Sunday’s round of Premier League fixtures well and truly brought the curtain down on a tight and enthralling domestic top flight English campaign, and although there was final day disappointment for Arsenal fans and manager Mikel Arteta, there are plenty of reasons for Gooners to be proud of the efforts of our first team squad.
Our wait for a first Premier League title since 2004 continues, but there will again be real hope that we can finally get ourselves over the line in the coming 2024/25 campaign, and given our fantastic efforts this year, that hope and optimism within the fanbase will likely be reflected in the odds and bonuses that the bookies will offer over the summer months. We probably will not be outright favourites, but our efforts this year (along with uncertainty surrounding Liverpool given the changes they will see this summer), should certainly see us installed as very strong second favourites for the near future.
Coming back to this year though, we simply did all we could, and with a late 2-1 victory over Everton at the Emirates Stadium with goals coming from Takehiro Tomiyasu and Kai Havertz, we did ourselves proud and then, as we knew, the rest of the final day’s equation was totally out of our hands – and unfortunately for us, with Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City side taking victory over West Ham United, the two point gap in the table was maintained as the title crown goes in their direction, as we finish incredibly close runners up.
The improvement and greater consistency this season was there for all to see, and we have undoubtedly closed the gap on them when you look back to the 2022/23 battle we had – with an identical win record, we also end with a matching 62 goal difference (City scored a handful of goals more than we did across the campaign, but they also conceded a handful of goals more as well).
There is again disappointment that we could not quite get over the line given the advantage that we did hold earlier in the season, but in closing the gap and pushing it closer, tighter and right down to the final game of the campaign, that is further tangible progress and it is something that our Spanish gaffer can use once more as a very solid foundation for even more improvement as we turn our attentions to the upcoming summer transfer market and our pre season campaign.
There are certainly some interesting links doing the rounds on the rumour mill right now, and at least from a speculation point of view, we are being linked with the kind of calibre of players that would both improve the strength of the starting line up, or significantly improve the overall depth of Arteta’s options as we move forward.
We will simply have to see what ultimately happens when the window opens and what kind of business we are again capable of pulling off over the coming couple of months, but our gaffer has certainly built up a lot of credit in the bank over the past few years, so fans will largely continue to trust his judgement and decisions, irrespective of which fresh faces do end up actually arriving.
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