According to Arsenal legend Tony Adams, the Gunners reached their peak this season and will find it difficult to compete with Manchester City the next year since they won’t be able to attract players of the same level. Arsenal finished second in the Premier League, five points behind City, who won the league for the sixth time in the last six seasons.
The club led the standings for the majority duration of the season under Mikel Arteta, but in the final stretch, they gave up an eight-point advantage. The emphasis now is on how the Arsenal can improve their squad during the summer and get ready to challenge again not only for the Premier League title, but also perform their best in the Champions League.
Adams explains why Arteta’s Arsenal won’t come close to challenge City next season
Arsenal are once again looking to add serious talent to their squad after recruiting the likes if Gabriel Jesus and Oleksandr Zinchenko last summer. Declan Rice is wanted by Arsenal, but Adams, a former club captain, thinks they should be realistic and acknowledge that even duplicating this season’s performance could be beyond them. He wrote for The Sun:
“I do fear that this could be as good as it gets for them. I hate to sound like a prophet of doom, but I do believe that a lot of this team has already peaked. It was possibly the best season that many of them will ever have. I don’t think they’ll get to that level again.
“They’re definitely not going to challenge Manchester City next season and without serious recruitment this summer it will be a struggle for them to finish runners-up again.
“City’s B team is better than any other Premier League side and we know that Newcastle, Manchester United, Liverpool and Chelsea will all be much stronger next time out. So if Arsenal want to push on from here, they have to sign four big, experienced leaders this summer.
“The problem is that Arsenal want players who are already acclimatised to English football and they’re always going to be overpriced when you buy from your Premier League rivals. Unfortunately I don’t think they have the cash to buy everything they need this summer and that’s why I fear they have already missed their window of opportunity to win the title.
“Arteta said that none of his players had reached their peak and denied that they ran out of steam. But I have to disagree on both counts. Mentally, physically and emotionally, they ran out of resources when some lost form and others were ruled out by injury.
“I get the impression that Arteta didn’t have much faith in his back-up players and so he picked the same team week after week when some of them were crying out for a rest. Of course they’ll regret not snatching the title when it was up for grabs because a lot of things went their way in terms of going unbeaten in all of their London derbies and so many other big clubs messing up.”
This season, Arsenal struggled to replace important players like Gabriel Jesus and William Saliba who missed due to injury. The team needs investment, according to Arteta and sports director Edu, and a budget of £180 million has supposedly been made available. Rice is Arteta’s top target, but West Ham is anticipated to want close to £100 million for their star player.