#61 - What we can still get from this season
It feels a bit season over in February, but there's still things to do and learn to ensure we go one better next time around
It’s all a bit flat, isn’t it? To be honest I struggled for motivation to write this week. Last week I was skiing in Austria and that was a nice distraction from this season which is fading away.
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t take for granted where we are. Just look at the likes of Manchester United and Tottenham, I’m grateful that our ‘floor’ is so high right now, after so many years of drifting towards mid-table mediocrity, we are nowhere near that now.
But we do need trophies and that’s why I was so frustrated that the club did nothing at the start of January. January contained so many fixtures and saw us drop out of two cups.
With the amount of injuries, we were never likely to win the title, but we could have won a cup. We limped out of the domestic competitions and allowed the January schedule to eat up our remaining forwards. A Saka injury turned into devastation to our frontline with Jesus, Havertz, Martinelli all picking up long-term injuries, with two of them season enders. That meant that even when the door peaked open last week, Arsenal were not in a position to capitalise. The likes of Kolo Muani and Asensio are excelling on loan and were there to get - they could’ve helped without compromising long term plans.
So what can we still get out of this season?
1. Secure top four/five (CL places)
Well there’s still a top-four(or five) place we need to be sure of. We are a bit fortunate that the chasing pack are stumbling consistently and applying no real pressure to us, but a few results could change that, so we must keep the level high and not completely fall away.
2. Get to the CL quarter-final & compete!
Champions League football is still there. Arsenal face the very tough draw of the winner of Real Madrid vs. Atletico Madrid if we get past PSV. But these are the fixtures we all want to be involved in.
So make sure we get the job done against PSV and hopefully we can welcome back Saka and Martinelli for Madrid.
I think at worst a competitive display in that fixture would show a bit of progress for Arsenal, and managing to win it would be massive, putting us in the last four. If we can stay safely in the top four of the league, we’d have the opportunity to rest and rotate in the league and focus on the European ties.
3. Experiment to inform summer recruitment
Arsenal seem to know their targets, but there are things we need to figure out. Where is Nwaneri most effective? Can we play two more attacking 8’s at the same time? Where will Rice spend most of his minutes next season? Is Myles worth trialling in midfield? Can we play with two strikers at times? There’s lots of things we could use the end of this season to learn about and subsequently inform what we do in a decisive upcoming summer transfer window.
In midfield, I think Martin Zubimendi should still come in. Arsenal are set to lose Thomas Partey and Jorginho on free transfers, and therefore we do need another number 6. The issue is though that with Rice as a number 8, we regularly struggle to break down low or mid blocks. We’ve blanked too often this season. So we need to figure out other solutions centrally for those game states.
Arsenal’s left eight options are all currently more physical players: Rice, Kai Havertz and Mikel Merino. There’s not really room to bring in a specialist player here, but could we look to recruit a wide player who can also double up as an alternative number 8, someone like Eberechi Eze. For the first time we saw Arteta try Zinchenko in midfield, bringing him on for Rice versus West Ham. Whilst it wasn’t successful on that occasion, it did show a willingness to try something new.
The club and Edu’s replacement should be focussing on these details as this problem is a consistent one we are facing. The manager and club have to ensure we have all the solutions to not trip over the same stumbling blocks next season. It feels like we need a little extra guile.
Once Saka is back, Arsenal could try this by playing Rice at number 6, with Nwaneri and Odegaard ahead of him. When Martinelli is back, it could allow Trossard into that role too.
I have no doubt Arsenal will spend a lot of money this summer, they simply have to, but let’s ensure we get the right profiles.
After so many years in second Arsenal cannot afford to be in this situation again next season. In the previous two campaigns, we’ve been involved in an intense battle for the title until the last week of the season. The ‘positive’ this time around is we can all write the title off now. It allows us to give more attention to the Champions League campaign and harness valuable data to inform what we do in the summer.