Opinion – Arsenal isn't going to win any trophies this year and they don't deserve to
01/06/2025 12:00 PM
Let's start with the obvious. The words "Title-run," "Championship contender," "Major silverware," "Potential EPL Champions," and Arsenal Football Club do not belong in the same sentence. This team isn't going to win anything this year and quite frankly, it doesn't deserve to. Fortune favours the bold. Wasting time on throw-ins and dead balls while trying to run out the clock for 75 minutes with a 1-0 lead vs Brighton is the opposite of bold.
It's also a scathing indictment of the people responsible for assembling this squad and devising its matchday tactics. How on Earth does Arsenal Football Club go on the road, get a 1-0 lead, and not put their foot on the accelerator? Why is a 17-year-old playing out of position taking on more offensive responsibility than long-serving club veterans who are 10 years older and earning 10 times his wages?
How does a football club that became globally known for stylish, attacking football and lethal strikers like Ian Wright and Thierry Henry find itself getting outshot by Brighton and Hove Albion? Why is £38 million Joao Pedro better than either member of Arsenal's £100 million striker tandem?
How does anyone justify paying a manager £15 million per year, when his biggest "win" is an FA Cup and two community shields? Even in these inflationary times, £750 million should buy you more than that. Because honestly, Tony Pulis could try to time-waste his way to a 1-0 victory for 1/10th of what Arteta and Edu have spent in the last five years.
Edu's "surprise exit" makes more and more sense every day. He knew this team wasn't good enough and bailed because he didn't want to be around when the inquest started. Who can blame him? I certainly wouldn't want to explain how I authorised £100 million in transfer fees plus £500k/per week in wages for two forwards that strike less fear into defences than a miniature French Poodle.
Edu failed this team in the transfer window and now Arteta is failing them from the manager's box. Commiserating about the referees? Stop it. Just stop it. Arsenal should have been up 2-0 by that point (at least). Instead, they grabbed a one-goal lead and played a scared, cynical brand of time-wasting football that is completely foreign to anyone who can remember what used to make this club special.
Watching us waste time like we were down to ten men trying to see out a 1-0 lead in stoppage time at the Bernabeu only gave Brighton more life. There can be no doubt which team spent the second half trying to win and which one spent the second half trying to sneak out of the building with an undeserved result.
Anyone who has ever played a game of craps knows the old saying, "Scared money don't make none." Make no mistake about why this debacle happened. Arsenal was sent out with a gutless game plan of "trying not to lose." That's exactly what happened. They didn't lose the game. They lost something even more valuable.
Arsenal has completely abandoned its attacking ethos on the pitch and in the transfer market. It's going to cost us the title.
Arsenal's failure to go all in and find a proper centre forward is haunting this team like King Tut's curse. Instead, we're trying to time waste and bully our way to a championship by scoring on set pieces. The old Arsenal used to complain about those tactics. Now it embraces them. Arsenal doesn't deserve to win like that. Winners don't back their way into championships. They sprint to them.
The time for "title talk" is over. Anyone who thinks Arsenal can go to a European capital and win KO stage Champions League games is delusional. So, forget that trophy too. Mikel Arteta has a lot of good qualities but spending £750 million to mimic Stoke City is unacceptable. It's time to ask if he's hit his ceiling at Arsenal. Because this is not what anyone thought phase 5 of his rebuild would look like.
By EE MC
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