away in the crucial final weeks of the season just past. Manager Mikel Arteta, who has been linked with the job at Paris Saint-Germain, has now been tasked with trying to break that cycle as the Gunners prepare to go again for the 2023/24 campaign.
Bridging The Gap On City
Arsenal, like the rest of the Premier League, will be working on a plan on how to stop Man City’s dominance in the English top flight. Winning the last three league title, while also winning the Champions League for the first time last season, Guardiola’s side are the team to beat in Europe right now. Arsenal will be working on their recruitment in the summer and it looks like the club will be strengthening in the center of midfield and in attacking positions.
Failing to score in defeats to Brighton & Hove Albion and Nottingham Forest at the end of last season, showed Arsenal could use more strength in depth in attacking areas.
What should stand Arsenal in good stead is how they responded well last time to the disappointment of missing out on the top four. The Gunners made a blistering start to the 2022/23 campaign and will be eyeing a similar start next time around. With the fans really buying into the project Arteta is working on, there does seem to be a togetherness at the Emirates Stadium that had been missing in previous years.
With a developing squad, reinforcements in the transfer market, and the progress under Arteta, Arsenal should be one of the contenders to try and knock Manchester City off their perch at the top of the English game.
