Arsenal 2023/4: the preview
- What Arsenal have to aim for next season
- What should happen next to Manchester City if found guilty by the League?
By Tony Attwood
Based on what we have observed in recent times, what guesses can we make about 2023/4?
- It is a young team that is maturing.
In fact the second youngest team in the league this last season – and that only by a matter of weeks. Fulham were the oldest squad with an average age at the time the measurement was made by Football 365 of 28.2 years. After them came West Ham.
But thereafter we had Tottenham as the third oldest (27.5 years), then Manchester City in fourth (27.2), then Newcastle, Villa, Manchester United and Brighton.
Put another way, six of the top eight clubs in the league this past season were also in the top eight for age. Arsenal were very much the odd ones out being 19th in the age charts. And on the basis that players improve as they get older, that means time is on Arsenal’s side.
We can also see this from the other end of the table. The four youngest teams in the league in order of youth were Southampton, Arsenal, Leeds and Leicester. And three of those four teams went down.
So a brilliant piece of work by Arsenal: the second youngest team in the league, which by other standards would have meant coming one from the foot of the table, but actually delivered as the one from the top. An incredible achievement and a really good omen for next season.
2. The team that scores from everywhere. This data from the BBC.
| Rank | Name | Goals | Assists | Accuracy |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |
Erling Haaland Manchester City
|
36 | 8 | 56% |
| 2 |
Harry Kane Tottenham Hotspur
|
30 | 3 | 63% |
| 3 |
Ivan Toney
|
20 | 4 | 54% |
| 4 |
Mohamed SLiverpool
|
19 | 12 | 48% |
| 5 |
Callum Wilson Newcastle United
|
18 | 5 | 56% |
| 6 |
Marcus Rashford M
|
17 | 5 | 62% |
| 7 |
Martin Arsenal
|
15 | 7 | 55% |
| 7 |
Ollie Watkins Aston Villa
|
15 | 6 | 67% |
| 7 |
Gabriel Martinelli Arsenal
|
15 | 5 | 58% |
| 10 |
Bukayo Saka
|
14 | 11 | 53% |
| 10 |
Aleksandar MFulham
|
14 | 1 | 46% |
Arsenal are the only team with three players in the top ten scorers – every other club has just one player. And in fact if we went down to 14th place we would have four players in the top 14 since Gabriel Jesus would also be there.
3. It is a good all-round team.
Just six goals behind Manchester City and their ultimate scoring machine (what will they do if he ever gets an injury) and the third-best defence in the league (which would have been second-best had Saliba not got injured) it means Arsenal were 16 behind Manchester City on goal difference. And that seems a lot but given how young the team is, that gap might well be closed.
Only seven teams got a positive goal difference of +10 or more. Arsenal are right up there.
4. With the best players
As we noted just yesterday, “OneFootball revealed a FIFA 23 Premier League team of the season with 41 players in it. Seven of them are from Arsenal, but only six from Manchester City. The Arsenal men are Ramsdale, Magalhaes, Saliba, Zinchenko, Odegaard, Martinelli, Saka.”
5. Improving all the time.
This past season we had one dip, and that came near the end of the season when the final screw was being turned by Manchester City. Very disappointing but still just one bad run, as opposed to five of them the season before. And if you really want to contemplate the difference between this season just finished and the one a year before that, think back to what the media and all their highly paid journalists were saying at 31 August 2022 when the top and the foot of the table read.
| Pos | Team | P | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Tottenham Hotspur | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 3 | 9 |
| 17 | Newcastle United | 3 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 8 | -4 | 1 |
| 18 | Wolverhampton Wanderers | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 3 | -3 | 0 |
| 19 | Norwich City | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 10 | -9 | 0 |
| 20 | Arsenal | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 9 | -9 | 0 |
Any sort of improvement will surely take us to within striking distance of Manchester City. Oh yes and please do say, “Oh Tottenham, where are you now?”
6. The media were resisted
When there were calls for Arteta to be sacked on 31 August 2021, Arsenal would have none of it. Those who demanded his sacking then, like those who predicted Arsenal would not make the Champions League this season, have by and large not apologised for their inability to read the future. And Untold (which predicted third for this season, based on a proper analysis of last season’s performance) has been moderate in its crowing. Well, ok not always, but we’ve tried.
7. Arsenal’s transfers have been stunning.
You know all about them so I don’t need to reiterate, but just look at the players we let go out last season… Mattéo Guendouzi, Lucas Torreira, Bernd Leno, Dinos Mavropanos, Héctor Bellerín, Ainsley Maitland-Miles (loan), Charlie Patino (loan), Folarin Balogun (loan), Alexandre Lacazette…
And of course I don’t know how good or bad any of these players would have been if they had stayed, but I remain excited, not least because of Folarin Balogun with 20 goals in 36 games in the top French league this season. And that for a club that came 13th in the league and was only 14th in the goal scoring rankings.
There is talk that he may be sold or put out on loan. I’ve no idea but after a season like we’ve just had, I’d put my money on Arteta getting it right.
If we had signed our January targets and avoided key injuries, we would have undoubtedly won the league.. I just hope we get all our targets and have a healthy squad depth. Trust me, with that in the bag, I’m confident we’re winning the league this coming season! COYG!!!
#5 paragraph- mean 31 August 2021, not 2022.