Arsenal’s season appraisal: So close but yet so far from UCL football

Well, really not that far for Arsenal and their fans with Europa League football back on Thursdays at the Emirates, thanks to a fifth-place finish. It was a tough fight put up by both North London clubs but unfortunately, the white side won the bragging rights for Champions League football next season.

Not sure if this is a run they will want to forget but surely a campaign Mikel Arteta and his Gunners would want to build on after missing out on fourth place. What initiated as the worst start to a Premier League season for the Gunners in 67 years, slowly turned into their best run throughout.

Over the first three opening games, which included an opening day defeat to Brentford, Arsenal lost all their matches, conceded nine goals (one 5-0 loss to Manchester City), and scored zero themselves. It was dire times and the usual calls for Arteta’s head followed thereafter.

Thankfully, the board kept their trust in him and things improved quickly; coupled with a confidence-building 6-0 win over West Brom in the second round of the EFL Cup, the North London side was off on their bike and embarked on their longest unbeaten run of games for 2021/22.

Arsenal’s Premier League stats

• Games Played: 38
• Wins: 22
• Draws: 3
• Losses: 13
• Goals For: 61
• Goals Against: 48
• Goals Scored Per 90: 1.58
• Goals Conceded Per 90: 1.24
• Clean Sheets: 13

After a rather embarrassing run out against his former club, Arteta managed to take his team on a run of 10 games unbeaten; drawing 2 and winning eight. This was then halted by another top-six club, Liverpool, who thrashed them 4-0 at Anfield.

Their longest winning streak was five games without dropping a single point. However, the Gunners were nowhere near their counterparts in quality. Against the usual English top-five clubs, Man City, Liverpool, Chelsea, United, and Spurs, they could only win three of the 10 games played between them and others fighting for the same spot.

The Gunners misfired in their cup runs

FA Cup: Third-round exit vs. Nottingham Forest
EFL Cup: Semi-Finals exit vs. Liverpool

What was really disappointing was their early exit from the FA Cup, the cup they love to win. Having played less football than many of their counterparts because of no European competitions, one would imagine them to be fully focused and driven on some silverware along the way in the quest for fourth.

The EFL Cup was always going to be difficult coming up against a club higher in the table and certainly a few years ahead of them. Getting knocked out in the semis by Liverpool? Not that bad of a run.

All in all: it was a decent run of results coupled with many setbacks that the manager struggled to deal with at times; but in comparison to the 2020/21 campaign, they got a European spot for next season and ended two places higher with more points garnered and more goals scored — the only downfall — was they conceded more goals.