By Victor Obioha
Is this the Arsenal we all know? The nearly team, the team that does everything right the whole season only to lose their nerves and bottle it when the going gets tough. Always a bridesmaid, never a bride. Like an elephant perched precariously on the branch of a tree, Arsenal inevitably surrenders top spot no matter how long they hold on to it.
This season looked like the season The Gunners were finally going to shake off the near-success syndrome that has plagued them for years, that was until they lost to title rivals, Man City. It looked like text book Arsenal, folding under pressure when they Mikey needed to show steely resolve.
Delusional Arsenal fans may accuse me of a premature declaration, after all, they still have five games to go while Man City have six, all hope is not lost. But, if precedent is anything to go by, the odds don’t look good.
Mikel Arteta arrived at the Emirates in December 2019 carrying the blueprint of a winning mentality; a disciple of Guardiola, a student of winning cultures, a man who spoke the language of elite football fluently. And to his credit, he delivered. He transformed a rudderless, directionless club into genuine title contenders. He got the fans dreaming again. He made Arsenal relevant again.
But that relevance soured as Arsenal fans got used to the hollow feeling of being perennial title contenders.
Ironically, Arteta is a victim of his own success. Before he arrived, Arsenal had long since stopped dreaming about titles. The obsession wasn’t the Premier League trophy, it was the top four. Season after season, the measure of success was simply clinging on to a Champions League place, squeezing into that fourth spot by the skin of their teeth. Arteta changed all of that. He got the Gunners firing on all cylinders again, with ambition, with purpose, with genuine menace. He rebuilt the culture so thoroughly that fans forgot what the old struggle looked like. Now, they not only expect titles, they demand them. The irony is exquisite, by dragging Arsenal so far forward, he made the finishing line feel even more agonising to miss.
His solitary contribution to the trophy cabinet? The 2020 FA Cup, nearly six years ago now, secured in his first season before anyone had even decided whether to take him seriously. This is without counting two Community Shield titles, a competition that’s regarded as little more than a curtain raiser for the new season. That is the sum total of silverware from a manager who fans expect much more from.
What makes it especially excruciating is how close they’ve come to tasting glory over the years. Three consecutive Premier League runners-up finishes have felt like a hungry man tortured by the aroma of a sumptuous meal wafting over from a table he does not have access to. How many near misses can this resilient fan base take?
And now, as if scripted by some sadistic football god with a grudge against the North Londoners, it’s happening again. At one stage this season, statistical models gave Arsenal a 97% probability of winning the title. Ninety-seven percent. You would back yourself to survive a game of Russian roulette with those odds. Yet here we are; back-to-back defeats, a lead that has evaporated, Manchester City breathing down their necks with a game in hand, and that all-too-familiar sense of deja vu.
A 2-1 home defeat to Bournemouth followed by a 2-1 loss at the Etihad have cut short premature celebrations of a first league title in 22 years.
So yes, delusional Arsenal fans, you may call this verdict premature. You may point to the five games remaining, to the Champions League semi-final still to be played, to the idea that this time – surely this time – it will be different. But history is not on your side. Pattern recognition is not on your side. And frankly, neither are the odds.
The elephant is on the branch again. And we all know what happens next.
Obioha Victor, a political science graduate of the University of Ibadan is an avid reader and sports enthusiast, whose interest spans politics, technology, and everyday life.
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