“If there’s one thing” Tony Adams discusses where Arsenal fell short in the title race

Tony Adams has commented on Arsenal’s failed bid to win the Premier League this season and claims the Gunners lacked squad depth.

Arsenal were in a race with Manchester City, who have some of the most talented players on their books.

Mikel Arteta’s side had been in top shape for much of the campaign and defied the odds to stay on top until the season’s final weeks.

They dropped points in key games at a time when Manchester City was in unstoppable form.

This saw the Citizens topple them eventually and Arteta’s side will now prepare to mount a challenge again in the next campaign.

Speaking on the matter, Adams said via The Daily Mail:

‘If there’s one thing I’d go for is a little bit more rotations. 

‘We’ve depended on Saka and Martinelli for most of the season. They could have given Emile (Smith Rowe) more time. We need them (Saka and Martinelli) at the end of the season. We’ll always going to need them to get over the line. 

Adding: ‘As soon as the resources ran out, couple of injuries, people lost their form, it didn’t work. I think it was lost two, three months ago. I think they’ve run out of steam. 

Just Arsenal Opinion

We clearly lacked enough players in all positions, forcing us to consistently field the likes of Bukayo Saka and Martin Odegaard.

Saka hit a rough patch at a critical moment of the season and could have been rested more if we had a player capable of replacing him.

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16 Comments

  1. That pretty much sums it up. Not enough depth of quality and we simply ran out of steam. Saka was played even though he obviously needed a rest.

    1. But we did have players to replace him in ESR, Trossard,Nelson and at a push, Nketiah who could have played through the centre with Jesus moving to the right where he mostly played for Man City and Brazil.Arteta made the decision to stick with Saka and Martinelli even when it was clear that they were fatigued. The buck stops with the Manager .

      1. 👍 Exactly right, Grandad; team selection from the available players to counter the opposition and give the highest probability of winning the game is the responsibility of the manager. Mikel Arteta chose, on too many occasions, to ignore many of his players and select from a favoured few. No wonder the select few were played into the ground.

    2. Not enough depth and quality…after spending more than 500M over three years!! We couldn’t even beat relegated Southampton, West Ham, Forest. Were did the money go? Where is the value for our money?

      1. RFrancis that is not a talk. Cos last season we were looking for top 4 and with the addition of 3 to 4 players we challenged for the title. Compare our spending to Chelsea over 600mil without results. Boy open your eyes.

  2. As far as I’m concerned anything Tony Adams says has got to be right. It was so good seeing him on TV yesterday, he looked fit enough to still be playing. King Tony imo is the greatest Gunner of them all and anyone who wants to challenge that idea can be given umpteen reasons why he is.
    Just saying.

    1. Tossard was treated extremely unfairly IMO and as much as I hate to say it , Smith Rowe future may lie with Villa under Unei Emery.
      As a cleaner striker of the ball , just get a feeling the latter can beat Bellingham at his game under the right tutelage.

      1. Something I brought up earlier in the season when Bellingham was being “connected” with Arsenal, ESR can do all he does, and score goals.

  3. Not only the players that Grandad mentioned, but players MA signed who he then sent out on loan.

  4. As I told a certain Perry Groves last August during a tour of the stadium, our greatest ever player was … Tony Adams. Agree with you Evgunner.

  5. IMO, it boils down to our lack of top qualiy squad depth. City have no passengers whatever No inferiors players such as Holding, Elneny,all our loanees, except the promising but probably overhyped Balogun.
    And others too, even who play regularly but who are not City level. XHAKA, JESUS, TROSSARD,NELSON JORGINHO, etc

    IF you truly want TITLES, then you cannot afford to carry even one sub par player. City dont!
    True or not true??

    1. So who is responsible for this glaring weakness in the squad, jon fox? After over three years in charge and 500M in the red, do you think the present regime (Arteta and Edu) can be trusted in the future?

  6. The issue is not really quality or squad depth, but the manager’s failure to trust and use the players he bought as well as the players who have proven they have the ability. Squad rotation is something that is as much are as science.

    The team sheet in the Forest match was a head scratcher.

    Emile Smith Rowe barely got a touch at either left wing or attacking midfield, when he came back from injury.

    Kieran Tierney was a rock when he played left back, but almost never featured. Even if you believe Zinchenko is better, which really depends on how you define “better” not playing your reserves comes at a price. In this case, Zinchenko got hurt and Tierney had to come in. Was he playing at the top of his game, not compared to when he was playing every game.

    Reiss Nelson played 579 minuted across 17 matches all season. By way of comparison, Leandro Trossard played 956 across 25 matches despite being signed in January. Is Trossard a more proven player? He is. Did Reiss Nelson perform when given a chance, he did. So why not rest Saka when he was clearly wearing down late in the year?

    Martin Odegaard was terrific. He played over 3,000 minutes. Fabio Vieira was a viable substitute Arsenal paid 35 million for. He played less than 800 league minutes all season. .

    The price of a failure to rotate, which is the manage’rs responsibility, was the title.

    1. Well, I disagree.
      ESR, a promising player. Hyped due to last season. When he has played has shown only flashes of his talent. His limited involvement and generally so-so performances may have been related to the injuries he had.
      KT has been generally OK. However, also overhyped. Would probably be more effective if we had a big dominant centre forward due to crossing ability. Less effective in Arteta’s preferred system.
      Reiss Nelson’s performances have been variable. Looks better as an impact player. All round play well below Saka.
      Fabio Vieira is well below Odegaard’s level.
      The price of limited options is the title.

      1. David,despite the difference in quality,it still wouldn’t have hurt to introduce one or two fringe players in games where we were cruising to victory. I don’t think think taking off one of Saka, Jesus or Martinelli around the 60-70th minutes for a Nelson,Nketia or Trossard in a game we are having a commanding lead would significantly compromise the overall performance of the team in the remaining minutes. I like Arteta and what he has done,but it has to be said that he could and should have rotated better,quality of the bench players notwithstanding.

        In addition,some of these bench players looked terrible at times,which is not a true reflection of their actual quality and ability . Their terrible form could partly be attributed to lack of playing time. If you have ever owned any tools such as farm or workshop tools,you’ll know that if you keep them lying idle somewhere,unused for long periods of time gathering dust,rust and whatnot,they’ll tend to gradually become less efficient.
        I wish Arteta and the team the best,and my prayer is that he will have learned a lesson from this season on trusting more of the players in his squad. Being in the Champions League,rotation will be a necessity,NOT AN OPTION,because the quality of the teams there are superior to the kind we encountered in the Europa League.

  7. As I already said a while back,the costly night in Lisbon for the EL is when things started to go downhills.

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