Arsenal miss out on Europe and have no one else to blame

Arsenal did indeed win their last five Premier League matches, as Mikel Arteta said after this 2020/2021 Premier League season had come to an end. Yet it was not these matches that lost them their chance to get into a European position, but the other matches in the weeks and months before the positive conclusion.

Failing to show up to Villarreal at home in the semi-finals of the Europa League after losing 2-1 in the reverse affair was another way that the club stifled themselves long before the five game win streak was attained to finish off the year. To me, anyway, this capitulation and the domestic ones prior to it might very well be what we can credit most for the uptick in form that came at the end of the season.

The fluke 1-0 loss to a floundering Everton likely was the game that proved too much to overcome for the Gunners, yet the failures of the season removed so much weight from the club that by the end of the season, one couldn’t help but play loose, free flowing football, finally. This is no excuse, but the reality, and one that many clubs understand well. It is much easier to play well when there is no high stakes pressure on you.

Obviously, this is not acceptable as an entire season was wasted for little, not even a European tournament for the first time in 25 years. The team has no one to blame but themselves, and will have lots of time to reflect upon that during this upcoming summer, during which things will have to change.

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Arsenal and the Summer: Players in, #KroenkeOut, Arsenal miss out on Europe and have no one else to blame

#KroenkeOut is going nowhere, and while the owners say they aren’t going anywhere either, that remains to be seen. In any event, whether it be from the Kroenke’s, Daniel Ek, or a Supporter Trust, the club must work on itself to improve the on field product.

Players must go, as we’ve previously discussed, while other players must now be brought in to accentuate the talent that exists across the squad, whether young or old.

The team blew so many chances to reach European competition over the course of the season that it is of course frustrating for writers, fans and the like to think positively sometimes, yet optimism is a strategy for progress as Noam Chomsky has famously argued; without it, there is little reason to work for better throughout one’s life or ambitions.

Arsenal is now bare, without any trappings of the greatness that once adorned it. It no longer has a top five, six or even seven finish on the league table and is in no European tournaments, not even the lowest tier, the Europa Conference League. They have only to focus on themselves, their development and their future prospects. They can get into Europe next year easier with less distraction but it will only be from their domestic prospects, of which they will have to be laser focused on exceeding moving forward.

Continued…