Sunday should have been Arsenal’s chance to stare down Liverpool eye-to-eye and wrestle the Premier League title from the Reds’ grasp. Instead, the Gunners will stand in two lines and applaud their opponents onto the Anfield pitch, forming a guard of honor which should further trigger introspection over where it all went wrong.
Having started the campaign targeting the first league championship in 20 years, Arsenal now face a scramble to secure second place. It would be their third consecutive runner-up finish and raise further questions about manager Mikel Arteta’s ability to cap five years of sustained progress with the silverware their fan base craves.
Speaking to ESPN this week about his plans for next season, Arteta said: “We’re very clear about what we need to do to improve. First, what is in our hands to improve and what we can do with the squad we have, and then the improvements the team will need in terms of methodology, in terms of coaching staff, in terms of departments, in terms of players and, once again, to be better.”
What are those areas where Arsenal must improve, or things that need to change, for them to overtake Liverpool and finally win that long-awaited title next season?
Sign a striker
Although Liverpool’s attacking group is not flawless — indeed, they are expected to transfer Darwin Núñez and try to improve their forward line — the simple fact is their current crop is better than Arsenal’s. Mohamed Salah, Luis Díaz, Cody Gakpo, Diogo Jota and Núñez offer more potency in the three attacking positions than Kai Havertz, Gabriel Jesus, Gabriel Martinelli, Leandro Trossard, Bukayo Saka and loanee Raheem Sterling. There is hope that Ethan Nwaneri could emerge into a bona fide top-class talent, but he is 18 and Arsenal need immediate help in the transfer market this summer.
They opted against moving for a center forward last year when Benjamin Sesko signed a new contract to stay at RB Leipzig, and again in January when presented with the possibility of signing Ollie Watkins from Aston Villa. It is easier to say with hindsight, but Arsenal left themselves short in attack last summer and failed to address the situation midseason when the opportunity came up. They cannot make the same mistake again.
A number of forwards are under consideration including Sesko and Sporting CP’s Viktor Gyökeres. Alexander Isak is perhaps out of reach but if Liverpool make a concerted effort to sign him from Newcastle United, Arsenal must enter the running if they are serious about going to the next level.
The Gunners dealt with injuries (more of that later) but it took only the absences of Havertz and Jesus to expose a major shortcoming in the squad. On several occasions this season, they deployed midfielder Mikel Merino up front. While the Spain international acquitted himself well and scored some important goals, the Gunners clearly need a more permanent solution.
“A player having several uses is a bonus and this year, towards the end, with the amount of injuries we’ve had, we’ve had to adapt players,” Arteta said of Merino. “And I thought Mikel could do that because he has an intuition and timing in the area that few players have. And when I spoke to him and explained, respecting his qualities, without asking him to be Havertz or [Erling] Haaland or anyone else tomorrow, respecting what he, Mikel, is and his qualities, how he could help the team a lot and how I believe we could put his qualities more at the team’s disposal, he accepted and I think it’s gone well.”
Saka to reach Salah levels
It now looks certain that the league’s top goal scorer will be a player on the team that won the title for only the third time in the past 10 years. However, those three occasions will be the last three years if Salah — who is five goals clear of Isak with three games left — wins the Golden Boot. That does beg the question of whether a trend is developing where the top clubs need one player to post outlier numbers to make the difference.
Arteta would be quick to point out Arsenal scored a club-record 89 league goals last season, shared around the squad. But they fell just short then too. No Arsenal player has reached 25 league goals in a single season since Thierry Henry in 2004-05. Salah has contributed nine match-winning goals in his haul, and Arsenal need a game changer of their own.
The most likely candidate is Saka, who has developed into one of the best wingers in Europe. He eclipsed Vinícius Júnior and Rodrygo during Arsenal’s Champions League quarterfinal tie and scored in the semifinal against Paris Saint-Germain, but overall his season was compromised by a four-month absence following hamstring surgery. The 23-year-old needs to pick up where he left off and kick on. This season, he became the fourth-youngest player to reach 100 Premier League goal involvements behind Michael Owen, Wayne Rooney and Robbie Fowler. Continuing his upward trajectory over the course of a fully fit campaign will help Arsenal close the gap next season.
Keep key players fit for longer
When asked by ESPN this week about Liverpool beating his side to the title, Arteta said: “You have to accept that there is an opponent who was better than you in terms of results and who had the whole squad available. And in a competition, the Premier [League], [this opponent] was better than us and we have to think about improving and what has hurt us a lot this year, which is the number of injuries we’ve had to top players.”
Arteta isn’t usually one to publicly dissect his disappointments, but he has repeatedly referenced Arsenal’s need to improve their player availability. In an often-used line — he said it in at least three interviews last week — Arteta referenced walking into the locker room before the first leg against PSG and seeing, all sat in a line next to each other, Takehiro Tomiyasu, Riccardo Calafiori, Gabriel Magalhães, Thomas Partey, Havertz, Jesus and Jorginho. All seven were unavailable.
Arteta has a point in that Arsenal have had to deal with injuries in a manner Liverpool largely avoided. Only two outfield players have played all 3,150 minutes of the Premier League season to date: Brentford’s Nathan Collins and Liverpool captain Virgil van Dijk. Next is Brentford’s Bryan Mbeumo on 3,145 and then Salah on 3,107. Arsenal’s most used player is William Saliba (2,906) but their Salah equivalent, Saka, is down at 1,544.
Club captain Martin Ødegaard, who suffered an ankle injury in September, is at 2,134 — that figure is too low for a midfielder who knits everything together as the heartbeat of the side. Ben White was out for three months with a knee problem while Havertz and Jesus have missed the entire run-in and won’t return until next season. Most teams have struggled with another frenetic campaign, but Liverpool simply managed it better than Arsenal.
“I think they’ve been very consistent, they definitely deserved to win the championship,” Arteta said of Arne Slot’s team. “They had the whole squad available [without injuries], with the top players performing well and they won a lot of games individually.”
Maintain discipline better
This is a contentious area for Arteta. He has hinted that Arsenal were unfairly punished at the start of the season as referees calibrated the enforcement of new rules — one in particular relating to delaying the restart of play. Declan Rice and Trossard were sent off against Brighton & Hove Albion and Manchester City, respectively, for kicking the ball away.
Both were technically correct decisions, but the accusation is that this rule was not evenly enforced. There may be some truth to that, but Arsenal have had the most players sent off this season (tied with Ipswich Town at five). In the cases of Rice and Trossard, they gave the referee a decision to make when they didn’t have to, and that part at least is on them. The same could be said of Saliba’s red card at AFC Bournemouth in October. Myles Lewis-Skelly was dismissed at Wolves following a decision later overturned on appeal but there was no reprieve when he ws sent off again against West Ham United in February.
Arsenal dropped 10 points in those five games where they were at a numerical disadvantage. Liverpool have received two red cards this season — one for Andrew Robertson against Fulham in December and Curtis Jones after the full-time whistle at Everton in February.
Strength in depth
Speaking last month, Arteta was asked what Arsenal need to compete at the business end in all four competitions. “Squad quality and availability,” he replied. “Without those two, we cannot compete in four competitions. At this level, especially in this country, it’s impossible.”
Arsenal’s summer does not solely hinge on signing a striker. Sources have told ESPN that Arsenal are expected to complete a €60 million move for Martín Zubimendi, a deal which would represent an early blow to Liverpool given they made a concerted effort to sign the Real Sociedad midfielder last summer. Zubimendi opted to stay in Spain but has had his head turned by Arteta and Arsenal in a move that will strengthen an area where they are set to lose Jorginho on a free transfer to Flamengo. Partey is out of contract and although there are talks over a possible extension, his departure cannot be ruled out.
Elsewhere, Arsenal need to sign a backup goalkeeper when Neto’s loan from Bournemouth ends — Espanyol’s Joan García is the preferred choice. A winger would add further dynamism to the attack, with Nico Williams of Athletic Club on their radar.
Asked whether there will be a lot of changes to the squad in the summer, Arteta said: “We’ll see at the end [of the season], it will depend on what happens with a lot of the players.”
Arsenal appointed Andrea Berta as their sporting director in March with hope the Italian can help nudge the Gunners from nearly men to winners. The time is now.
