Economic (and not mental) strength is the key factor in the title run in

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I am seeing as lot of chatter about how Arsenal “need to show mental strength if we wish to win the title”. I find this offensive.

In our last 11 games, we have won 8, drawn 3. That is 27 points from 33. An average of 2.45 points a game.

Over a 38 game season, that would take us to 93 points.

So according to those saying we need to show mental strength, us being on an incredible run and improving of our points per game over a 9 game average is not showing mental strength.

The truth is, those that are saying “Arsenal need to show mental strength” are just looking to use this to write a narrative further down the line if we do not win the league. That narrative will be “Arsenal lacked mental strength to win the title”.

Instead of saying Manchester City were fantastic, and showed record breaking form to keep up with Arsenal, it will be written that Arsenal did not have the mental strength to win it. And therefore we bottled it.

Mental strength is not the key factor in this title run in. Economic strength will be the difference maker.

Manchester City reportedly have a wage bill that is twice Arsenal’s. And the equation is simple – the more you spend on players wages, the better players you likely have.

There squad has also cost them £850m to assemble, against Arsenal’s £470m. We simply can not compete financially.

And this is shown in no better place than central defence.

Nathan Ake (£41m) picked up a thigh injury mid-week that will potentially rule him out for the rest of the season. In his place, Pep Guardiola can call on John Stones (£47.5m), Aymeric Laporte (£57m), Ruben Dias (£60m) and Manuel Akanji (£15m).

Meanwhile, William Saliba has a back injury that does not look like clearing up anytime soon. Mikel Arteta’s options are Rob Holding (£2m) and newly signed Jakub Kiwior (£20m).

As it is the right hand side of our defence, the boy signed from Bolton got the nod.

Now is it mental strength that the drop off from Saliba to Holding is larger than the drop off from Ake to Laporte? Or is it economic strength?

The naysayers will say “we need to spend more money” ignoring the fact that it does not matter how much money we spend, City will always be able to spend more. Anyone that expects us to compete financially with City needs to give their head a wobble.

I am confident in saying that if we had Dias as our 3rd choice central defender rather than Holding, we would have beaten both Liverpool and West Ham. This is not a slight on Holding. He is what he is. And he is not a £60m centreback.

Is being able to call on 2 of the most expensive defenders in Premier League history (Laporte and Dias), a show of mental strength? No. It is a show of economic strength.

Likewise, is having to play a £2m lad signed from Bolton a lack of mental strength? Or a lack of economic strength?

It is not Holding’s fault that he is not as good as Dias; it is not Arsenal’s fault that we can not afford to have mutiple £50m central defenders warming our bench.

Manchester City could go on to become the 2nd English team in history to win the trebele. They could also end up with the 4th highest winning points total in English top flight football history.

The narrative being preped is that Arsenal are bottling the title. But should it actually be that this potentially all-conquering Manchester City side is one of the greatest (and most expensively assembled) teams in football history?

My final thought is 1999.

Did Arsenal bottle the league? And the double? We were top of the league with two games to go, and had a penalty to beat Manchester United in the FA Cup semi-final? did we show we did not have the mental strength to win?

Or is it celebrated that the Manchester United team that became heroes in Barcelona were just a great team? And up there as one of the best of all time in English football?

Keenos

Is Barcelona man Arteta’s missing attacking piece?

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For weeks, I have been racking my head with who east attacker we could bring in this summer.

We have previously debated about whether Arsenal needed a striker or a winger. My opinion was simple. Someone to cover Bukayo Saka on the right whilst also being an option up top.

I think I have found my man – Barcelona’s Ansu Fati.

It was not too long ago that Fati was the brightest young thing at Barcelona. The heir apparent to an ageing Lionel Messi.

When Messi left in 2021, it was Fati that inherited his famous number 10 jersey.

In 2019, Bissau born Fati became the second-youngest player to debut for the club. He was just 16 years and 298 days.

6 days later he would score his first goal, and in doing so become Barcelona’s

youngest goalscorer ever and the third-youngest scorer in the history of La Liga.

The records would continue to fall for Fati as he became the youngest player in the history of La Liga to score and assist in the same game. He became the youngest player to appear for Barcelona in the Champions League and the 3rd youngest to play in the collection. He was not yet 17.

At 17 years and 40 days, he would become the youngest goalscorer in Champions League history. He would also be the youngest player to score two in La Liga and later score the 9,000th goal in Barcelona’s history.

Fati would break a 95 year old record when he became Spain’s youngest ever goalscorer at the age of 17 years and 311 days. And then it began to go wrong.

Fati suffered a knee injury against Real Betis and was subbed off at half-time; tests later confirmed that he tore the meniscus in his left knee.

Two days later he underwent surgery and the club announced that he would be out for approximately four months. Four became 9.

323 days after his last game, Fati would make his comeback. His return would last just 4 months before a hamstring injury ruled him out for a further three months.

In his absence, Barcelona have found two new home grown heroes – Pedri and Gavi. Their rise has seen Fati become the forgotten man of Barcelona’s wonderkids. Yet he is still just 20-years-old.

Barcelona’s money troubles have been well documented, and Fati is certainly one they might look to cash in on in the summer.

Pedri and Gavi’s rise over the last 18-months will allow them to do the unthinkable and sell “the next-Messi.” The Barcelona faithful would not be too critical of his departure due to their new heroes.

With his chequered recent history, Fati might have to accept that he has to rebuild his career away from his boyhood club. And potentially become a squad player in the short term. Arsenal could be a good bet for his next destination.

Fati is a versatile forward who started his career as a striker.

Two footed, he has played left, right and centre for Barcelona. This would make him the perfect Saka, whilst also providing that extra option behind Gabriel Jesus.

A 2019 profile by FourFourTwo magazine described him with the following words: “Standing at 5ft 10in, Fati boasts a powerful frame and brings a physical approach to the game which is often lacking among a technically gifted Barcelona side. Nevertheless, despite his robust physique, the La Masia graduate possesses outstanding dribbling skills which, when combined with his speed, makes him incredibly difficult to stop in one-on-one situations.”

The article also highlighted his eye for goal and ability in the air, as well as his vision and ability to control play from midfield.

Fati has the speed, acceleration, ambidexterity, low centre of gravity, and technical skills to make it in the Premier League. He has the intelligence and defensive work-rate to play in Arteta’s high press team.

He was once rated as an £80m player. Rumours are that he could be available for as little as £30m this summer.

Fati to Arsenal is certainly a deal to keep on eye on…

Keenos

Do Arsenal have a Partey problem?

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For much of the season, Thomas Partey has been the best defensive midfielder in the league.

A one man wrecking ball, he has been doing the job of two-me in the middle of the park.

His dominance has allowed Mikel Arteta to push Granit Xhaka further forward, creating overloads higher up the field.

Partey is not only a disrupter, he is also a good passer. Able to take the ball off the defence in tight spaces and pick out a pass. He quickly turns defence into attack.

Arsenal have reportedly been nursing him through injury issues this season, trying to keep him to playing once a week. And this has potentially caught up on him these last few games.

The Partey we saw against Liverpool, West Ham and Southampton was certainly not the Partey we have seen for the rest of the season.

He looks slower, both in body and thought. More passes getting misplaced. More poor decisions made. He looks a shadow of the man that drove us into a position to be champions.

With Partey clearly not at 100%, we have struggled.

7 goals conceded in 3 games is not the sign of champions. And whilst I am not blaming Partey, his drop in form has allowed our defence to be got at much easier.

Last season, our fight for the top 4 came to an end due to Partey’s injury. This season we have stumbled due to his loss of form – probably caused by injury.

Partey can not be relied upon. This is the first season since joining us that he has started more tHan 24 games. He has now started 26 out of a possible 43.

You can not expect to win trophies when one of your best players, and potentially your most important, is only starting 60% of the games.

It is not easy replacing someone like Partey.

We tried in January to sign Moises Caicedo, but couldn’t get the huge deal over the line. In the summer, Declan Rice will be our number one target. The only other man in the Premier League that can do what Partey does is Rodri. And I doubt Man City will sell us him!

It is important that we keep the core group of players together into next season. But we also need to build on the team and the squad. Solving the Partey problem might not improve us in individual games, but will improve us over the course of the season.

Declan Rice incoming….

Keenos