Arsenal: A disappointing end to a massively successful season

After Manchester City’s 3-0 victory over Everton and Brighton’s 3-0 drubbing of Arsenal, the 2022/23 Premier League title is all but decided.

If Arsenal drop points again or if Manchester City get two points from their last three games, then the Premier League trophy will be returning to Manchester for the fifth time in six seasons.

Despite this, the season has been a roaring success for Mikel Arteta’s young Gunners.

Did Arsenal bottle the Premier League?

Of course, as an Arsenal fan, the way the title race has panned out is a bitter, bitter disappointment. Eight points clear at the top of the table at the beginning of April, it really seemed that the title would be lifted at the Emirates for the first time, but it wasn’t to be.

Let’s be clear though, Arsenal did not bottle the title. Manchester City’s last defeat was 23 games ago, they are in the final of the FA Cup and are challenging for their first-ever Champions League title. The treble is still very much on.

Their squad is packed with talent that is used to winning, and they have probably the best manager in the world. Not only that, but Pep Guardiola has started playing with four centre-backs in defence, transforming a very good defence into an almost impenetrable one.

The only team that can rival them in terms of individual brilliance in the world is Real Madrid, and they are coached far better. That might not be enough to win a Champions League semi-final but it is a perfect recipe for winning the league.

That’s why Guardiola has won the league title nine times in 12 attempts, finishing third in his first season with City and second once with Barcelona and once with City. The Spaniard is a league-winning machine.

The fact that Arteta has managed to push City this far is frankly a miracle, especially with such a young side.

Losing William Saliba and Takehiro Tomiyasu at the same time was a massive blow that ultimately gave the title to City. Of course, that’s unlucky, but perhaps poor planning is at play, too. Arsenal needed superior deputies.

Without Saliba, Arsenal weren’t able to control contests with and without the ball which resulted in draws against Liverpool, West Ham and Southampton. There was still some fantastic football played during that time, but it wasn’t the same Arsenal from the beginning of the season.

The Gunners didn’t fall apart, they just couldn’t keep up with the sky blue juggernaut of Manchester. With two more wins, the Gunners will end up with 87 points, which would have been enough to win in 2020/21.

Maintaining a long-term perspective

When evaluating the season, it is important to maintain a long-term perspective.

At the beginning of the season, most Arsenal fans would have been happy with a top-four finish. Now, the team has far exceeded that and yet fans were leaving in droves at the end of the Brighton game.

Securing Champions League football was the aim for this season. Expectations do shift throughout the campaign, but Arteta is undergoing a rebuild of a club that had lost its way before he gained control of the ship.

By far the most important thing is to show progress each season. Narrowly missing out on Champions League football last term was a lesson for Arteta. He learnt from it and improved the team considerably.

This season will be another lesson for him and the squad. Football, especially in the Premier League, is never easy and every match can send you down a slippery slope. Little things can make the biggest differences at the top, top level.

From a long-term perspective, this season has been incredibly encouraging. Don’t listen to the pundits that say that Arsenal will not have a better chance to win the league: we’re not going anywhere.

The team will continue to improve, Arteta will look inward and make big changes and I expect the club to have a busy summer transfer window.

Of course, the season wasn’t purely positive. There was an overreliance on certain players like Saliba and Oleksandr Zinchenko. When these two weren’t in the team, it was a different, less confident and less impressive Arsenal that played.

Losing twice to City was not good enough. Getting two points against bottom-of-the-league Southampton wasn’t good enough. The manner in which the Gunners capitulated in the title race was also not good enough.

But over the long term, this is a team that is all but guaranteed to win trophies.

The massive positives of the season

There’s no doubt about it, this was Arsenal’s most successful season in years. Perhaps not in terms of trophies, but by pretty much every other metric.

Firstly, the fans were incredible 99% of the time. Home and away, they were extremely loud and in some games, they really made a difference. That burst of noise when Reiss Nelson scored against Bournemouth is something that I won’t ever forget as an Arsenal fan (the fact that it will mean nothing is genuinely heart-breaking).

Related to that, the ability to dig deep and find a way was much improved this season, although it did run out towards the end.

Late winners against Bournemouth, Villa, Liverpool, United and Fulham as well as two goals in as many minutes at the death against Southampton were very impressive and the sign of a mentally strong side. It happened too many times to be luck or a coincidence.

Next, on an individual level, the season was sensational, with every player in our starting XI showing their worth.

Martin Odegaard has scored the joint-most non-penalty goals in a Premier League season by any midfielder in history. The Norwegian was glorious at times and is only going to get better as he approaches his peak.

Bukayo Saka and Gabriel Martinelli became only the second pair of 21 and under teammates to get 20+ goal involvements each as reported by Opta. The other pair? Cristiano Ronaldo and Wayne Rooney.

Aaron Ramsdale has shown his quality as the season went on, especially in terms of shot-stopping. Many doubted him but the English goalkeeper has been one of Arsenal’s best players over the last few months.

Saliba and Gabriel were an imperious centre-back pairing. Saliba proved beyond any doubt that he can perform in the Premier League, and Gabriel’s improvement after the World Cup was frankly almost unbelievable.

Zinchenko controlled games often with his inversion into midfield. Ben White, despite a difficult few recent games, was the best right back in the league for long stretches this season (I would be shocked if he doesn’t move to Real Madrid at some point in his career – that man has Galactico written all over him).

Granit Xhaka was the most improved Arsenal player this season and Thomas Partey was fantastic as the anchor in midfield. If Gabriel Jesus hasn’t been injured, the season may have turned out very differently for the Gunners.

All in all, Arsenal fans need to detach from the disappointment of losing the title race and stay positive. Arteta managed to get fans and even rival fans to believe that Arsenal might go all the way; that hasn’t been the case in some time.

In my mind, there is no doubt whatsoever that the Premier League title is coming to the Emirates within the next few seasons. 2022/23 was the building block to tangible success and silverware.