A title charge next season? Arsenal are still a work in progress

Arsene Wenger’s men were 12 points behind Jose Mourinho’s side in the 2014/15 season

This past few weeks, a number of Arsenal players had taken to social media and interviews to proclaim a strong title push this coming season. Now obviously you can’t really blame them, back to back FA Cup victories have ended a barren spell without trophies.

"We had bad luck with injuries this season, but next season we can win the Premier League and go further in the Champions League,” said Mesut Ozil. Meanwhile, Tomas Rosicky had this to say, "consistency is key for any title challenge and that is what we have to show through the whole of next season. The potential is there for this side to challenge for the title."

A number of players jumped on the bandwagon, Aaron Ramsey, Danny Welbeck, Theo Walcott and inevitably so did Gunners boss Arsene Wenger said, "We have won the league in the past when we had the potential to do it and that is what we want to do again."

‘Potential’ is the perennial word for Arsenal fans. The team with the most potential, the players with the most potential, the boss with the most potential and the most potentially successful attempts of winning the league. From Theo Walcott to Jack Wilshere; to the Chambers, the Jenkins and the Gibbs of this world. The harsh reality is, if they had so much potential, they would have won the league by now, or last season itself.

The Gunners can’t use the word ‘potential’ as an excuse anymore, they no longer boast the youngest squad in the Premier League. Newcastle, Manchester United, Liverpool and Chelsea all have younger squads than the Gunners. This potential should have shown by now, but it hasn’t. Instead, there are weaknesses in this Arsenal team and the management. Sure they won the FA Cup back to back which is a great achievement but can they produce week in week out in the league and win it?

According to Whoscored.com, Arsenal’s biggest weaknesses is the prevention of opponents creating chances and defending counter attacks. But there are more issues that need to be fixed.

Depth in defence

The Gunners squad is one which operates on a knife edge defensively. To go into the season with only 2 starting center-backs and no backup was the most foolhardy thing any team could do.

Wenger’s squad was the only one without a recognized centre-half on the bench. Koscielny picked up a knock in the first half of the campaign and their season went kaput. Chambers played there, Debuchy played there and even left back Monreal played there. The Spaniard was expected to win aerial battles against long balls would you believe?

A team winning the league with a make-shift defence? You’ve got to be kidding right. Until Paulista was bought in January and Koscielny came back from injury, Arsenal had only one fully fit, recognized center back in Per Mertesacker.

Goalkeepers

Ospina (8 clean sheets) and Szczney(3 clean sheets) played half the season each and managed only 12 clean sheets, Martinez (2 clean sheets) which makes 3 goalkeepers with 13 clean sheets while Chelsea had 17 and used two keepers.

Poor handling, lots of errors and a makeshift defence in front of goal was how Arsenal’s early season can be described. Although a certain Petr Cech might change all that come next season- which gives the Londoners an assurance in goal.

Performance after conceding

Arsenal also don’t know how to win games after going a goal down. If a side scores first against Arsenal, there is a 50% chance that their opponents will win. Of the 14 games the Gunners have gone 1-0 down in, they have lost 7, drawn 6 and won just 1 game gaining just 9 points out of a possible 42.

That’s right, Arsenal have just won one game after conceding first. Lack of fighting spirit or lack of character or buckling under pressure, call it what you want, Arsenal need to dig in deep and win such games if they want to be Champions. Compare that to Chelsea, and the Champions have gone behind 9 times (that’s 5 games lesser than Arsenal that the Blues have restricted opponents from going ahead) having won 5, drawn 1 and lost 3.

Holding Midfield

Francis Coquelin had a breakout season in 2014/15, but the question is whether can he keep up the tempo

The emergence of Francis Coquelin was a huge contributor to Arsenal doing well in the latter half of the season. It was a stop-gap measure which worked for Wenger as he was just trying to bring in a cover for the injured Mikel Arteta.

Taking nothing away from the youngster’s performances, he played well, yet Stoke, Swansea etc beat them in the league while Monaco beat them in the Champions league and in those games Arsenal’s midfield was found wanting. The holding midfield role is something that needs to be strengthened and Coquelin should get enough support and competition next season.

The Gunners team of old had the likes of Patrick Vieira and Emmanuel Petit which one them league titles. Can the current midfield do that? Arsenal are also one of the least aggressive teams on the pitch in midfield in the premier league, there’s just not enough bite in their game.

Fitness

It was the same old story for the Gunners this season like the last one, unlucky with injuries. Arsenal had more players crocked this season than most of the premier league rivals which begs the questions- It’s the same league, it’s against the same players, but how come Arsenal players get injured the most?

The frailness of the Arsenal players and proneness for injury are well documented. Giroud can’t go a season without one, neither can Wilshere, nor can Walcott, nor can Ozil. Even if they’re out, isn’t it the fitness team’s job to ensure they are back as soon as possible?

Isn’t fitness one of the most important aspects of modern day football? Arsenal need to get their entire fitness regime and fitness coaches changed or improved if they are to win the league. Chelsea coped without Diego Costa, Man City did without Aguero. All the biggest teams have injuries, it’s about how you manage in spite of them as well.

A striker who can score 20+ goals

There are doubts about whether Olivier Giroud is in the same league as Henry, Bergkamp and Van Persie

The money was there to be spent and Wenger went ahead and bought Danny Welbeck. Now, he isn’t such a bad player mind you. But he isn’t prolific up front. Arsenal doesn’t have a center forward who can finish with 20+ goals a season in the league.

Thierry Henry, Dennis Bergkamp and Robin Van Persie, those guys could. Giroud and Welbeck, they still haven’t done it. The truth is, without Alexis Sanchez’s individual brilliance and a tally of 16 goals in the league, Arsenal would have probably finished outside the top four. Giroud managed 14 which is great but couldn’t keep himself fully fit.

Did Arsenal score the most goals? No. Did they concede the least goals? No. Were they unbeaten against top four opposition? No. They only had the potential to but did not manage to be the best. For all their effort this season points wise, they finished closer to Spurs than to Chelsea. Most people believe that Arsenal are 'just one or two signings away' from winning the title, but will this gap be bridged if another marquee signing is brought in? rather than looking at how they have failed collectively from the players to the management.

Chelsea are ready for next season

Meanwhile on the other side of London, Jose Mourinho celebrated the title for the briefest of moments. "This season we were better than last season and next season we hope to be better than this season," he said after the season came to an end against Sunderland.

"I always believe if you are not better than you were the season before, normally you don't retain the title, so if we want to win the title next year, and obviously we want to do that, we have to be better. I have to be better, these players have to be better and maybe our squad needs some fresh blood to put the current squad under a bit of pressure".

The Portuguese mastermind and tactician already has his sights set on next year’s trophy. It seems that while Wenger wants to realise his self-proclaimed prophecy of achieving Arsenal’s potential, Mourinho is gearing up and prepping for a spell of the dominance of the Premier League for the next few seasons.

Mourinho’s Chelsea are already the more complete and better team and are setting their sights on improving further and reaching new limits. While Arsenal are still getting their potential out of the potential pot.