Thierry Henry has praised Arsenal for playing their part in the Premier League title race and says their unsuccessful campaign was derailed by a home loss to Aston Villa a few weeks ago.
Manchester City has raised the standard for winning the Premier League title over the years, and we have watched Liverpool struggle to catch them at the top of the standings.
The Citizens remain the best side in the division and sustained a long winning run before becoming the champions for the fourth consecutive season.
Mikel Arteta’s side followed them closely and threatened to end City’s dominance of the competition this campaign.
However, Arsenal’s effort was not good enough on the final day of the season, despite both clubs winning their games.
Arsenal played their part and had been hopeful that West Ham would take some points off City, but the Citizens won their game.
After the match, Henry told Premier League Productions:
“Arsenal did what they had to do on the day. Like I said before, it’s not in your hands even if you win the game. You’d have to wait and see what happened at the Etihad. It’s not an easy one. We can put it to an ‘at least you pushed Man City all the way.’ I go back to the Villa game, you don’t give Man City the chance to have the title in their hands.”
Just Arsenal Opinion
It is a bitter pill to swallow, but we knew we would need some help from West Ham to be champions.
However, the boys can use this campaign as a springboard to more success in the coming seasons.
The losses to West ham and Fulham were the real cause
it is untrue rto eve r claim that any single gae wher w droped points cost is th title. Think about it! It is clear that we lost the title by dropping points in all THE GAMES WHERE WE LOST POINTS.
Personally, I go right back to our first homegame in August when we were leading ten men Fulham 2-1 with eight minutes left, when they equalised. To my mind THAT and the West Ham game at oiur place were the real costly ones.
Villa outplayed us deservedly, but we OUGHT to have beaten Fulham at home and West Ham too. IF you are going to blame any mere ONE game, which I SUGGEST IT IS NOT WISE TO DO, THEN IT IS THOSE TWO GAMES THAT MOST COST US,IMO.
And not the Villa games, either at home or away.
Of course it was the Villa game. Before that game Arsenal were leading the EPL table, one point before City, and after that game Manchester City have passed Gunners. And they never gave the top position back.
If Arsenal have won against Aston Villa in that Sunday game April 14 – they would have reached 92 points. That is one point more than Man City finaly got. To say it wasn’t the Villa game is pure nonsense. Don’t be ridiculous.
If it was just Villa at the Emirates, I’d like to know who was responsible for the other 22 points lost.
Henry makes a good point regarding the Villa game.
1. Liverpool lost, City were close, and we had CL matchup with Bayern. High pressure moments so closed together.
2. Pressure of final month, knowing mistakes would be more costly and punishing than earlier in the season.
3. Daft lineup selection that moved Havertz to midfield, which was unbalanced as it always had been.
Daft decision to start Jesus again at striker, why tinker with a selection that was previously getting results.
It was the final mistake that left us chasing City, which again proved futile.
4 years in a row City has shown that when they get in front in the final month they finish the job.
We had a good season, showed growth and an improved mental, but did not deserve to be Champions.
A good season, but not great without a trophy or title.
Would you rather come close but finish 2nd with nothing, or 4th and the FA Cup? Honest question and curious what people think.
Last season, Arteta put Jesus in as striker
when back from injury. Big error of judgement. This season the Villa game was also down to putting Jesus in as striker. Big error of judgement.
Who knows how things wouldve turned out though if we did win. Maybe that adds more pressure and we lose to spurs or bournemouth or some other side. End of the day there were several points in the season where fine margins made all the difference. Just wasn’t meant to be. And also lets not forget the team that beat us has 115 charges.
I think Henry is right but also is the first comment. It is a matter of the time horizon of analysis where the two differ.
MA bears the full responsibility for our result. His insistence to recruit KH without knowing where he can be the most effective was a huge mistake. Why KH was seen as a strong addition to our lineup in the mid-field only to fulfill MA’s so called unpredictability dream? Why was Partey pushed to wing back at the beginning of the season? In the grand scheme of things, our early season was plagued by MA’s over thinking. Those games we lost to Fulham and West Ham and Villa were equally harmful as the second Villa game. In the window of the ending season, the Villa game where we degraded back to his tinkering formation was inexplicable.
I am proud of seeing our team’s progress in strength and depth over the years. We are rubbing shoulders with City as two of a kind. We were in the position of where United and Chelsea are now but no longer there, great improvement.
Looking forward, we need to really grasp the chances to crown us the champion. Last season was helped with glitchy City and Liverpool and this season Liverpool dropped out of the picture as well. But all teams will strengthen themselves and we don’t have time to experiment and tinker. I say get a real forward, find a quality midfielder, reinforce our wing backs, and ideally real and playable backups for Saka. Use the money where it matters, no more funny unpredictable additions that also confuse ourselves.
The legend is right, that Villa game had so much riding on it, had we beaten the Villans, not only would we have acquired a few more points but it could very well spurred Tottenham on to peg back the champion in their quest for a champions league spot.
In the end Arsenal could have won the league on a canter as a direct result of the Villa game.
As to why Arsenal world class player did not played into that game is another matter.
Funny, people criticizing the coach for changing benching players against aston villa knowing fully well we’re playing 3ggames in seven days are the same people criticizing the coach for overusing players and the coach lack of plan b which have been hot topics here on this site.
Is strange, I mean I don’t want to name check but how could you criticised someone for doing the same thing you demand for.
Moreover is childish blaming a whole season on a single match and even if at that , the Fulham game early in the season where at a man down and in a winning position we should have conveniently claim three points instead of one. Had we won that match we would be celebrating now. That’s an easier match to win
Henry is an AFC legend with a blown up sense of self proportion, go back to league three and climb up the coaching ranks mate.
AFC did not lose the title because of one game.
Next year AFC wins the league!
I’ll add the City game against Forest to that list. Chris Wood missed two of the easiest chances he’ll ever get to score, and cost us points.
It’s easy to point at the Villa game as our form had been so good. We did actually lose and draw other games throughout the season which also played their part.
We ran City close right up until the final day. 👏👏
We dropped points against Villa in the run in and city didn’t drop any. Before that City also dropped points that they maybe think they shouldn’t have.
At the end of the day over the season they accumulated 2 points more than us and are champions.