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

2. Failure to play under pressure

As was the case at times over the past two seasons, this young Arsenal side struggled to play under pressure during this campaign, although it seemed to be much more prominent and worryingly so.

The Gunners often failed to hold onto leads and see out victories and that ended up being a huge burden in their title hopes, especially considering they eventually lost the same amount of games as Liverpool.

Arsenal took the lead in 30 games this season, but won just 20 of them, drawing nine and losing one. That amounted to 21 points dropped from winning positions, far too many for a team hoping to win the league.

Their new reluctant style of play often attributed to their desire to sit back and defend rather than go out and continue attacking teams, making them vulnerable to constant attacks that ended up being costly.

Not only did Arsenal fail to dominate games and see out wins, they also struggled to keep up with Liverpool when given the chance to capitalise on the Reds dropping points. Prior to securing the league title on 27 April, Arne Slot's side had drawn seven and lost two of their 33 games, one of those being against the Gunners.

Out of the six gameweeks where Arsenal and Liverpool played in the same period (excluding rescheduled games and facing one another) and the latter dropped points in, the Gunners won just three, not enough to be putting pressure on their fellow challengers.

The inability to maintain leads or capitalise on Liverpool conceding points really didn't help Arsenal's ambitions. They seemed to really struggle on the occasion and that was not good enough for a team of their standard.

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