Arsenal’s Title Charge On The Verge Of Derailment?

Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal started the season as one of the favourites to thwart Manchester City. However, ten games in, it looks like the North London club’s chances for a first Premier League title in 20 years is coming to a premature end after a third defeat in four visits at St James’ Park last weekend. 

Arsenal’s longest journey in the Premier League season once again turned out to be their most disappointing one. With one point from a possible nine, and a second successive away loss, they have stumbled when they needed to surge. This time, the loss of points was not due to a loss of players, or injuries, or any officiating error. 

Arsenal finished with the full 11 but with a solitary shot on target. They never even looked like scoring. They had plenty of possession but did too little with it. Starboy Bukayo Saka was shackled by the increasingly impressive Lewis Hall, as Arsenal desperately missed the class of Martin Odegaard, especially his ability to pick a pass and unlock defences. 

Arteta may regret not starting Ethan Nwaneri, as Leandro Trossard, so often a talisman, was utterly ineffectual. While it was equally damning for Raheem Sterling who remained seated for the whole 90 minutes as an unused substitute. 

Five wins in ten games, with three draws and two defeats has left them seven points behind current league leaders Liverpool. However, on closer inspection, the Gunners’ have had one of the toughest starts to their Premier League season with their next fixtures against Chelsea and Nottingham Forest meaning they’ve played all top 10 teams in the points table inside their first 12 fixtures. 

Add to that some of their key players getting injured at crucial junctures as well as a lack of discipline and some refereeing howlers, it has been a far from ideal start to the 2024/25 Premier League season for the Gunners. 

More importantly, the absence of club captain Martin Odegaard since September has also played a big part in Arsenal’s recent struggles. Apart from being their main creative force, the Norwegian international is also one of the most crucial players when it comes to leading their press, which in turn has seen Arsenal ship 10 goals in their last six Premier League fixtures. 

However, there is some good news for the Arsenal faithful with reports coming out of London suggesting the likes of Martin Odegaard, Jurrien Timber and Riccardo Califiori all close to returning to full match fitness.

With games coming thick and fast over this festive period, the onus will be on Mikel Arteta and his team to bounce back and put on a consistent run over this period. Both Liverpool and Manchester City will have the same set of fixtures and injuries to navigate. 

Although there’s already a significant gap to the leaders, with 28 games remaining, there’s enough time for Arsenal to get their act together, however, make no mistakes, with their recent blemishes, there’s very little margin for errors.