3 reasons why Arsenal fell short in the Premier League title race

Arsenal fell short in the Premier League title race for the third consecutive season, missing out on the crown to Liverpool due to a lack of genuine challenge throughout the campaign.

The Gunners had taken Manchester City to the wire with their first two title challenges, finishing five points off the top in the 2022/23 season and two away in 2023/24. However, this time around they ended the campaign a whopping 10 points below champions Liverpool, who had the title wrapped up in April.

There was a real lack of challenge and fight from Arsenal in the 2024/25 title race and aside from the obvious lack of a lethal and clinical goalscorer, there are three reasons why they fell short in their attempts to win the league.

1. Injuries and discipline

Okay, let's get the obvious one out the way. Every team suffers with injuries and has to deal with them in a way that doesn't allow their performances to be hindered, but Arsenal faced a tremendous battle with fitness issues during the season.

The Gunners had to deal with a significant number of injury issues between the start of the campaign and matchday 34 when Liverpool officially confirmed themselves as Premier League champions. In that period, they had 16 first team options miss at least one game through injury, compared to the Reds who had 12.

Among those were key players who were absent for a long run of matches. Captain Martin Odegaard missed six games in the early stages of the season while Bukayo Saka sustained a long-term injury in late December that kept him out for five months. When the latter fell to injury, Arsenal were only three points behind Liverpool, albeit with two extra games played.

Kai Havertz also missed a long period during the second-half of the season, while regular squad player Takehiro Tomiyasu was absent for practically the entire campaign.

Discipline issues also prevented the Gunners from having consistent availability in their squad, with the team picking up six red cards throughout the campaign, the most in the division. William Saliba, Declan Rice, Leandro Trossard, Mikel Merino and Myles Lewis-Skelly were all sent off, although some were controversial decisions. Regardless, there were serious concerns around their discipline record.

There is no denying that injuries and discipline had a big impact on Arsenal's title hopes. To be missing key players for important games or significant amounts of a season would do no help to any team in the league and Arteta's side fell victim to that.

Continued on next slide...