But there’s no doubt that despite our successes, it hasn’t been without some issues this season.

On reflection, Arteta has done a phenomenal job considering the output of our attacking players. Martinelli scored once in the PL all season, Trossard has come up clutch at important times and Saka has been injured for most of the season. Odegaard has been injured a lot this season, as has Eze. Kai has been injured a lot as well. Madueke is so inconsistent and Gyokeres is not world class.

We’ve also had injury problems with White, Timber and Calafiori this season.

To win the PL and almost win the CL is actually a bit of a miracle if you think about it.

So what do we need to do this summer?

For me the main ones are at CF and LW. We’ve really had to dig deep and play well as a unit (which is good) but the best teams have that bit of magic, players who can create something from nothing when it matters. PSG have Kvaratskhelia, Dembele and Doue, City have Cherki, Haaland and others, when Liverpool were winning PL and CL they had Salah who would just go supernova. Bayern have a lot of attacking talent as well.

Arteta has done well to have control from our team but we need a bit of that attacking flair we had back in the 2022/2023 and 2023/2024 seasons, when it felt like we could always score 2 or 3 goals a game.

What are your thoughts? How can we kick on and be even more successful next season?

We are Premier League champions!

I doubt anyone is going to read this because it has been so long since I’ve posted on here, and I’m not even sure the NewsNow feed even works with this blog anymore.

I will try and gather my thoughts on how the season has been and perhaps write them here in a few days.

If you do happen to read this, then make sure you soak it all in.

It’s been a long, hard road and this is something we have waited for for so long.

Well done Mikel, well done to the players, well done to the staff and well done to the club.

And perhaps most importantly, well done to the fans.

COYG!

This season, the approach has clearly changed. Mikel Arteta has spoken many times about control and his ruthless nature in obtaining this has seen us have a more considered approach to games – with more control. It’s also led to the Arsenal manager dropping fan’s favourite Aaron Ramsdale – who to be fair to him has been outstanding for Arsenal and hasn’t done much wrong to lose his place.

What David Raya brings is more control, and is far more comfortable on the ball. In his first game for Arsenal, his distribution and control on the ball helped us win at a ground we hadn’t won at in 6 seasons. And despite having issues yesterday, we beat Manchester City for the first time in 12 attempts.

Based on Everton and Manchester City alone, we’re already doing better than last season.

Last season we were devastating in attack, with Saka, Martinelli, Jesus and Nketiah all in goalscoring form. This season we might not making as many chances but more importantly, we’re not conceding needless goals.

Being an attacking team last season, we were prone to conceding goals on the break. When we lost the ball in transition, we struggled. Unfortunately for Aaron Ramsdale, it happened twice this season and that’s when Mikel Arteta thought enough is enough.

Against Fulham when Saka cheaply lost the ball, the team were caught out for the opening goal. Then against Manchester United, Havertz lost the ball and they scored with Rashford on the break. It’s no co-incidence that after that game (even though we won), Ramsdale was dropped.

Raya has come in and we’ve beaten Everton, beaten PSV, drawn against Tottenham, beaten Bournemouth and beaten Manchester City. If you looked at that set of fixtures before we played them I don’t think many Arsenal fans would have thought we’d win all of those.

Of course, we lost to Lens (ironically, due to a Raya mistake) but Mikel Arteta doubled-down on this when asked after the Manchester City game, basically saying he is telling Raya to play like that and if anyone has a problem take it up with him.

Pep Guardiola is a man who is obsessed with control and you can see it in the way he gets his teams to play, which players he signs and his whole approach – so it’s hardly a surprise when Mikel Arteta has a similar outlook.

Will this new approach be enough? There’s still a hell of a long way to go this season but based on the games we’ve played already (the Everton and Manchester City games in particular) then Arteta is giving us the best possible chance.

Mikel Arteta has said that he wants two top quality goalkeepers, in keeping with trying to create a squad that have two strong options in every position on the pitch. And he’s also said that he’ll deal with having two top goalkeepers by rotating them. But it’s clear even now, at this early stage, that David Raya is now Arsenal’s Number 1.

The fact is, even from my untrained eye, David Raya has clearly added another dimension to this Arsenal side. Aaron Ramsdale is good with his feet, but David Raya is just far better – he is so reassured and the passing between him, the defence and even the midfield is obvious – his short and long passing is generally spot on, and he’s so calm with the ball at his feet.

With Ramsdale, there’s always a feeling he might give the ball away or make a mistake with the ball at his feet.

And the statistics back this up. This excellent video from Tifo Football IRL explains exactly why and how David Raya is a significant upgrade on Aaron Ramsdale.

One problem for Arsenal fans, and myself included when Raya first signed, is that Aaron Ramsdale is an excellent goalkeeper. I don’t think anyone can argue about that.

I don’t think many people would argue that he shouldn’t be England’s Number 1 as well, ahead of Jordan Pickford.

Ramsdale make some truly outstanding saves last season (and also the season before). There have been countless times where he’s made some really unbelievable saves which have caught the eye of fans and experts alike.

But the biggest problem I think with all this is that we’ve seen the evolution and growth of one of the most likeable players at the club in Aaron Ramsdale. He is known for his, let’s say, “spiky” nature on the pitch. And we Arsenal fans love it. But most importantly, he has come into the club at a young age (he’s still young now obviously) but we’ve seen him develop into one of the best goalkeepers in the Premier League.

We’ve seen him develop, mature and help this young Arsenal side almost win the Premier League. His improvement has been amazing and the problem for most Arsenal fans is that he will keep improving, given the trajectory he’s on.

But the bottom line is Mikel Arteta has seen an upgrade in David Raya who, he feels, can take Arsenal to the next level now. We’ve seen the Arsenal be ruthless in the past, including when he brought Aaron Ramsdale to the club and Bernd Leno ended up leaving. And we all know about what happened to Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang.

But how do you think this situation is going to affect Arsenal this season? And who do you think will end up being Arsenal’s Number 1 goalkeeper? Can Aaron Ramsdale work his way back into the team?

The Champions League is where it’s at, where all the best teams in the world are playing. Being stuck in the Europa League, and watching from the sidelines has been tough.

But after an outstanding season in the 2022/2023 season, we’re finally back.

And while the excitement is understandable, many Arsenal fans have got carried away with how we’ll do in the competition this season. Some Arsenal experts have said we’ll reach the Quarter Finals, others have said we’ll even make the Semi Finals.

But that is just delusional.

Mikel Arteta has done a phenomenal job at putting Arsenal back on the map. But that’s been in the Premier League. European football is a completely different ball game (pun intended) and how you perform at domestic level has no bearing on how you do in Europe.

Look at the great Arsenal teams that have played in the Champions League. We had the Double Winning 1997-1998 team, who failed to progress passed the group stage the following season. The outstanding 2001-2002 team failed to get passed the second group stage, and they again won the Double that season.

And then how about the immortal Invincibles team? They only managed to get to the Quarter Finals that year.

So to say we’ll get to the Quarter Finals or Semi Finals is quite frankly, insane.

And the we come to winners of the competition. You’ve got Manchester City, Real Madrid, Chelsea, Bayern Munich and Liverpool taking up the bulk of winners in the last 10 years, and bar Manchester City, all of those teams have history of winning the competition.

And look at the Europa League – previous winners include Sevilla, Villarreal, Atletico Madrid, Chelsea and Manchester United. Those are teams that aren’t exactly tearing it up in their domestic leagues, but they have European knowhow and experience.

We all know certain teams like Sevilla just have a knack for winning games in Europa, it’s in their DNA.

Arsenal have been in the Europa League for the past few years and their previous performances have been knocked out at the Round of 16, Semi Finals and the Round of 32 – hardly outstanding European pedigree.

And Mikel Arteta has limited experience in managing a team in Europe, which is another steep learning curve. He’s doing great things in the Premier League right now, but it still took time for him to reach that level – everything takes time.

So whilst it is amazing Arsenal are back where they belong, patience is needed. We might do well in Europe, but that won’t be this season – especially considering that we are fighting for the Premier League as well.

So sit back, enjoy the ride and let’s see how far we go in the Champions League, but don’t be disappointed when it’s not that far. That time is yet to come.

We haven’t won there since the 2017/2018 season, and lost the 4 of the last 5 there and drew the other.

Everton have officially taken over from Bolton Wanderers as our hoodoo team. But fortunately, Arsenal managed to break the hoodoo with a stunning strike from Leandro Trossard.

Gabriel Martinelli scored a well taken goal after 19 minutes, but the strike was ruled out for the closest and strangest of offsides. Despite the ball coming off an Everton player and Gabriel Magalhães playing the ball square (and not forwards), Eddie Nketiah was deemed offside in the build up.

Everton’s gameplay was clear, deny Arsenal space in behind, play with 11 men behind the ball, and catch us on the break or a set-piece.

It was always going to be a difficult afternoon for Arsenal, with most of the ball being in front of the Everton players, but we did manage to fashion a few chances.

Fabio Vieira got in behind on the left side and played a good ball across the goal but no-one was there. Saka and Odegaard combined well on the left which resulted in a shot from the Arsenal captain but unfortunately it was straight at Jordan Pickford.

But with Trossard’s introduction for the injured Gabriel Martinelli on 24 minutes, he was involved in most of our best attacking plays and on 69 minutes, Saka, Odegaard and Zinchenko combined well, with Saka cutting the ball back to Trossard, who first time scored an absolute stunner with this left foot.

It was truly an outstanding finish with his “weaker” foot and he deservedly won the Player of the Match award.

Predictably, once Everton conceded they actually decided to attack, primarily by long punts up the pitch by Jordan Pickford.

Arsenal managed to see the game out and took all 3 points from a place we’ve usually left with none.

A good, patience performance from a focused Arsenal team and we come home with all the points. Can’t ask for any more than that.

It’s finally go to a stage where I actually feel sorry for Harry Maguire now.

I completely agree with Michail Antonio, when he says it’s become embarrassing now. And even Harry Maguire’s Mum has chimed in now, saying that she wouldn’t wish this kind of abuse on anybody.

But how did we get here?

Harry Maguire joined Manchester United in the summer of 2019 for £80 million and still, even to this day, I don’t understand why. He had been at Leicester City for 2 seasons and for my money, hadn’t been particularly outstanding, much less be worth anywhere near £80 million. He wasn’t involved in any of Leicester City’s recent successes, not being in the team that won the Premier League in 2016 or won the FA Cup in 2021. The buy was baffling in all honesty.

But you can’t blame Harry Maguire for that. A big club like Manchester United comes along, offers your club a massive fee and offers you massive wages. Anyone in their right mind would be taking that offer, I don’t care who you are.

The blame is down to Manchester United, who seem to have one of the worst scouting teams in European football.

So in that sense, Harry Maguire was destined to fail from the very beginning.

Manchester United, for some reason which I cannot fathom, pay outrageous money for players who just don’t cut it. The spent £80 million on Harry Maguire, and look at what they have spent on failed players over the last 10 years:

By my calculations, that a whopping £665 million spent on players who haven’t improved the team at all, and I’m sure I’ve probably missed off a lot of other players from that list, including Daniel James which has just popped into my head. It really is astounding.

I’m not a highly paid employee of Manchester United, but for me none of those players in the above list are good signings, even at say £30 million. I honestly don’t know how a massive club like Manchester United decide on spending this kind of money on these kinds of players.

So back to Harry Maguire.

Manchester United have a reputation for vastly overpaying for players, leaving most of them in a position where they don’t perform well for the club (shocking) and then have a depreciating asset on extremely high wages.

That’s why from the list above, only Pogba, Mkhitaryan, Bailly and Lukaku aren’t there. The other players are on crazy money and why would you want to walk away from that?

Maguire got a lot of flack for not moving to West Ham United in the summer, which was reportedly very close. However it collapsed because the defender couldn’t agree a severance package with Manchester United.

People will say he should have gone regardless just to get first team football, but when have you seen a footballer walk away from money. They have agents working for them, making sure that they get exactly what they’re worth, or in Maguire’s case what they’re due. If he was on a long contract and was due to be paid a certain amount, you would be stupid to leave that on the table, especially the way Manchester United have treated him.

And then we come to Gareth Southgate’s role in all of this.

He will clearly pick Harry Maguire for his squad, regardless of whether he never plays for Manchester United.

Harry Maguire would have had a chat with Southgate about his England place, especially considering there is a massive tournament next summer. Most International managers usually say that they need to be playing regular football but obviously Gareth Southgate has said you’ll be in the squad no matter what – hence why Maguire wasn’t really going all out to join West Ham United.

So when it comes to this whole mess, there’s no-one to blame except Manchester United and Gareth Southgate.

The bottom line is that it’s not Harry Maguire’s fault he’s not being picked for Manchester United, and it’s not Harry Maguire’s fault he’s being picked for England.

Our results at Everton in previous years is as follows:

2022/2023 – Lost 1-0
2021/2022 – Lost 2-1
2020/2021 – Lost 2-1
2019/2020 – Drew 0-0
2018/2019 – Lost 1-0

In fact, the last time we won was in the 2017/2018 season, when we beat them 5-2 thanks to a Mesut Ozil and Alexis Sanchez masterclass.

That is an atrocious record given Everton are not a good team. Every time this fixture comes around, it’s the same narrative every time – Everton are a team struggling to pick up points, they then play us, make it physical and “turn things around”. We literally hand them 3 points every time to kickstart their season.

Our record in the North West on the whole is poor. Every time we go to Goodison Park, Anfield, Old Trafford or the Etihad, I am filled with dread. I have no idea if it’s the travelling, the distance or just the air, but we have a massive problem when it comes to playing in that area of the country.

So the big question is can we get a result tomorrow? Or will Everton predictably make it tough for us and grind out a narrow win against us?

Leave your thoughts in the comments section and let me know if we can finally break the Everton hoodoo this season!

The problem is Manchester City are a completely relentless beast. In previous seasons they have strung together 12, 13, 15, 16 and even 18 game winning streaks. They have a formidable squad and have a cheat code striker. Looking at their remaining fixtures, you wouldn’t bet against them winning them all.

If we win all our remaining games, we win the league. If Manchester City win all their remaining games, they win the league. Against any other team in world football, you could see them dropping points. But this is Manchester City.

Getting 3 points yesterday was vital as that would allow us to still lose at The Etihad and win the title. 1 point, which ever way you look at it, wasn’t enough.

And the painful thing is that we were 2-0 up and cruising. Arsenal were phenomenal in the first 40 minutes, and were deservedly ahead with Martinelli and Jesus getting on the scoresheet. Arsenal were causing Liverpool all kinds of problems and Trent Alexander-Arnold and Andy Robertson (as well as Virgil van Dijk) were having a torrid time.

Arsenal had Liverpool exactly where they wanted them.

But then it happened. Anfield was as quiet as I’ve ever seen it and Xhaka lit the touch paper. If there were two Liverpool players you didn’t want to hype up and rile it was Alexander-Arnold and Robertson. Martinelli, Jesus and Saka were all over them. Henderson screaming at TAA after Arsenal goals summed up Liverpool’s mental state.

They were done.

I don’t care what anyone says, Xhaka’s actions cost us the game. I am a huge fan of Granit, he is a strong personality and one of the leaders in the dressing room, and this season he has been absolutely fantastic – one of our best players by far. But yesterday, he lost his head when Arsenal were ice cool. We had tamed the beast that is Liverpool at Anfield, and all Xhaka managed to do was to fan the fire.

And it’s no co-incidence that minutes after that incident, Liverpool scored. The crowd were hyped up, the players spirits had been lifted and they were back in the game before half time.

Instead of keeping the Liverpool players on the ropes (they were playing as if Arsenal might score 3 or 4) instead we gave them hope. And at Anfield, that’s the last thing you want to do.

From then on it was all one way traffic. Liverpool were all over us and it was summed up by the possession and shot statistics by the end of the game. If we kept playing the way we were, we would have scored 3 or 4 goals and taken home all 3 points. In the end, it ended 2-2 and we could have lost.

Salah missed a penalty in the 50th minute and at 2-2 with 40 minutes left, we could have got battered like Manchester United did a couple of weeks ago. Once Liverpool and Anfield are rocking, no team can cope.

Fortunately, some excellent defending and even better saves from Aaron Ramsdale saved us from defeat. And the fact that Firmino scored in the 87th minute, meaning we were so close to a historic victory makes it all the more painful.

We should have won that game base on the first, but we also probably should have lost based on the second. If a football match was going to put you through the mill, yesterday was it.

A complete rollercoaster of emotions. I think the most disappointing thing was that after Jesus scored the second goal, I actually believed. Obviously Arsenal have been phenomenal this season, but like most Arsenal fans I suspect you don’t really believe you’re going to win the league until certain tests are passed.

When Arsenal made it 2-0, that was the first time I actually believed we would win the Premier League. In that moment, I thought to myself wow, we’re actually going to do it.

We were so dominant, in complete control and I truly believed that we would go on and win because we were flying at 2-0 up.

But a moment of madness from Granit Xhaka cost us dearly.

You might think to yourself I’m a pessimist but don’t believe the media around our 8 point lead. With Manchester City’s game in hand, it was always a 5 point lead. And now our 6 point lead is only really 3 points as we’ve played one more game than City.

And a 3 point lead at this stage against this relentless machine isn’t enough. We have to go to the Etihad and hope we don’t lose. If Manchester City win that game, the title race is over.

But what do you think? Can Arsenal still do it or is the title going back to Manchester? Leave your thoughts in the comments section below!

I noticed early on in the season that we’ve been scoring an unusual amount of left footed goals, although that’s in part to having a few left-footed players in the team – Bukayo Saka, Granit Xhaka, Martin Odegaard and Oleksandr Zinchenko just to name a few.

But interesting it seems like Gabriel Martinelli, who is right-footed – has scored a few goals with his left foot even though he plays on the left – so he has a threat coming inside but isn’t afraid to go on the outside either.

And we all remember Saliba’s screamer against Bournemouth (the first game) when he whipped it into the top corner with his left foot.

Take a look below at our goals summary for this season (Premier League goals only):

You will see that Martinelli, Jesus, Xhaka, Odegaard, Saliba, Saka and Trossard all have scored more than 20% of their goals with their weaker foot, and in some cases much higher than that.

Arsenal have scored 62 goals in the Premier League this season – and 3 of those were own goals – which interestingly 2 resulted from right-footed crosses from Saka (Crystal Palace and Tottenham) and the other the very satisfying “header” from ex-Arsenal goalkeeper Emi Martinez from Jorginho’s 20 yard strike.

The variation in the goals Arsenal score is one of the reasons many teams in the Premier League have struggled to stop us scoring. Martinelli and Saka are aggressive on the flanks, and can do damage on the inside or outside, Trossard is essentially two-footed and there is the belief Arteta has instilled into the players that they can play with a freedom and confidence where the players can try things on the pitch.

Given that Arsenal have had 14 goals scorers this season, and 8 of them have scored goals with their weaker foot, that bodes well into the remaining 13 games of the season.

And Reiss Nelson’s winner against Bournemouth? Scored with his weaker foot!

But what do you think? Does this make a difference to our attacking play? Will it help us get over the line? Drop your thoughts in the comments section below!