Arsenal’s 2021/22 Premier League season requires perspective to be appropriately analysed. If you look at the last month, you will see embarrassing away defeats to Southampton, Crystal Palace, Newcastle and Tottenham that led to Arsenal bottling their grip on Champions League football. However, if you take a step back and widen the lens, you can also view this season as a success, with the youngest team in the league taking a pivotal leap in their development and jumping up three positions compared to the previous campaign.
Arsenal have performed better than expected to finish in fifth place with 69 points while also underachieving to miss out on the top-four, considering their position at the start of May, both things can be true. The process Mikel Arteta has currently implemented in North London has paid dividends this season, but there is still a long way to go for Arsenal to reclaim their position at the top of the tree in English football.
Arsenal signed six players for a combined transfer fee of £160 million in the summer of 2021, and upon a one season sample size, five of them seem to have worked out. Aaron Ramsdale, Martin Odegaard, Ben White and Takehiro Tomiyasu have all cemented their position in Arsenal’s first-choice XI and raised the technical level in the side, while Albert Sambi Lokonga has similarly impressed in his stints in midfield as Thomas Partey’s understudy.
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The only transfer that has not gone to plan so far is Nuno Tavares, with the Portuguese youngster demonstrating a lack of defensive awareness and game IQ and costing the team on many occasions at left-back.
The other youngsters in the Arsenal squad, though, have stood up. Bukayo Saka and Emile Smith Rowe racked up double figures in goals in the league, Gabriel Martinelli continued his upward trajectory as an inside forward, while Eddie Nketiah displayed remarkable improvement at the business end of the season as the number nine.
A lack of goals.
The only two players to reach double figures in the league this season for Arsenal were their two U-21 attackers, Bukayo Saka and Emile Smith Rowe. There were huge expectations on Alexandre Lacazette and Pierre Emerick Aubameyang to lead the line and score goals. However, both veteran forwards combined to add just six non-penalty strikes, just one more than centre-back Gabriel.
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Aubameyang struggled with his finishing and conversion rate when playing as a central striker to start the season before eventually being shipped out in January after a falling out with the manager. Lacazette, meanwhile, earned a regular starting position after Aubameyang’s exile. However, apart from a few assists during the Gunners’ promising run around Christmas, the Frenchman provided next to nothing in the offensive third. His lack of athleticism and unwillingness to shoot plagued Arsenal’s attack throughout the back half of the campaign, and it was only till he was displaced by Eddie Nketiah against Chelsea, did the Gunners look like a more competent attacking force.
For a player to bag 18 goal contributions at age 19 in the most competitive league in world football is something special, and Bukayo Saka has been the driving force behind Arsenal’s top-four charge in 2021/22. The Englishman has elevated his game to another level over the past 12 months, and was the only player to have played every league game this season for the Gunners.
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Despite being the primary focus of defensive attention for the opposition on most nights, Saka’s speed, movement and tremendous game IQ have helped him become the principal offensive hub in the Arsenal attack.
Having missed out on the top four by just two points with the youngest squad in the league, there is a clear path of improvement for this Arsenal side in the years to come, with the upward trajectory under Mikel Arteta visible since their boxing day victory against Chelsea in 2020. However, while Arsenal’s burgeoning youngsters – Saka, Smith Rowe, Martinelli, Nketiah and Takehiro Tomiyasu – are likely to improve next season, they need to be surrounded by more quality to take Arsenal to the next level.
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Arsenal’s decision to trim the squad to its bare bones in January hindered their push for top-four in the run-in, and the Gunners will need significant upgrades and backups in various positions to ensure that they can compete on multiple fronts. A new centre-forward should be the primary focus of concern for the technical department in the off-season, but a number eight, left-centre back and right-back should also be on the agenda for Mikel Arteta in the transfer window.
The summer of 2022 could be another potential inflexion point for the Gunners on their long road to relevancy. Get their recruitment right, and Arsenal could be well on their way to becoming a dominant force in England again, but on the flip side, one misstep could easily see the Gunners fall down the wayside once more and continue to fade as a European powerhouse.
[Featured Image Credit: Arsenal]
Shivaan Shah