- No North London is NOT red! All London is red.
- Arsenal players involved in the world cup and English clubs in Europe next season
By Tony Attwood
The list of Arsenal’s finishing positions over recent seasons has been published here before but I find it endlessly interesting as commentators talk about the new players Arsenal need to bring in for the next campaign. Arsenal doesn’t improve every year but overall the improvements in Arsenal’s performance are incredibly exciting given that other clubs are not standing still either…
| Pos | Season | P | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Arsenal 2026 | 38 | 26 | 7 | 5 | 71 | 27 | 44 | 85 |
| 2 | Arsenal 2025 | 38 | 20 | 14 | 4 | 69 | 34 | 35 | 74 |
| 2 | Arsenal 2024 | 38 | 28 | 5 | 5 | 91 | 29 | 62 | 89 |
| 2 | Arsenal 2023 | 38 | 26 | 6 | 6 | 88 | 43 | 45 | 84 |
| 5 | Arsenal 2022 | 38 | 22 | 3 | 13 | 61 | 48 | 13 | 69 |
| 8 | Arsenal 2021 | 38 | 18 | 7 | 13 | 55 | 39 | 16 | 61 |
| 8 | Arsenal 2020 | 38 | 14 | 14 | 10 | 56 | 48 | 8 | 56 |
The 2024/25 season was a dip, but we recovered and had the best defence in many a long year. In fact, the last time we conceded fewer goals was in the title-winning season of 2003/4 and that was only by one goal.
But we are being reminded in one or two articles that just as a club can rise, so it can fall. The example of course that they give is invariably Liverpool alongside commentaries of the departure of Arne Slot one year after he won the title for Liverpool.
Fortunately, the Arsenal board are made of sterner stuff, and just as they refused to cave in to demands for Arteta’s sacking after two eighth-place finishes, they obviously won’t change the management team now. There are indeed two philosophies in football – one is that you are only as good as your last three games, and the other that this “only as good as” philosophy is nonsense. Arsenal’s board is in the latter group.
Better still, financially 2024/25 was as close as the club has got to break even, as we have seen in many a long year – the club lost £1.4m. Of course, the big factor that is involved in this is the Champions League. There is hope that the figures for 2025/6 t might be profitable given that last year’s turnover was a record £691m.
But the sort of player sales we have recently seen cannot continue, and this will indeed put a further stress on the finances. In the year to May 2024 Arsenal lost £17.7m; the aim will be to get this down further.
And in this regard, Arsenal’s financial figures for the year, including winning the title and getting to the final of the Champions League, will look good. But we are getting to a situation where, in footballing terms, Arsenal is bringing in as much money as it can. Which is why we are seeing prices rise for admission to games.
The loss for 2023/24 of £17.7m was covered by the owners, of course, and no doubt the owners would like their investment to turn in a profit at some stage. So how does the club up its income?
At this point, we need to take note of what is known as the “commercial strategy” which takes in income from sources other than player sales and season tickets. This involves not just the money from the cups already mentioned but from the broadcasting revenue both in the UK and overseas, and of course, advertising around the ground and in association with Arsenal’s name.
But against this, transfer fees and player salaries are constantly rising at above the rate of inflation, not least because managers whose strategies are not working in terms of taking their clubs up the league, invariably resort to buying more and more players at higher and higher fees as they become more and more desperate. The club will also be looking to secure Arteta’s future (he has one season left on his contract) – and those who work alongside him, and again, more money is involved. (It is reported that Arteta earns about £10m a season at Arsenal with a £5m bonus for qualifying for the next season’s Champions League.)
But there are two more factors that influence Arsenal’s position financially. One is that they did spend a lot of money on transfers last summer, and they have, in recent years, offloaded a lot of players. Income from player sales is likely to be down, therefore, but players who might be an upgrade on those we have are going to be very expensive.
So, although the media are already packed with stories of who Arsenal are about to buy, I suspect the number of exciting purchases could be modest. However, there is good news, and that is the return to form and favour of Lewis-Skelly. The fact that Arsenal could work with the young player to help rediscover and indeed re-develop his talent offers a model for the future for other young players, both now and in the future. The more youngsters who make it through the ranks to the first team, the more highly talented young players apply to join Arsenal’s academy rather than anyone else’s.
You almost did it…you resisted the temptation to mention “the media” until the last paragraph!
Light at the end of the tunnel?
One day?
I have never been keen to see new signings for the sake of it, even during the less successful years, as I have always had regard for the current squads. I also don’t like the terms “upgrade on”, as per Trossard last year and Martinelli this year, (by some people).
I also see the media nonsense for what it is – if they are not telling Arsenal who to buy, they are telling the club to sell some players, whilts encouraging other players to move to a club which is more ambitious and more useful to their careers ( the fact that it is often Man Utd makes this even more ridiculous).. I hate the media use of the terms “flop” or “deadwood” to describe any of our players.
After slagging off Mikel for years, some are now speculating that he will be sought by a major La Liga club -(well, he would be an “upgrade” on Mourinho).
If there are to be new signings, I trust the professionals at Arsenal to get it right. – if there are to be none, that’s ok with me.
Andrew, I thought you knew by now that the light at the end of the tunnel is always the express train travelling in the opposite direction.
We cannot rely on parking the bus against PSG and ManC115 each time we play against them. We need to use those two teams as the bench mark for improvement to our attack to get the balance right.
We are already the best defensive team in world football, but we lack that exciting scare factor in our attack, which is not obvious until we play the worlds elite teams as the example above has shown.
As George Graham (who won with a similar defensive style to Arteta) once said after building his winning team around one of the worlds best defensive set up, that he wished he had improved on his winning squad the following title winning year, and that he regretted not getting the right attack and defence balance as he named Alex Ferguson for getting the yearly improvement and balance right each year as the bench mark to longevity title winning success.
If we can grow our squad to match the greater amount of competitive games and match the elite with some scary attacking additions and in doing so, build our attack as strong as our defence, then no won could touch us.
It doesn’t matter what we or the media says, I trust Arteta will get the formula right between attack and defence and impress us again next year, and while trying to keep our existing squad also make a couple of changes where he sees us able to improve in certain areas.IMO
Its presidential election at real mad and perez wants calafiori, haaland and rodri.
daveg,
I don’t think Arsenal just parked the bus v. PSG. That’s a disservice to PSG. They’re an excellent team and the teams that tried to outscore them had no joy. Bayern lost 5-4 in the first leg of the semi-final. They went on to a 1-1 draw in the 2nd leg playing defensively. Arsenal beat Bayern in the early stages 3-1. To my eyes, Arsenal tried to attack against PSG in the final but there two main problems scoring.
1. They never had the ball. Hard to score when you only have 25% to 30% possession.
2. PSG defended stoutly when Arsenal had the ball. When Raya went long PSG usually grabbed possession.
We were outplayed on the day, but you and others don’t give us credit for the defensive masterclass. PSG did not score against Arsenal in 120 minutes of open play. And the foul for the pk was on one of the best wingers in the world by our 3rd choice right fullback. Our 2nd choice striker scored one v one against their goalie in open play.
Maybe a ‘scarier’ striker or winger would improve the attack but they don’t grow on trees or come cheap. As your post goes on you give some props to Arteta and maybe you should have started with that instead of a negative jab at the squad after the most successful season in 22 long years. With respect to a regular contributor on Untold.
why are people saying -matter of factly- that we were outplayed? one team is attacking, one team is defensive, the game played it how it should. if they out played us, they would have out scored us. simple. it was even arsenal vs PSG and the referees.
we stood up 11 vs 12 and acquitted ourselves well. There is no need to change the narrative from arsenal will not run the league playing this way to elite teams do this and elite teams do that. that’s an opinion that has to become spursy. the coach had his own ideas, he has never had two seasons where the style was the same, he is evolving and so is the team.. get behind the ideas or just get left behind.
Well said Richard.