Manchester City remain favourites for Premier League title with Arsenal left to rue their failure to recruit a prolific goalscorer in the summer transfer window
Manchester City remain favourites for Premier League title with Arsenal left to rue their failure to recruit a prolific goalscorer in the summer transfer window Manchester City remain favourites for Premier League title with Arsenal left to rue their failure to recruit a prolific goalscorer in the summer transfer window
Both Manchester City and Arsenal have hit bumps in the road lately, but I would rather be in Pep Guardiola’s shoes than Mikel Arteta’s right now.
Despite them conceding four in the Champions League for the first time since 2016 in Lisbon the other night, when the music stops next May I still think City will win one of the major trophies – either the title or the Champions League. And I wouldn’t rule out them winning both.
But are Arsenal going to end their 21-year wait for another title, a run which goes back to the Invincibles season under Arsene Wenger? I’ve got major doubts now.
Bridging a five-point gap to City is one thing – but overhauling a seven-point gap to Liverpool as well is another.
As it stands, Arsenal are the outsiders in that three-horse race.
Although it’s a stretch to say they are struggling to score goals, the Gunners are not a free-scoring side at the moment.
They drew a blank at Bournemouth, a blank at Newcastle and a blank in the Champions League against Inter Milan.
Three defeats in six games is not a full-blown crisis, but manager Arteta must be careful that those bumps in the road don’t turn into a blow-out.
We’ve had one or two fans on the 606 phone-in saying his time is up, which is nonsense, but I fear Arteta could live to regret Arsenal’s failure to sign a top-class striker in the summer.
Kai Havertz has proved the doubters wrong and his versatility across the front line (and deeper in midfield) has been an asset, but where is the prolific goalscorer who is going to strike fear into Premier League defences like Erling Haaland at City and Mo Salah at Liverpool?
I was so disappointed by Arsenal’s recruitment in the summer because it didn’t match the ambition of a club going all-out for the title.
Victor Osimhen ended up in Turkey with Galatasaray, Alexander Isak stayed put at Newcastle, Ivan Toney landed in Saudi Arabia.
Surely, if Arsenal had pushed the boat out and made any of those players their top target, each of them would have jumped at the chance to play for prospective Premier League champions?
OK, so Newcastle were never going to let Isak leave cheaply, or at all. But Osimhen and Toney were available because they both moved on.
So how did Arsenal end up with defender Riccardo Calafiori, midfielder Mikel Merino and winger Raheem Sterling – who hasn’t even been in the starting XI lately?
Sterling has had a fantastic career, and he provides good competition for Gabriel Martinelli on the Gunners’ left flank, but his only goal for Arsenal so far was in the League Cup against Bolton.
If extra firepower was going to be the X factor which made Arteta’s forward line irresistible, why didn’t they go for it?
In the title race, finding equalisers or winners in tight games is such an important trump card, but Arsenal have lacked that cutting edge in three recent defeats where possession alone was not enough.
And I’m afraid it might come back to haunt them.
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