As we find ourselves motoring through the month of March, the business end of the 2024/25 Premier League campaign is now more than with us and as all Gunners fans know, sadly Mikel Arteta and his Arsenal first team squad have again come up short.
It has not been a disastrous campaign for our Spanish gaffer by any stretch of the imagination, but the simple fact is that we have drawn too many games and with our goals to games ratio falling in recent seasons, our failure to rectify that in successive transfer windows has meant we have dropped a number of points and the bottom line is it explains the 15 point gap we have to top spot.
Ultimately, few now think we will close that gap and make a real tilt for the title at this late stage of the season and the results in the last 5 games bear that belief out, and many again point to an incredibly poor January transfer window as being a driver behind that.
Few saw Arne Slot’s start to life going this well at Liverpool, and nor Manchester City’s fall from grace and the struggles that Pep Guardiola has had this year, but that makes for an even more frustrating year at the Emirates Stadium as with our solid runners up form in recent years, we should have been in the perfect position to capitalise and push on for that much wanted silverware.
We it clearly not to be, we are already getting a line from the board about it being a busy summer where we will again invest in the squad to plug what many would consider to be pretty obvious, and long standing, holes in Arteta’s available options and it will certainly not be the first transfer window where the words ‘striker’ are front and centre on everyone’s lips.
But we have been here before, and whilst the concerned voices may still only be a smaller subset of the fanbase, Arteta is facing growing questions about his own choices and priorities, particularly in light of the diminishing goal threat that we now carry.
For the remaining few months in the season, fans will simply be hoping that we can end the campaign on a real high now, and with some good winning form to close the gap as best as we can, and then we pray for Champions League ambitions with us already basically through to the next stage of the competition given our first leg 7-1 victory over Dutch Eredivisie side PSV Eindhoven in the Round of 16 stage.
Then we see if the rumours about the summer prove to be true, as whilst few feel that we will actually cough the fee necessary to secure Newcastle United talent Alexander Isak, we continue to be linked with a number of interesting attacking options in the shape of Victor Gyokeres and Benjamin Sesko to name just two.
That is not the only position we are looking to strengthen according to the speculation rumour mill, and fellow Newcastle player Bruno Guimaraes continues to be linked with us for the midfield spots as the gaffer looks to rebuild the middle of the park and edge our over all age down a touch.
For now, we just see what the remaining games have in store for us.
