For those of us who still incorrectly believe the 90s were only a few years back, the fact that it’s now almost twenty years since Arsenal last won the Premier League title is still next to impossible to fathom.
It’s even harder to comprehend when you consider that the championship in question was the one secured without a single defeat, so yes, it’s been THAT long. Even the most ardent Arsene Wenger supporter felt the pain of those latter years when every top-four finish felt like a mini-betrayal, and the French legend had no choice other than call time on his Gunners reign.
Unai Emery was gone before he really got started, and then came Mikel Arteta, and strangely, for seemingly no real reason (other than the former midfield general not being Arsene Wenger), he also suffered at the hands of those who felt that he wasn’t the right man for the job. Turns out he is.
In many ways, Arteta, like Wenger before him, bought time at the helm by way of FA Cup success, which afforded him the chance to put together a squad of players that is now very much bearing fruit.
Talk of a Premier League title challenge back before the season started would have resulted in some very healthy betting odds. Premier League betting offers on such an eventuality will have seen the odds shorten by quite a margin; such has been the amazing start to the Arsenal campaign.
How Did We Get Here?
One element of Arteta’s managerial reign that doesn’t get nearly enough credit, and is as worthy as some of the signings he’s completed, was the clearout of massive amounts of expensive, wasteful deadwood.
Among these would be the likes of Mesut Ozil, a hugely talented individual who simply wasn’t cutting it anymore, Shkodran Mustafi, who never cut it at any point, Sead Kolasinac, Sokratis, Alexandre Lacazette and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (who had become a distraction).
The signings made by Arteta over the past 18 months have been more in keeping with the youthful dynamic of his squad, and now he has a squad that is cut from the same cloth with pretty decent strength in depth in most positions. Above all else, his side has belief.
William Saliba has come back from his most recent loan spell and is now arguably the best centre-back in the Premier League. Gabriel Jesus’s presence up front has helped both Gabriel Martinelli and Bukayo Saka.
Granit Xhaka and Thomas Partey continue to gel wonderfully, and Ben White’s placement as a wide defender has worked a treat.
Naysayers
It’s something of a badge of honour that Arsenal has to wear whether they start the season with a flurry of defeats, as they did by losing the first three games of last season, or getting off to a flyer, as they have this time around, there will always be a large number of naysayers and doom-mongers, sadly from within the club’s own support.
Hilariously when Arsenal won their first five games of the season, the complaint was that they had an easy run of games, as if Arteta’s men could perhaps miraculously beat any team other than that which was put in front of them.
So when they did, inevitably, drop their game for a short period (and we are effectively talking about a 20-minute period in the second half at Old Trafford), the knives were out. Of course, they then came back out again when Arsenal put Brentford, Tottenham and Liverpool to the sword.
There is a great belief within the current crop of players in Arteta’s squad, and it’s growing within the fanbase, and while it’s clearly very early days, there is a very real possibility that Arsenal could be the only team to keep up with Man City this season.
Long may it continue.