Arsenal’s season set for failure after latest slip-up? | OneFootball

It’s been the same old story for Arsenal, as Saturday saw them lose a must-win home game to West Ham just as the opportunity to pile pressure on Liverpool presented itself.

Liverpool then went on to beat Manchester City, extending their Premier League lead to 11 points.

Arsenal have been battling for the title for the last couple of seasons, but they always seem to fall short in decisive matches. Last season, it felt like they had the title in their hands, but they ended up losing at the Emirates to Aston Villa during the run-in.

Now, the defeat to West Ham, thanks to a goal by Jarrod Bowen, has severely damaged their hopes of winning a Premier League title for the first time since 2004.

With key attackers injured for the Gunners like Bukayo Saka and Kai Havertz, Mikel Arteta is having to rely on an attack which includes midfielder Mikel Merino as a makeshift centre-forward.

The result wasn’t Arsenal’s only bad one at the Emirates this campaign. They lost on penalties to Manchester United in the FA Cup despite the Red Devils being down to 10 men from the 60th minute.

Arsenal have been knocked out of the Carabao Cup as well, losing 4-0 over two legs against Newcastle United in their semi-final.

Arteta has won the Community Shield twice since becoming manager of the Gunners, but aside from that, the only trophy he has to his name is the FA Cup, which Arsenal won in 2019/20.

No doubt the fans will want Arsenal to win one of the bigger trophies sooner rather than later, and missing out on the title in the season that Manchester City have declined will be an added blow for fans of the club.

With Liverpool now the heavy Premier League favourites, and Arsenal out of both domestic cup competitions, the Champions League is their last realistic hope of making sure this campaign isn’t considered a failure.

It’s a huge ask and a competition Arsenal have no previous success in. This season is just their second Champions League campaign since 2016/17, with last season’s run ended by Bayern Munich in the quarter-finals.

The North London club face PSV Eindhoven in the round of 16 and, should they advance to the quarter-finals, they’ll face a tough tie against the winner of the Real Madrid vs Atletico Madrid derby.

With almost £700 million spent on transfers since the Spaniard took the job, Arsenal’s season will be deemed a failure if they fail to lift a trophy.

Just as it appeared the Gunners were ready to take the next step, their side has stuttered. Questions will be asked about last summer’s transfer window, when around £74m was spent on Riccardo Calafiori and Mikel Merino. Those who suggested those funds would have been better invested at the top end of the pitch now have the benefit of hindsight to further endorse that stance.

If Arsenal continue to fall short whilst still spending such large sums, the pressure will crank up on both Arteta and the ownership. Two near misses in the title race have been followed by an inability to get close to Liverpool in the summer. The failure to sign a forward in January has added to the frustration and there will be concern that Arsenal are going backwards after season-upon-season progress under Arteta to date.

Read – Five things we learned from the Premier League weekend

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