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Why do Arsenal still fall short of challenging for the Premier League title?
Only a few months ago, Arsenal finally seemed to have turned a corner as they looked increasing favourites to win the Premier League title. As of early March however, things have completely changed and the seemingly consistent Arsenal curse of February/March has struck with vengeance. Arsenal now trail Leicester by eight points with nine games left, and it’s now likely the fans will be forced to settle for the club’s usual fourth place and a potential F.A Cup triumph.
For the vast majority of clubs, this would be deemed a successful season, however after the promise of the league title, fourth will be a huge disappointment for everyone associated with the Emirates outfit. For a team like Arsenal who class themselves as a world class club, a hat-trick of FA Cup titles is not going to match their ambitions, no matter the fact this achievement should be celebrated should it happen. The club would be the first team to win the cup three years in a row since the 1880’s, and will likely not be matched for a very long time. Ultimately however, world class players are not going to be attracted to the club with the promise of FA Cup triumph.
In the increasing spending war being waged by Premier League clubs in the transfer windows, the overall quality at the top of the league is improving with every season. Many spoke of this being Arsenal’s best chance to win the league, and they may well have a point considering what is likely to occur going into next season. Leicester and Tottenham will be looking to improve on their current squads, and will have the promise of Champions League football to entice international players while doing their utmost not to lose any of the current crop of stars.
Manchester City will have the services of Pep Guardiola as manager, something irresistible to a lot of players. City rivals Manchester United will also likely spend big again this summer, and may well have the services of Jose Mourinho to further entice players to the theater of dreams. Liverpool will also have an almost endless pot of money to spend and Jurgen Klopp; with his notable talents at recruiting players under the radar, will surely develop a rough diamond or two into a sparkling gem. Chelsea will also want to spend heavily with their new manager as they hope to contend for the top four once again.
All of these factors show that every other club Arsenal will likely be in competition with are going to improve their squad significantly over the summer transfer window, so it would seem obvious that Arsenal would do the same to keep up in the title race. Well, history would suggest this may not be the case at all. Arsenal seem to favour the model of building a title-winning squad piece by piece over consecutive summer windows.
They stunned everyone with the deadline day signing of Mesut Özil for £42.5 million in 2013 and followed it up by beating Liverpool to the signing of Alexis Sanchez from Barcelona for £35 million in the following year. The club also addressed a positional need at goalkeeper by signing Petr Cech from rivals Chelsea for £10 million last summer. In these three transfer windows, the other notable signings include striker Danny Welbeck from Manchester United, Gabriel Paulista and David Ospina.
These are good acquisitions who have helped improve the overall depth of the squad, but none of these players have fully established themselves as regular first-team players so far. Whether this is because of injury or simply struggling to break into the first team, it shouldn’t matter. What is important is that over the past three summer transfer windows the clubs competing with Arsenal have significantly outspent them to improve their teams.
Whilst spending money does not always work out, it shows an intent by these clubs to do whatever is necessary to sign the players needed to win titles and cups. In the current era of seemingly limitless money, if you want to sign a world class player now, you will more than likely have to overpay if you want to sign them. This is where Arsenal struggle.
Manager Arsene Wenger is famous for his tight spending with the club. He is known to significantly oppose over-paying for a player, and this is maybe why the clubs big name signings are in small doses, rather than all in one window. The club regularly turn a profit and the money Wenger has to spend on players only increases every season, so why is it that last season the club only signed one player in the whole summer window, for a fee of £10 million.
This was a very risky move, as Wenger was effectively going all in with the squad he currently has, relying on the fact that they would have enough quality to fight on multiple fronts this season. Once the season progressed and the injuries built up, this faith in his squad as found to be misplaced as the team struggled to maintain their good form once the injuries to key players started.
The one that really confuses Arsenal fans will be with the defensive midfield role. The club have needed a true holding midfielder for several seasons as they relied on Mikel Arteta and Mathieu Flamini, until the emergence of Francis Coquelin in the second half of last season. In the summer, the club could have signed the proven Frenchman Morgan Schneiderlin from Southampton. He is only 26 years old and has plenty of Premier League experience, yet the club let him sign for rivals Man Utd.
This move looked even more foolish when Coquelin suffered a long-term injury late last year, with the lack of depth fully exposed as they struggled on with Arteta and Flamini. Wenger was forced to provide cover with the signing of Mohamed Elneny from Basel in January. Elneny needs time to develop and is not currently ready to play week in week out in the league. Schneiderlin could have taken over and provided quality in the position for the rest of the season.
It is these moves that infuriate the fans and force them to question the ultimate motives of the club. They have spoken of spending big to compete for the likes of the Premier League and Champions League, yet they still seem to be holding the purse strings tightly as they seemingly hamper themselves in competing for these honours. Whether this is Wenger or the board is not fully known, although many Arsenal fans guess whose side it’s coming from.
Quite simply, if you want to regularly challenge for the most prestigious honours these days, you need to spend big to assemble a full squad of world-class players who can help you fight for multiple cups and a league title. This is something Arsenal have so far failed to do,despite having the means to do it. So, why should be such a surprise the club regularly finishes away from the title race in third and fourth and crashes out of the Champions League in the early knock-out stages?
Arsenal supporters seem to be finally waking up to this in the past few years, and this is likely why some are now calling for Wenger to leave his post. They may feel he is out of touch with the modern game with his outdated ideals of not over paying for a playing, but his same expertise that was so successful in the first decade of his reign likely remains within him. He simply needs to move on from his principles of spending frugally, so he can attract world class players and build a squad that can finally challenge for the league at least. This summer’s transfer window will be a key litmus test to Wenger’s future at the club.
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