As Arteta and his boys reflect on their successes and losses, the focus now shifts to next season. Everyone who’s watched this season’s title race would ask himself, “Will the Gunners have what it takes to mount another title challenge and win it?” Yes, Arsenal can sustain another title charge, but to win the league, they need to do the following:
Taking advantage of the transfer window, of course.
Key positions need to be reinforced. A reliable backup for William Saliba, a top right back, two midfielders (Rice and Caicedo), and a physical striker need to be signed. And not just them; if decent players like Kieran Tierney and Emile Smith-Rowe leave, they should be replaced.
Tactical Flexibility
Arteta needs to start tweaking formations for games and even during matches. Arteta needs to take chances, bring in players who could see him, like Arsenal women’s boss Jonas Eidevall, opt to tweak his formation during matches, like reverting to a back three. I’m not suggesting that Arteta use a back three, but he needs to not be so rigid. In games where 4-3-3 is not working, he ought to change things up and use 4-2-3-1 or even 4-4-2. You may play beautiful football, but at times it’s not about the football but the results.
Mental Resilience
Odegaard and Co. must have been strong mentally. After the disappointments of this season, Arsenal should put their players into counselling to ensure this season’s disappointments do not affect them come next season. I hope, Win, the new addition at Colney, succeeds in bringing the team together and cheering them.
Consistency and momentum
With good squad depth, Arteta ought to practise squad rotation. With that, he could have his squad looking fresher and more energised than Saka and co. have looked in recent weeks. A drop in momentum cost the Gunners two wins over Liverpool and West Ham back in April.
Leadership and experience
With rumours that Xhaka is leaving, Arteta will lose one of his leaders and most experienced players; hopefully, he can stay, even if for just one more year. While considering his summer signings, Arteta ought to get on board players with some experience and leaders like Declan Rice, who’s captaining the Hammers, or even signing Cancelo or Gundogan, who could guide the young Gunners who are still maturing in the game.
Be ruthless and let their disappointments drive them on next season
Although Arsenal’s progress this season overshadows their not winning the league, even so, their not becoming champions hurt, and hopefully they let that disappointment drive them on next season and make them hungry to succeed.
Darren N
CALLING ALL ARSENAL FANS! Anyone who would like to contribute an Article or Video opinion piece on JustArsenal, please contact us through this link…
ARTETA must not Sell Tierney and Smith-Rowe please. It would be a disastrous decision that would bite us if ARTETA sells these two. I would rather he ships out the paperweight, irrelevant and fringe player like Fabio Viera than Smith row.
ARTETA must never use Gabriel Jesus as our Top striker next season. Jesus is a left winger and should slug that role with Marinelli. Get a competitor for Saka on the right wing. Sign caicedo and get two solid defenders. The strike to be signed must be a Beast and a Bully who is strong in the air as well. If you like at the entire team, we lack headers in the midfield and Attack. That’s is why we hardly score from corners and freekicks.
If Pep is willing to sell us Gundogan, it’s a clear indication
that he is nearing his sell by date, as seen with Jesus and
Zinchenco.. Get Rice and Lautaro. Keep ESR. Cancelo I am
not sure off, but pep let him go. But the most important
aspect is that MA must get rid off the ghost of Pep on his
shoulders.. and sell the dog, he makes me cringe..
Gundogan is out of contract.. Pep has no say in it if Arsenal wants him
Why let his contract run down? You don’t do this to your best players.
Saliba hasn’t signed yet, so we’d need to find another dominant CB if he gets shipped out
As for tactical flexibility, any tactics will be inconsistent if we still play without a strong pivot in the final-third. This attacker type should be our highest priority, more than signing a new CM
Since Giroud left, we’ve been struggling to finish in top four. I don’t think it’s a coincidence
You can see the difference that kind of striker made to City this year!
Yes, they would likely become a treble winner with a dominant CF
Perfect analysis of our team. Indeed if arteta and edu fail to realise that the team needs a physical striker preferably “Hodjlund” of Atalanta and at least two talented fighters in midfield, then its all in vain.
They are a young squad who will be better, strong and more experienced next year. Squad depth was ultimately the difference and we became overly reliant on a few players who clearly were fatigued in the final 7 or 8 games. If you were given this position at the start of the season you would have bitten their hand off but now is the time to strengthen the squad, clear out some fringe players who are far off the standard of our starting 11. Disappointing to end how we have but look at the state of Chelsea and Spurs. The progress we have made is huge!
The negative stuff towards jesus as a cf is greatly exaggerated imo. People seem to have short memories – he was fantastic earlier in the season (including with his hold up play!), not a great goalscorer, but we played well with him in the side. I don’t know why his form dropped off, but i don’t think it’s a coincidence that it happened on his return from injury, and during the run in.
He’s proven that he can be highly effective at CF, but imo arteta needs to be more *ruthless* in leaving him out when it’s not going well, and we definitely need an alternative of similar quality, but with different strengths.
Davi, I don’t think negativity to Jesus is that exaggerated. He is going to continue to be a conundrum for us unless MA buys a quality CF whose sole aim in life is to score goals. All our offensive players are much the same as each other. Comparatively shortish ballers. We need a bigger stronger striker who will not get knocked about (I know this is obvious).
I was never a big fan of Jesus when he was at City, but was pleased when we signed him because I thought he would bring welcome experience to the team. Never thought he would get bags of goals. So right from the outset I knew they would all have to chip in, and so they did, phenomenally well. He is not ever going to be our top scorer I can tell you that.
The worst thing that happened to us this season, was not losing Jesus or Saliba, it was Saka’s drop in form which hurt us the most. I’m not blaming Starboy as we are not robots that can stay in form for every game. Jesus is Arteta’s boy but he will have to find a way of deploying him in a better way.
sorry my English in that last sentence was crap.
I find it difficult when referring to several ‘hims’ in a sentence/paragraph. No worries – it is easy to understand what you meant
“We need a bigger stronger striker who will not get knocked about (I know this is obvious).”
In the first half of the season I distinctly remember plenty of instances of jesus taking down long balls, holding off larger defenders and collecting with his chest or even letting it drop into his foot. I couldn’t understand how he was doing it, but he was bullying defenders – even if he’s not a 6ft + bruiser, he’s capable. It can’t be coincidence that he stopped being so effective on his return from injury – it certainly can’t be because he’s not capable, because he’s already shown that he is! I’d argue, though, that the more alarming thing is that arteta kept playing him when it clearly wasn’t working, especially considering trossard had played quite well in that position when tried.
I agree we need another cf, but don’t be surprised if it’s lautaro we chase after – we seem to be interested in him, and he’s got a similar ability to handle himself against much bigger defenders. He’d be a good fit for our team, but i don’t think he’d satisfy those who want another type of cf who’s at least as big as most of the cbs they face. I’m personally sympathetic to that view, to be honest, but i do think lautaro would be a hit if we bought him.
Davi, not sure about Martinez. Without wishing to be stuck on the height issue, Martinez is similar in stature to all the other offensive players we have. I’m talking about someone completely different to what we have at the moment, so that opposition defences have more of a variety to deal with when they face us.
Someone like Toney would have been a possibility but he’s out of it now. Maybe Vlahovic and bringing back Balogun to see what he can do, given a chance ? It’s difficult ofcourse to know for sure the best solution, but more variety up front is neede imo..
No I understand what you mean, and I don’t disagree exactly, however, I do think martinez would be able to do the job for us.
I can’t see us keeping balogun, frankly. As good as his numbers are, I don’t think he’s ready for our team, and I don’t think he has the patience to wait. Toney has a bit of a cloud over him, otherwise I’d be completely behind that signing. Vlahovic may be a good option if he’s actually available.
As always the fans don’t explain where the cash comes from. Arsenal, like all clubs without oil wells, will have a budget and a limit on what they can spend. The question is how far can that go and what should the priorities be.
Clearly Arsenal currently don’t have good squad depth, pretending they do won’t change that. Blaming injuries won’t change anything either, they happen every season at every club. Given that lack of depth cost the club this season and the champions league will make the situation worse is it about numbers or quality ?
Speaking of next season,our friend Gary Neville has already started making predictions for next season! despite the fact he has no ideas what teams will do transfers wise,players leaving and new managers arriving.anyway for some reasons he believes that Liverpool are the best positioned to push City next season??
Character
Ruggedness
Skill
Win mentality
Good striking force
All are what arsenal needs , to win the league
Our winning mentality is
Low
Banjo ogunrosoye