Arsenal has outperformed expectations this season, with them for the first time being in a good place to win the league since they last won it in 2004 with Arsene Wenger.
Arsene Wenger who served as the club’s manager from 1996 to 2018, a span of 22 years, is the club’s most decorated manager. Within this time, he won three Premier League titles in 1998, 2002 and 2004. Also in his trophy cabinet is the FA Charity/Community Shield which he won seven times. He also won the FA Cup seven times, being the manager to win the FA Cup the most times. He’s the only manager to go unbeaten in a Premier League season.
Current Arsenal manager, Mikel Arteta, played under Arsene Wenger from 2011 till he retired in 2016.
Arsenal Since Mikel Arteta Took Over
Mikel Arteta became assistant coach to Guardiola upon retirement. There, he won two Premier League titles, one EFL Cup title, and two FA Cup titles. He returned to Arsenal as manager in December of 2019 after Unai Emery, who replaced Arsene Wenger, was fired.
In his first season as the North London club’s head coach, he won the FA Cup after beating his former employer, Manchester City, 2-0 in the semifinal, and beating London rivals, Chelsea, 2-1 in the final. In August, his team defeated Liverpool to win the FA Community Shield.
In the next season, his team lost in the semifinals to Villarreal which was being managed by former Arsenal manager, Unai Emery. They went on to finish 8th in the league, same as the previous season.
Arteta’s third season with the club began with three losses in August which made supporters begin to call for his sack. His team replied by winning all games of September. This made him win the Premier League Manager of the Month award for September. The club went on to finish 5th that season.
His fourth season, the 2022-23 season, saw his team challenge for the title with Manchester City. In this season, he won the Premier League Manager of the Month award four times in August, November/December, January, and March. His team were at the top of the Premier League table for 248 days before a run of two wins, three draws and three losses gave Guardiola’s Manchester City the advantage.
He was nominated for the Premier League Manager of the Season award but ultimately lost it to Pep Guardiola.
Arsenal In Another Title Race In Two Years
2023-24 has been another title-challenging season for Arteta and Arsenal. In 35 games, the North London club has scored 85 goals, won 80 points, and sits in the number 1 position in the league ahead of defending champions Manchester City.
At the beginning of the season, the club spent £162 million to purchase Kai Havertz and Declan Rice. Kai Havertz has gone on to lead the line and score 12 goals in 34 games. The club also sold former captain Granit Xhaka to Bundesliga champions, Bayer Leverkusen, for about £21.4 million.
Arsenal won four of their Champions League group stage games including a 6-0 victory over Lens, and qualified for the knockout stage for the first time since the 2016-17 season where they were eliminated in the Round of 16. They eventually got eliminated by Bayern Munich in the quarter-finals.
This season, the North London club has played nine times against the traditional Big 6 teams, has drawn four, and has won five including a 5-0 win in the Emirates Stadium against London rivals, Chelsea.
Chelsea Legend Predicts Arsenal’s League Finish
Before Liverpool lost 2-0 to Everton and drew 2-2 with West Ham United, it was a three-horse race for the title between Arsenal, Liverpool, and Manchester City with one point separating them. Since then, Liverpool has dropped to five points behind the North London club who’s barely one point ahead of Manchester City that has a game in hand.
Before Liverpool’s drastic slump in form, Chelsea legend, John Terry, who had recently been inducted into the Premier League Hall of Fame, did the ‘blind-linking’ challenge. Manchester City was the first club to appear and he put them straight in at number 1. Spurs appeared next but he skipped. Arsenal then appeared but Terry opted to choose Liverpool for second, with his London rivals as third. He eventually reluctantly settled with Manchester United as fourth, although Aston Villa was his choice for fourth.
He also backed Ollie Watkins, who’s scored 19 goals this season, one behind Chelsea’s Cole Palmer and two behind Manchester City’s Erling Haaland, to win the Golden Boot.
With Liverpool’s recent slump in form and the gap opening up between them and the top two teams, it remains to be seen if the prediction will come to pass.
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About the Author
Ebenezer has been an avid writer for over a decade and a half. Within that period, he has garnered experience in various fields such as editing, graphics design, transcribing, sales, data analysis, and football management.
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