2024-02-19 04:03:01
City and Liverpool can easily be crushed.
İdman.biz presents an article with a link to soccer.ru.
Arsenal are now among the contenders for the championship. In the top three with Liverpool and Man City, the Londoners are expectedly in the shadows – but it’s never too late to break to the top. Is there a possibility?
For the championship. Trainer for many years
No project will become a champion until it has a strong, stable coach. At Liverpool it was Klopp, at City it was Guardiola, at Real Madrid it was Ancelotti, at Barca it was Xavi who made the difference, etc. In the case of Arsenal, we can finally confidently call Arteta. He’s seen everything with the Gunners. He survived the darkest times – and remained in the team.
This is already the fifth year. The Spaniard gained experience and grew with Arsenal. Changed the approach, raised leaders. Then there was a test with the championship race. Now the Londoners are the same ambitious titan of the Premier League as City and Liverpool. The manager played a huge role in this development.
Against. Arteta makes mistakes
True, inexperience still affects the work of the “gunners”. Last year, due to the freshness and crisis of City’s main rival, Liverpool, they burst into 1st place. They held him as long as they could. But by spring, experience and the bench came to the fore.
The Gunners played in the League of Legends, while City competed in the Champions League. The Londoners were losing altitude, the “citizens” continued to wait and shortened the distance. Arteta lacked space for rotation, so Odegaard, Saka, Martinelli and others played match after match. By the time of the head-to-head meeting, the only acceptable outcome for Arsenal was victory. Lost.
Now – the situation with the goalkeeper team. The team had an excellent goalkeeper Aaron Ramsdale – but they decided to sign David Raya to join him in tandem. We counted on competition, plus the Spaniard is better at playing the ball. Only the goalkeeper is not the position in which such moves work (the example of Chelsea is fresh in my memory). Ramsdale is now considering leaving.
Everyone makes mistakes – but everywhere there are consequences. For Arsenal it is impossible to beat their competitors.
For the championship. Youth and anger
The main thing is that Londoners have a fairly young core. The team is located just behind the top 5 clubs with the youngest roster. On the attack flanks are 24-year-old Martinelli and 22-year-old Saka. Jesus is 26 years old, Havertz, Rice and Odegaard are not even 26, the situation with the rest is the same. Freshness is often a plus for them.
Against. City and Liverpool are stronger at the moment
By the way, the Merseysiders also have young leaders – the team was recently renewed and said goodbye to the old-timers. In any case, right now they, like City, are working more cohesively.
The “citizens” sagged at the beginning of winter – but this was not due to the age of the leaders. It’s more about lack of teamwork and a busy schedule. The players still needed to get used to the newcomers. But now things have moved on – plus Kevin De Bruyne has returned.
The “townspeople” are older – but they have been through thick and thin. Silva, De Bruyne, Rodri, Grealish, Walker, Stones add brutal confidence to the youth. Together they managed to feel the tension of the championship race – and learned to perform their best under these conditions. Chasing Liverpool and competing with Arsenal is nothing new for the Sky Blues.
For the championship. Competent transfer policy and healthy atmosphere
The main difference from Arsenal during their worst crisis was that the management did not know how to behave in the market. It took time to form a behavior model, but now it is bearing fruit. The Gunners often turn to young performers – some come out of the academy, others are scouted in Europe. And those who are ready to fight are given a chance – but the rest are also allowed to grow in rent. So, the club signed Saliba back in 2019, but immediately returned it to his native Saint-Etienne so that the centerback would gain muscle. They also approached the development of Balogun – he is now at Monaco.
Another example is the signing of Zinchenko and Jesus. The period of Arteta’s career at Man City played a big role here. He is very familiar with these performers – and therefore the risk from transfers was small.
Londoners avoid unnecessary expenses. There is an anti-example of Rice – but Declan gets his money’s worth. At the same time, the Gunners remained true to themselves in the negotiations for Mudryk, when Shakhtar was looking for a team for him. Chelsea agreed to spend money and offered 70+30 million euros. Arsenal refused to negotiate. Or Mbappe, who has one foot in Real Madrid. He will be a free agent in the summer; Liverpool and Arsenal were interested in the forward. But no one wanted to break the wage system.
Against. The top striker never arrived
But where is the elite finisher on the team? The Gunners definitely need him. Jesus is not suitable for this role – the Brazilian sets the volume without the ball and often drops into the role. But there is no top forward who would take the lead in such situations.
Throughout January, the selectors tried to persuade Brentford to sell Tawney – the Bees put an astronomical price tag on the striker.
Now we’ve switched to Pedro Neto from Wolverhampton. But this is the same all-rounder with 2 goals in 15 league matches.
Readers’ opinions. Calculate the moment of the Gunners’ peak
In terms of momentum, Arsenal is obviously inferior to both City and Liverpool. So we can hardly expect anything this season. But it will be more interesting further. The Reds will say goodbye to Jurgen Klopp and face the unknown. Not like Manchester United after Ferguson, of course, but the effect may be the same. And Guardiola has already reached his peak with the “citizens”. The question is when the aging leaders will be overtaken.
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