Four years without a major trophy would have most executives at top tier clubs considering a change of management. Not at Arsenal.
The pain and sense of injustice that accompanies being labelled nearly men following another near miss will not truly subside until that silverware itch is scratched, but the key Arsenal decision makers will have been left in no doubt that this season’s exploits have thoroughly vindicated their gamble to place total faith in a managerial novice back in the winter of 2019.
Minor errors of judgement this season have been painfully exploited by Pep Guardiola’s serial winners, but the City chief is under no illusion as to where his biggest challenge will come from next season.
If Arsenal are to topple the sky blue machine, however, they will again require almost total perfection both on and off the pitch. Here Metro.co.uk examines the changes and upgrades the Gunners require to go from pretenders to champions…
A new contract for Mikel Arteta
Having clearly identified the right man to drag them back to within sight of genuine success, Arsenal cannot afford to lose the man in which they have invested so heavily in.
With just over a year remaining on his current contract, however, Arteta’s long-term future could dominate the narrative until he commits to overseeing the next act of Arsenal’s redemption arc.
While it appears unlikely that he will depart given how close to the winning line he has dragged an institution that was sinking without trace prior to his appointment, there are no guarantees.
In terms of how highly he is now regarded, it was telling how quickly he was linked with a return to his boyhood club upon Xavi’s shock announcement to stand down earlier this season.
More pertinently, Barcelona’s failure to persuade Xavi into reneging on his plan to take a sabbatical highlights just how gruelling management at elite level has become.
The toll and strain it takes in trying to keep pace with City has undoubtedly contributed to Jurgen Klopp’s decision to leave Liverpool after nine years. Thomas Tuchel has had enough of Bayern Munich after just 15 months at the helm, while Arteta’s great friend, Mauricio Pochettino, has been talking in riddles of late after a chaotic first season at Chelsea.
Arteta will undoubtedly request more form his board in the summer in a bid to strengthen his squad. Delivering on those demands could determine whether or not he remains and finds the energy reserves he will personally need if he is to usurp his friend and mentor, Guardiola.
Keep the squad together
In a message to fans and players alike on the eve of the final game of the season, sporting director Edu proudly proclaimed Arsenal is no longer a club which players want to leave.
Back in the Champions League and fighting regularly for the title, Arsenal are once again a hugely attractive prospect for Europe’s brightest talents. The fact they are again capable of paying wages that compare with their rivals should not be overlooked either.
That said, Arsenal’s elite players will only tolerate coming second for so long. Edu and his cohorts were rightly applauded last summer for quickly resolving the precarious contractual situations of their key players.
The way those deals were structured, however, means Edu and his team will be in a similar situation in 12 months’ time, with fresh renewals for Bukayo Saka and William Saliba a priority.
Losing either of those emerging world class talents would represent a significant setback and one that would potentially take at least two transfer windows to recover from.
Sign genuine ceiling-raisers
The first stage of Arteta’s rebuild centred on supplementing his Hale End Academy graduates with equally young, raw and hungry talents.
That strategy was only likely to ever progress Arsenal so far and so it proved. Last summer, however, saw a significant sea change upon the arrivals of Declan Rice and Kai Havertz.
While the latter may have been anything but a ready-made solution, at 24 years of age and with a wealth of Premier League experience under his belt, it was a signing Arsenal could only have dreamt of making during the early days of Arteta’s tenure.
Rice, by contrast, was the most significant Arsenal signing since Sol Campbell’s defection and decision to cross the north London divide. The England international has made a telling, instant impact to the extent that his £100million price tag has largely been forgotten.
Josh Kroenke’s message to the fanbase ahead of Sunday’s game against Everton should be taken as a sign of encouragement heading into the summer window and if Arsenal can deliver several more ceiling raising talents, the jigsaw will be virtually complete.
Kill games off quickly
One of the hallmarks of City’s imposing form over the course of the run-in has been the way in which they have extinguished any hope their opponents may have harboured of causing an upset.
Astonishingly, 11, 13, 2, 17, 32, 12, 51 and 2 again represent the minutes in which City have scored their opening goals in their last final eight fixtures of the season. Only once were they made to wait until the second half to break the deadlock, while they were never forced to mount a comeback.
In fairness, the costly defeat to Aston Villa aside, Arsenal have been similarly imperious, without quite exerting the same levels of control and dominance.
Having raced into a 3-0 lead at Tottenham last month, they were forced to hold on at the end after needlessly allowing their rivals back into the contest. The subsequent 3-0 win over Bournemouth, meanwhile, was nowhere near as straightforward as the scoreline suggests, while a rare victory at Old Trafford was ground out, rather than secured with the ease which many predicted it would be.
With the margin between success and failure so slim, preserving energy over the final furlong can prove important, even more so should Arsenal progress further in Europe and the domestic cup competitions, as they will expect to, next season.
Trust the squad
Over the course of his reign, Arteta has regularly reminded key members of his squad that, in order to compete with City, durability and availability are as important as any technical qualities they possess.
To that end, the likes of Kai Havertz, William Saliba, Declan Rice and Bukayo Saka have answered that call this season. Ben White, Gabriel Magalhaes as well as skipper Martin Odegaard, too, have been near ever present.
At the other end of the spectrum, it has been a feature over the course of the season, and particularly throughout the closing months, just how many players have fallen by the wayside.
Fabio Vieira, Emile Smith Rowe and Eddie Nketiah have hardly featured at all, while Arteta’s trust in Oleksandr Zinchenko and Gabriel Jesus appears to have waned.
While all championship winning teams rely on a core group of players, there is certainly a balance to be struck.
Possessing genuine game changing options from the bench that he truly trusts, whether it be a more physically imposing penalty box predator, a speed merchant on the wings, or a defensive minded midfielder capable of helping close tight games out, represents the next key step in Arteta’s squad evolution.
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