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Arsenal’s Late Season Drama Could Have Downside
Arsenal finished the EPL season on a high Sunday, securing 2nd place just above archrival Tottenham. Implications of this result might not be great, though.
Take Arsenal’s dramatic, cheerful end to the season with a grain of salt.
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Yes, the North Londoners in red ended their 2015/16 campaign in the best possible manner – given the circumstances of the final day – yet there is a problem with all of this that is begging someone to ask the question: Will Arsenal’s pleasing end to the season urge the club to make any ambitious changes this summer?
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Meanwhile, let’s retrace our steps a bit. On Sunday, Arsenal defeated Aston Villa 4-0. To heighten the mood for Gunners and Gooners alike, Tottenham lost by a margin of 1-5 against already relegated, ultimately 10-men Newcastle. And the effect this phenomenon had was melodramatic for all soccer fans of North London.
Arsenal’s win and Tottenham’s loss meant that Arsenal leapfrogged their archrivals in the EPL table at the last possible moment, ensuring the Gunners a second place finish just one point ahead of the other club in North London. Thus, it’s been over 21 years since Tottenham last finished above Arsenal in the EPL, according to the The Telegraph‘s handy clock.
Deep under the elation that many Arsenal fans have been feeling over the past couple days lies something truly alarming, however. In fact, after watching Sunday’s games, the realization that Arsenal’s end to the season could actually be more harmful than beneficial struck me with a vengeance.
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After all, a positive end to a very underwhelming season could only help mask what truly needs to be questioned in Islington. Over the years, Arsenal has built itself a reputation of being unnecessarily stubborn. First, the club is way too stingy, to the extent so that many pundits across the globe seriously question the Gunners’ ambition to improve relative to other top sides in England and across Europe.
Arsenal was in fact the only club in all of Europe that didn’t buy a single outfield player for its first team last summer (dailymail.co.uk). And clearly a ‘big club’ like Arsenal, which hadn’t genuinely challenged for the EPL title for 10 straight years, must had had some title-winning aspirations a year ago.
However, though Arsenal has been arguably too frugal, don’t put too much of the spending blame on Wenger. Before going too in-depth into the mysterious inner-workings of the transfer, the Arsenal board must be criticized for not allocating and or producing the necessary cash for the market of available players out there.
Moving on, the job security of Arsene Wenger must at least be analyzed critically. Wenger might’ve developed a consistent winning formula during his first 10 years at the club, but ever since Arsenal last won the league ‘le Prof’ has hardly led his sides to even title-contending heights.
It is this debatably inexplicable stagnation, this failure to improve relative to other seemingly top clubs, that should be criticized. And though the Arsenal 11 has changed over the years, the main Arsenal aspect that has remained constant is Arsene Wenger. He must take some of the blame for Arsenal’s consistent repose.
Thus, it can be concluded that Arsenal’s seemingly positive end to the 2015/16 season might suppress the impetus for needed change in North London. Yes, Arsenal finished above Tottenham for the 21st season in a row. But one must remember that the Gunners also had an overall disappointing season.
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Yet again, it was one that saw them merely fight for another Champions League spot after effectively handing the title – by a wide margin of 10 points nonetheless – to Leicester City, a club whose squad costed £54.4 million, compared to Arsenal’s £251.9 million side (espnfc.us).