Second Place Would Still Be A Success For Arsenal As Manchester City Tilt Title Race

For Arsenal, the pain of Wednesday’s 4-1 defeat to Manchester City will likely linger, particularly if Pep Guardiola’s team go on to win this season’s Premier
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League title as most now expect them to do. Having sat top of the table for months on end, the Gunners had a golden opportunity to go the distance. Instead, it appears they will fall just short.

Arsenal should, however, still feel good about the progress they have made. Nobody expected Mikel Arteta’s team to challenge for the 2022/23 Premier League title. Arsenal entered the campaign targeting a top four finish and Champions League qualification and they have achieved that with five fixtures to spare.

Manchester City might ultimately end up winning another Premier League title – their fifth in six years – at a canter, but it’s remarkable that Arsenal have lead them for so long in the first place. Guardiola has built his team over a number of years while Arteta has had much less time to put his own stamp on the Gunners.

City also boast resources that Arsenal do not. However, the North London club has been very methodical in the way the Gunners’ squad has been rebuilt – see last summer when Gabriel Jesus and Oleksandr Zinchenko were signed to add an extra dimension in defence and attack. Both players have been key to Arsenal’s success this season.

Arteta and his players must take encouragement from the only team to have got the better of Guardiola’s City in a recent Premier League title race – Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool. The Reds built their squad up in a similar to how Arsenal have done under Arteta and ultimately got their hands on the trophy after coming extremely close the season before.

Liverpool also came close to winning a Premier League title in the 2013/14 season, but they failed to build on that and fell away under Brendan Rodgers who was ultimately sacked and replaced by Klopp. Arsenal will face a crossroads at the end of the season. They must ensure they follow the precedent set by Klopp’s Liverpool and not Rodgers’.

Of course, it’s possible Manchester City will continue to improve beyond this season with the club believed to be leading the race to sign Jude Bellingham. City will almost certainly also enter the transfer market to sign at least one new full back such is their dearth of options in that area of the pitch at this moment in time.

Under Arteta, though, Arsenal have taken a series of giant strides forward, none bigger than the one they have made this season. This season might finish a painful one with Manchester City champions once again, but it could mark the start of a period of sustained success for the Gunners.