EMIRATES STADIUM — Arsenal’s 1-0 win over Newcastle United eliminated the slim possibility that they could be pipped to Champions League football next weekend but also highlighted why this summer is so important.
The gap between the Gunners and champions Liverpool could end up being 18 points, or at best, nine. Either margin is large, and both confirm the chasm that exists between Mikel Arteta’s side and the top of the Premier League table.
Josh Kroenke, Arsenal’s co-chair, made promises about how to bridge that gap in the table in Sunday’s programme, and Arteta similarly vowed he would “make sure the ones upstairs do what they have to do” this summer.
“We all want to win it [the Premier League],” Kroenke said.
“We plan to invest to get behind winning and doing better next season. We’re delighted we have our sporting director, Andrea [Berta], who will play an important role in this.
“He is part of a unified and strong team, supported by the board, who are crystal clear on exactly what we need to do and the way in which we want to do it. The right way. The Arsenal way.”
Playing the right way was why Arsenal signed, for example, David Raya, whose skills with his feet were considered superior to those of Aaron Ramsdale.
However, his form as a passer in the second half of the season has tailed off dramatically and in the face of Newcastle’s fierce press on Sunday, he created work for himself on multiple occasions with basic errors.
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It might not be top of Kroenke’s shopping list, but competition for the No 1 spot might not be a bad second or third priority.
The top one must surely be a striker. Kai Havertz returned on Sunday, his first appearance since tearing his hamstring in February. His 15 goals in an injury-hit campaign have proven some doubters wrong, but he is not a natural in the position and injuries do happen.
“They need a centre-forward,” said former Gunner Paul Merson.
“If you took [Mohamed] Salah and [Virgil] van Dijk out of that Liverpool team, that team is not winning the league and that’s what has happened [to Arsenal].”
Sporting Lisbon’s Viktor Gyokeres has been repeatedly linked to Arsenal and reportedly will only cost them £60m, a snip in a market where there are a number of clubs who also need a front-line striker, and Champions League football could be the carrot to dangle and convince him to come to the Emirates.
‘When they make changes, it weakens the team’
The lack of depth in midfield has been keenly felt at Arsenal (Photo: Reuters)There are holes in the squad in midfield, too. Declan Rice was off the pace in the first half against Newcastle, touching the ball less than anyone else after returning from injury.
He did eventually make the crucial touch, whipping the ball into the far corner from the edge of the box in the 55th minute, but when he was struggling to get involved, Arsenal looked blunted in attack and defence. In their defeat to Paris Saint-Germain, it was Thomas Partey’s absence that was most notable. When either of those two is absent, in body or in spirit, Arsenal suffer.
To that point, Merson added: “They need back-up in big positions because when they make changes, it weakens the team.”
Beating Liverpool to the punch
Arsenal will also hope to change that with a deal for Martin Zubimendi, the defensive midfielder who pulled out of a move to Liverpool last summer. Jorginho is expected to return to Brazil, and Zubimendi is certainly an upgrade who will challenge for a regular place in the starting line-up.
The other concern is right-back, where none of Ben White, Jurrien Timber or Takehiro Tomiyasu has really made the position their own. Timber is the best of the three, but has spent more than 300 days out injured in his first two years at the club.
It is a lot of work to do over a summer when it feels as though all of the Premier League’s big hitters will be active in the transfer market. It has not always been Arsenal’s strongest suit. Arteta’s legacy probably depends on bucking that trend.
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