The race is over. Arsenal have bottled it. Mikel Arteta is a fraud. But there are lessons to be learned to build towards the title on these foundations.
It was quite the anti-climactic turn in a more straightforward sprint than first anticipated. Manchester City hammered Arsenal at the Etihad and everyone seems to have agreed that the team still actually technically second in the Premier League table have ruined everything and won the title again.
This sensational Arsenal season will subsequently end with a distinctly Ole Gunnar Solskjaer flavour of no trophies and only runners-up medals in the league to show for it. This might well have been the best opportunity the Gunners will get to win the big one, or it could simply be a learning curve as the first of many challenges to come.
Arteta might want to adopt a few tips and tricks from the previous first-time Premier League champions if he wants to eventually deliver Arsenal their first title in two decades.
Man Utd (1992/93) – sign a player from one of your main title rivals
When Leeds managing director Bill Fotherby phoned Man Utd chairman Martin Edwards to enquire as to the availability of Denis Irwin in November 1992, it inadvertently set in motion English football’s most enduring period of dominance.
Alex Ferguson was never going to sanction the sale of such a phenomenally reliable player, but he would consider taking on one Leeds could no longer depend on.
And so Eric Cantona made the trepidatious move between bitter rivals, leaving the final First Division champions for the side which finished four points behind them in second, who were languishing in mid-table in the inaugural Premier League season.
Cantona helped transform Man Utd in the short-term and for years to come. But Arsenal have reached this stage at least partially thanks to the additions of Oleksandr Zinchenko and Gabriel Jesus from Manchester City, who are considerably less likely to so willingly do business with the Gunners again for fearing of strengthening them further.
Blackburn (1994/95) – form a striking acronym
Bukayo Saka, Jesus and Gabriel Martinelli is a phenomenal frontline but where is the clever acronym? SJM? Nonsensical. JMS? That’s not a thing. MSJ? Absolutely embarrassing.
It’s admittedly not a thing the English have fully embraced – both of the most acronymable forward partnerships in Premier League history were the ‘SAS’, first of Sutton and Shearer and then Suarez and Sturridge two decades…
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