After Arsenal’s impressive performance and occupation of the Premier League until April 1, with an 8-point lead over their closest opponent Manchester City (future champions of the season), the dream of crowning Arsenal in championship was beginning to take shape. degenerate, since it will be crowned for the first time in 19 years when the “Gunners” crown the title under the leadership of Arsène Wenger. But the dream ends up stopping for many reasons.
Guardiola Mentality
Manchester City manager Josep Guardiola used to stay focused until last week, so any opponent who lose focus for a while will find City on edge.
Guardiola repeated the deal twice with Liverpool in two outstanding seasons, as the ‘Reds’ collected 97 points in the 2018-2019 season, but did not win the title as City scored 98 points, and in the 2021-2022 season, Liverpool reached 92. points, but again behind City, by one point, as the celestial team collected 93 points.
On the other hand, Arsenal have lost many points in the last ten weeks as they lost 3 games and drew, while they only won 4 games including a winning game after officially lost the title, and thus gave the title to Manchester City. .
Although City fell to Liverpool, Brentford, Manchester United and Tottenham, the team lost no points since April 1 and 10 rounds before the end, and swept all their competitors until the official coronation, and played comfortably against Brighton and Brentford in the last two rounds after winning the title.
• Lack of expertise
At the end of March last year, the gap was 8 points, and the league was getting closer to Arsenal after 28 magnificent matches, in which the “Gunners” lost only twice to the poles of Manchester United and City, and tied in 4 matches.
And Arsenal entered the decisive phase with players who had not been subjected to these situations and great pressure before, except for 3: Oleksandr Zinchenko and Gabriel Jesus, former Manchester City players, and Jorginho, came from Chelsea, which affected the ability of the team. Players and team have withstood the pressure of chasing Manchester City on several occasions in previous seasons resulting in players losing focus and bleeding points in succession as the direct competitor wins.
On the other hand, Manchester City have players who have the personality that has been under pressure to win the league, chase the leaders and even snatch the third title in a row.
Early realization
Arsenal players felt they had achieved an early achievement in securing Champions League qualification after a 6-season absence, which reduced their motivation in recent games, and they felt that losing the title against Manchester City would not be a failure.
• Loss of points in front of the youngsters
Although Arsenal collected points against major English Premier League teams and managed to score 4 points in both games against Liverpool, the same against Newcastle, full points against Tottenham and Chelsea and 3 points from Manchester United, it lost a lot of points against the smaller teams.
Arsenal tied both games of relegated First Division side Southampton, who finished last, and lost to Everton, who battled to escape relegation until the final round.
They also drew with West Ham and Brentford, and lost to Nottingham Forest and Brighton in form this season.
Lack of “training depth”
Arsenal entered a statistic after the end of the season as the most stable team in the formation with 86.6%, while title rivals Manchester City came second to last with 74. .1%, as Pep made frequent adjustments and rotations throughout the season, and he had strong alternatives to make up for any deficiencies. Plenty of restful players.
The biggest changes to Arsenal’s squad have been through injury, including Jesus, who missed 12 games with a knee injury during the World Cup, and centre-back William Saliba, who missed the end of the season after a back injury in March.
And Arsenal need to deepen their roster by preserving and building on the current squad, and there is no other way for them but to make deals that support the squad roster.
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