Arsenal’s rise can coincide with Chelsea’s demise

Every Premier League season is an eventful 38-game saga with twists and turns more unexpected than the next. Where Arsenal are compared to where Arsenal were, as well as where they can be, may be ideally timed to capitalise on the division’s uncertainty.

Immediate goals this season are to finish in the top four positions. For this project the return of Champions League football can be transformative. What this team is now and what it can be in the future can be fast-tracked with elite European competition.

Hoping to dine at the finest tables, the players this team needs and wants will become more enticed by a club who can offer the best.

Focus is and always should be centred on what it is that you can do with your club. Arsenal’s process is one supporters have had to be patient with, and one they are now fully invested in. Bringing the age of the whole squad down, resetting the culture and building a base for future success was the aim. It’s well on track.

Arsenal’s rise to the top of Europe and the Premier League can coincide with Chelsea’s demise, Spurs being Spurs, and Man United’s state of limbo

The ultimate goal with that plan is to be competing for the best trophies on offer. Multiple honours at once. But there is only ever one of each, and competition is rife.

Events taking place across the capital signal an opening. Roman Abramovich’s endless wealth and repeated investment in Chelsea is over. The blood money is gone. He will reluctantly relinquish his grip on English football for new owners, those who will never match his outlandish expenditure. It will not happen.

Closer to home there is a Tottenham side boating two world class forwards and a manager of equal calibre. If Champions League football evades them the likelihood of keeping hold of Harry Kane dwindles. Regardless of his age, he remains one of the finest of his ilk. Great players need silverware and, right now, with the squad overhaul Spurs need, it’s a tall order. Antonio Conte’s cycle only has a few years remaining.

All the while Manchester United remain in limbo. This is a club that their fans regular label as rotten from top to bottom. Endless leaks from inside Carrington paint a disturbing image, and this is while uncertainties linger over who will take permanent charge at the end of the season. Their rebuild is one the club and all its hierarchy have refused to engage in, but has been long overdue.

Whereas, under Mikel Arteta, the rebuild is already in motion. A summer of investment, that which is arguably the club’s finest in modern times, has immediately raised the level. The players brought in have played a significant role in thrusting Arsenal into top four contention, all with their best years ahead of them.

Working alongside a pool of young talents already established at the club, the blend of Saka (20), Martinelli (20), Smith Rowe (21), Odegaard (23), Ramsdale (23), Tomiyasu (23), Gabriel (24) and White (24) is one that has yet to peak. It’s not just words, it’s happening right in front of us.

Already over this short season has this group developed and improved both individually and collectively. Superbly coached and bolstered by a fanbase who worship the ground they step on, not for many years has the future looked this bright.

Arsenal’s project is singing. Everyone is on the same hymn sheet and it’s only page one. One can quite confidently project how dangerous this team can be. The bad eggs are gone and the squad constructed is one unified and focussed.

Looking much further ahead, the two best managers in the country have two years left respectively at their clubs. New cycles will begin all around the country.

While what is bubbling away in north London is still in its infancy, Arsenal are brilliantly placed to move themselves up a few tiers in European football over the coming years. More wise investment in the summer, this time of an established and elite quality in attack and midfield, will position the club to challenge for the best honours.

This isn’t ‘competing with Bayern Munich’. There credence to take from the aspirations of the project. We can see it. It will likely take years to reach its fullest potential, but the path ahead is smoother than their neighbours’.

Arsenal are heading in the right direction.