They fought well, but they lost.
For Arsenal, who finished the season in second place in the Premier League, there couldn't be a more fitting expression.
They didn't achieve much in domestic cup competitions, but they reached the Champions League quarterfinals, a respectable result for a team that hadn't participated in the tournament for a long time.
Most importantly, there was a clear upward trend, promising even better seasons to come.
Last season, Arsenal also finished second in the league and made some key reinforcements in the summer transfer market.
They loaned Spanish goalkeeper David Raya, known for his footwork, pushing Aaron Ramsdale to the bench due to his frequent kicking errors.
They brought in Julian Timber, a versatile full-back who can play on both sides, to bolster their depth in the full-back position.
In midfield, they signed Declan Rice, a player coveted by every Premier League team, significantly improving their quality and depth with a hefty transfer fee.
They also signed Kai Havertz from Chelsea, a player who can play anywhere from the front line to the third line. Although his career at Chelsea was not considered successful, I want to say that in the end, he turned out to be a successful signing.
Due to the significant investment, additional reinforcements were not easy.
If there was one disappointing aspect, it was the lack of a backup for the right-wing position behind Saka.
But cheer! You've got Rice!
Looking at the season as a whole, I want to say that Arteta's vision was almost fully implemented on the field this season. The best part was the core line that extends from the center-back duo to Declan Rice and Martin Ødegaard.
The center-back duo of William Saliba and Gabriel Magalhães, now arguably the best in the league, showed incredibly stable defense throughout the season.
They were not overwhelmingly excellent in any single aspect like aerial control, speed contests, man-marking, or tackling, but they were not lacking in any area either.
As they had been playing together for a long time without injuries, their stability was doubled.
The appropriate distribution of roles in coming forward and covering each other made it difficult to find any gaps.
The league’s best record of conceding less than one goal per game proves this.
Both also had excellent build-up abilities.
They attempted over 2000 passes each and had a pass success rate of around 90%.
Considering that this is similar to Declan Rice, a midfielder, it's an impressive figure.
In Arteta’s back build-up system, the roles of the goalkeeper and two center-backs are clear:
make easy and accurate passes to the third line.
Special, penetrating passes are, of course, good, but they are meaningless if the primary principle is not maintained. Arsenal did this very well this season.
There’s not much more to say about Rice and Ødegaard, as it would be redundant.
I’ve already written about Rice in the Rice analysis article, so let’s move on.
Watch how Declan Rice plays, if you wanna make it easly
Profile name Declan Rice Birth 14th January 1999 Belong National team : England Club : Arsenal Position Midfielder There are plenty of people who are good at football in the world. However, finding someone who makes football easy is actually harder than yo
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This season, Ødegaard expanded his range of activities compared to previous seasons.
Originally, this season, Arsenal used the 4-3-3 formation more often than the previous 4-2-3-1 formation,
and Ødegaard was positioned a bit lower in the 2.5 line rather than the second line attacking midfielder he used to play.
By coming down, he was naturally further from the goal, but since he was in an area with relatively less defensive pressure, Ødegaard could freely exercise his creativity.
Naturally, the opposing defense was drawn out more deeply, creating more space for Saka.
This was possible thanks to Rice.
With Rice’s presence, Arsenal had one more midfielder capable of making attacking passes and penetrating runs, so Ødegaard didn’t have to carry all the attacking burden alone.
Paradoxically, with the burden reduced, he was able to create more chances.
This is proven by the statistic of making about 100 chances, an increase of over 40% from around 70 last season.
The player who had the most talk about him was Havertz.
He was a globally recognized prospect during his time at Leverkusen.
It’s rare to find a teenager in the Bundesliga scoring close to 20 goals as a second-line player.
But as everyone knows, his time at Chelsea was not very successful.
In a word, it was ambiguous.
No matter where he was placed – in the front line, second line, or third line – he showed ambiguous performances, making everyone wonder how to utilize him to unleash the potential he showed at Leverkusen.
Arteta seemed to have found the answer this season.
Havertz mainly played as the front-line striker, but he didn’t just stay there.
Since the teams that faced Arsenal mostly chose to sit back, unless you are a striker like Haaland who can win all physical battles and aerial duels, just staying at the front line is a waste.
Given that Arsenal’s line was high and they usually locked the opponents in their half, Havertz dropping to the midfield to participate in the build-up created a much better environment.
Effectively operating with four midfielders in the build-up, Arsenal could easily gain an advantage in midfield battles.
Once the build-up was established, Havertz started moving towards the box.
During his Leverkusen days, Havertz often scored by penetrating deep into the box, using the front-line striker as a decoy.
This movement was Havertz’s greatest strength.
In this season’s Arsenal, Havertz didn’t have a front-line striker as a decoy, but he had wing players to draw the defense’s attention and Ødegaard and Rice to provide transition passes to those wing players.
Taking advantage of these gaps, Havertz was able to do what he does best.
Although he showed some struggles at the beginning of the season, as the season progressed, this strategy started to work effectively. Havertz scored 13 goals in the league, doubling the 7 goals he scored for Chelsea last season.
Besides his movements, Havertz also brought the advantage of aerial duels to Arsenal’s front line, which was lacking with players like Saka and Jesus due to their height. Now Arsenal had an option they didn’t have before.
Another particularly encouraging aspect of Arteta’s Arsenal this season was set pieces. Arsenal scored 20 goals from set pieces, recording the most set-piece goals in the league. Their set-piece tactics, led by their dedicated set-piece coach, reached their peak this season.
Rather than chaotic goals, most goals came from well-designed plans. It was detailed and clean.
Everyone knows that set pieces can be a key when the game doesn’t go as planned. If you think about it that way, Arsenal managed to unlock that key 20 times, which shows how good a season they had.
Of course, not everything was perfect.
Although he accumulated a lot of stats, Bukayo Saka showed signs of struggling more than in previous years.
This might be inevitable.
The teams facing Arsenal no longer allow Saka to make one-on-one breakthroughs.
They form double teams with at least two players to block Saka’s breakthroughs.
This aspect was disappointing for Arteta, who wanted to implement isolation plays using Saka on the wing, and we need to see how he will improve this in the next season.
Goalkeeper David Raya, who was brought in on loan, had good foot skills and decent saves but often showed quite a few inexplicable mistakes like Ramsdale.
Most of these situations arose from poor judgment, either because he trusted his foot skills too much or followed tactical instructions too blindly.
If they are to sign Raya permanently, this aspect must be improved, and if not, they need to find a goalkeeper without such insecurities.
Next season, Arsenal will still be a strong contender for the title.
They have closed the gap with Manchester City, so Arteta and Arsenal will need to think over the summer about how to at least equal or surpass them.
The Premier League is no longer just a stage for the big six.
All 20 teams in the league are now closely matched and have been leveling up.
If they’re not careful, they might not catch up with City and could be caught by other teams instead.
And now, Arsenal fans are dreaming of a dream to be come true.
