Morning all and happy Tuesday.
Let’s firstly address something. We would not have won the league if we beat Brighton and Nottingham Forest.
Yes, we finished just 5 points behind Manchester City. And those two defeats cost us 6 points. So mathematically we might have won the league. But it would ignore the fact that City played massively changed teams in their final two games.
I am pretty much sure that if City had to win against Brentford on the last day of the season, they would not have had John Stones, Rodri, Kevin de Bruyne, Ilkay Gundogan and Erling Haaland on the bench.
City won the league with 3 games to spare, and because of that they made big changes in their final three games ahead of the FA Cup and Champions League finals.
I look back to 1997/98 when we won the league with two games to go. We then lost our final two of the season.
The league table showed that we only finished 1 point ahead of Manchester United. But the title was lifted before the season is over. And winning that trophy does funny things to a team.
So we finished the season with 84 points. 15 more than the previous season. 23 more than the season before that. And 28 points more than Mikel Arteta’s first half a season.
Only twice in our history have we won more than 84 points – the title winning seasons of 2002 and 2004. It had been 15 years since we breached the 80 point mark.
We also scored 88 league goals this season – the most in our history. It is why I am a little baffled why some are calling for a new striker.
43 goals conceded was 10 more than City, and the main difference between the two sides. It is why we are looking at Declan Rice, Moises Caicedo and further defensive reinforcements.
Next season, if we can continue with the organised chaos up top, and have a tighter back 4, we will be in with a chance of winning it again.
There will be more post-season analysis to come. And much of it written by better people than me.
As someone who goes home and away (and one of the few daily Arsenal bloggers to do so), I will always try and speak from the heart.
On to the next season…
Keenos
She Wore A Yellow Ribbon 
Well said and much needed analysis. The moment we lost Saliba, things got a bit difficult. The defensive prowess and confidence passing from the back were the catalyst of the team’s struggle in the final 9 games of the season. It’s just got worse after Zinchenko got injured as well. I’m pretty sure if Saliba and Zinchenko were around until the end, things would have end much much different. That’s EPL for you. Fine margins decide a fine league.
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