There is no doubt that Arsenal made a concerted effort to push Man City for the Premier League this season, until Arteta’s side collapsed drastically at the end and quickly watched our advantage get whittled away, and now we are likely to end up at least 8 points behind the Champions.
But in the Cups we were totally useless, dropping tamely out of the League Cup, FA Cup and Europa League as soon as we tried to use our backup players, but even with just one competition to focus on, we couldn’t keep up our high level as soon as the injury list started growing and reserve players had to step up to the plate.
So, naturally us Gooners are thinking that, even though we have happily qualified for the Champions League next season, it is quite obvious that our squad, as a whole, is far from adequate to challenge on all fronts. In fact Mikel Arteta agrees with us, and this is what he said when he was directly asked if he though his squad were prepared to cope with the extra top level games next season: “Today?” he replied. “At the level that we want, no.
“We didn’t have the capacity to do that with the Europa League. It’s part of that evolution. We have made a lot of good steps, strong steps in that journey. We have to continue. That never ends. We have to be better. The rest will be better. The demands will be higher. We have to start and live with those standards, improve and be smarter.
“That doesn’t just mean signing players. It’s to improve our players. There are players we haven’t had the best out of this season. It’s our job to improve them because there are a few players who haven’t had the minutes or the performances, and we have to seek for those players to give us a different edge. It’s not only about signing players. It’s about resources, staff and improving certain things that can be done better, more efficiently or smarter.”
That makes sense, as we can’t expect to buy a whole new 11 backup players, we have to find ways to get our underperforming backup players to try and grow to the level of our first team. This may not be all that easy, but we have to admit that last summer Arteta worked with his team, and they came back this seasonstronger and with renewed vigour.
Let’s see if he can continue working his magic this summer as well. I certainly hope he does!
Sam P
Video – Alfie and Rob are back for the summer transfer window
Here is their first analysis of the summer, where Alfie and Rob discuss and predict every single possible Arsenal incoming and outgoing this summer, including fees and potential destinations for outgoings.
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