Arsenal pushed Manchester City all the way for the Premier League title, but in the end they came up just short. But while fans (and even City's players!) have implied it was a bottle job on the part of Mikel Arteta's men, Adam Clery thinks they were actually the division's best team last season. The problem? Making the right tactical decision at just the wrong time.
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00:00Oh
00:03What am I pedigree chums Adam Cleary from 442 here and after a whole season
00:09Spent with my heart singing. It's one true song that I thought Arsenal would win the league
00:15Here it is. This is the why Arsenal didn't win the league video, and that's the entire intro
00:24All right the very short answer why this team did not win the Premier League is of course
00:30Manchester City now whether you regard that answer as being the product of a
00:35generational coach like Pep Guardiola pulling together an
00:39era-defining squad of players and managing them near faultlessly
00:42Or you regard it as something that's inevitably going to be settled in a court of law and several prosecutions
00:48That's down to you, but it doesn't change the answer
00:50But the thing is this Arsenal team here actually went undefeated against Manchester City in three games
00:57This season two wins and a draw in fact they went undefeated against the entire
01:02Traditional top six this season so it's not that that Man City side man for man were better in fact if you go back and watch
01:10The Arsenal versus Man City games from this season and compare them to the Arsenal versus Man City games from last season
01:15You could very easily make the argument that this team didn't just improve when compared to City
01:21They actually surpassed them and this isn't really gonna be the thrust of the video
01:24But I just want to illustrate this point with two very very very useful clips right the previous season
01:30Arsenal simply had no idea how to contain Manchester City. They were getting pulled all over the place
01:35They were their play things
01:36but the way they
01:37refined the system and the way they added players to the squad the way they evolved from one season to the other
01:43Meant that all of a sudden they could contain Manchester City like this is them keeping them completely penned in just sort of
01:49Twelve months later, so why then why wasn't that enough?
01:54Why did Man City still finish two points ahead of this squad? Where did it somehow fall apart for them?
02:00Well, I have been back through the entire season and I will tell you right now the problem
02:04Was Declan Rice. I'm joking
02:08I'm kidding. I'm not I'm not I'm not it's not Declan Rice at all. I'm not blaming. I'm not blaming him
02:13This isn't one of those channels is it get out of the comments right the problem was actually
02:17This sort of like sitting number six position that he was in and our tech
02:20I saw I knew he had to make a change
02:22but he didn't really I don't trust himself or he was a bit hesitant and he was a bit slow and doing it all kind
02:28Of fell apart. Look look, I'll explain so Arsenal in 2024 went on an absolutely
02:33Unbelievable run from the first game of the year right the way through to finish they dropped four points
02:39They had one draw and one defeat and everything else was a win
02:43And the thing is people will focus in on that 2-0 loss to Aston Villa as where it got away from them
02:48but the fact is you are allowed one draw and one defeat in 18 games and
02:54Still win the league like that wouldn't even be league winning form
02:57that would be record-breaking league winning form where the focus really needs to be is in December because after hanging on against Wolves and
03:06Stealing a last-minute winner against Luton Town
03:09Arsenal then failed to win four of their next five games
03:13The Gaston Villa and Liverpool are good sides who were both in great form at the time so that can happen but defeats to both
03:19Fulham and West Ham
03:21Simply cannot and if we look at Arsenal's most used 11 in
03:252024 where their form has been more or less untouchable and we compare that to the 11 they used most in that December
03:33You can see one key very important difference Declan Rice was at the time still being used as Arsenal's main
03:41Pivot to play he was the one receiving the ball off the back line
03:44he was the one passing at first into midfield trying to break the lines trying to orchestrate the play and it just
03:50Didn't work like this is the starting lineup when they got beat against Aston Villa
03:55This is the starting lineup when they drew with Liverpool
03:57This is the starting lineup when they got beat off West Ham
03:59And this is the starting lineup when they got beat off Fulham for a team that went on to average something like nearly
04:05three goals a game all season
04:08They only got two in these four games and that just was awful
04:13And we talked about it at the time here on the channel
04:15You could see majorly what the problem was teams were low
04:18blocking Arsenal denying them the space and using Declan Rice in this role when you need a player to
04:24Find those passes between the lines to split defenses. It just wasn't his game
04:29He kept going from side to side. He kept going from left to right
04:31He was playing safe passes when they needed the word
04:35I want dangerous ones and you're never gonna see a better example of a problem in football than this
04:40Like this is Declan Rice's pass map from one of those games
04:44I forget which and he's just so rarely able to move it forward through dangerous areas constantly going side to side
04:51It's constantly going to the flanks. There's no
04:54Incision, there's no cutting edge
04:55And I think genuinely when Arteta looks back at this season something he will majorly regret about this period of games is that in all
05:02of them
05:03Jorginho sat on the bench as an
05:06Unused substitute he didn't even get a go and as absolutely anybody who watched Arsenal this season will tell you when he did
05:13Finally trust him in this role with Rice at the left side number eight and Havertz up front
05:18Arsenal just looked so much more dangerous like Porto were able to stonewall them in the first leg
05:23But they went with this approach in the second leg and cut clean through them
05:27Now we could break the reasons for this down into all manner of statistical minutiae
05:31but if I just show you side by side Rice's passing statistics from the Premier League this season and
05:36Jorginho's passing statistics from the Premier League this season. You'll see they're both excellent passes of the ball
05:42There's not much difference there, is there?
05:44But for every single one of these numbers that accounts for breaking the opposition down for making the kind of passes
05:49They're trying to stop you making
05:52Jorginho doesn't just shade Rice. He's way ahead of him. And okay, you might be looking at that going
05:57It's not miles better at him
05:59It's only like a couple of percentage points here or once or twice more per match there
06:03But like when teams are trying to stop you playing through them that once or twice per match
06:09Could be the once or twice that gets you the goal that wins the game like trust me
06:12that is huge, but the reason I think Arteta will regret how we handled this run of game so much is because
06:19This Jorginho thing wasn't some like solution. He just stumbled across at this part of the season
06:25It wasn't something the three ghosts visited him in a dream at Christmas and told him to do
06:29He already knew from the very first game
06:32This is kind of how he wanted to play you go all the way back to the community shield
06:37Arsenal's first game of the season the one where we all started to believe they could actually do it and
06:42This was the starting 11 Declan Rice was not being used at the number six
06:46He was the left-sided number eight already and if I'm remembering this rightly
06:50I do think that caught a lot of people off guard like I certainly assumed they brought him in
06:54To play him here not to play him here and yet if we look at his heat map from that day
07:00Obviously, he's doing a lot of work in front of the back four. You're playing against Manchester City
07:03You've got to have that discipline
07:05But he's also able to get into this half space into this channel to affect the attacking play to get himself into the box
07:12Now obviously the injury to Thomas party forced them to have a rethink here
07:15But what's even crazier about the Georgina situation is his first solution wasn't just to put rice there
07:22He did give him a run in this position in the team early on now early on in the season
07:28you may remember Arsenal had Manchester City at home and
07:31Chelsea away
07:32Which if you want to win the title is a fairly decisive set of back-to-back fixtures and with party injured
07:38Rice did not play here or Teta still wanted him here. And here is the moment that I think
07:45ultimately cost Arsenal League right because this
07:48System with Georginio in it worked in both of those games, right, but crucially also
07:56No, it didn't it was the introduction of Kai Havert in both of these matches
08:01The first of all allowed them to get the winning goal against Manchester City and then later brought them back from 2-0
08:07Against Chelsea and I think and admittedly, I don't know you'd have to ask our Teta yourself
08:11But I honestly think that in this part of the season something happened in his brain
08:16He saw how important Kai Havert was going to be for the rest of the season and knew
08:21He had to find a way to include him in his starting 11
08:25But he didn't want to be in Ketia or Jesus. He didn't get want to get rid of the center forward for him
08:31So instead he sacrificed
08:33Georginio he put Rice in at the number six
08:35But Havert in the left side of number eight and decided to go with that and thus if we go back to those
08:41Four starting elevens where it all went wrong for Arsenal this season. You will see in three out of those four
08:47That's exactly what he did Declan Rice the number six Kai Havert the left side of number eight and a proper
08:54Center forward. In fact, the only game he didn't play there was the West Ham match when he was suspended
08:59So that we can reasonably assume that it would have been four out of four if he'd been available and after that Fulham defeat
09:05Arsenal were fourth in the table. It looked like it was slipping away from them
09:09Our Teta went back to the drawing board assessed that Havert wasn't the problem. He still needed him in the side somewhere
09:15Restored Georginio pushed Rice further forward and allowed him to play up front and wouldn't you just know it?
09:21He only went and cracked it from that Fulham game onwards where Arsenal only dropped
09:26Four points across the season Kai Havert started all
09:30But three of those as the center forward not the left side of number eight and also double wouldn't you just know it?
09:37One of those games he started as the left side of number eight was the defeat to Aston Villa where again
09:43Arsenal just did not look right and honestly
09:47I think that is why Arsenal didn't win the league this season
09:51Clearly our Teta knew the best way to utilize this midfield from the very first game of the season
09:57But just that injury to Thomas Partey and knowing knowing he had to get Kai Havert in there somewhere
10:04But just doing it in the wrong way initially
10:08Those are the margins and it is just margins by the way
10:12Like I cannot stress enough how 89 points should be enough to win you the Premier League title
10:18It was literally the points total Man City got last season when they won the Premier League title
10:24Like here is a graph the Athletic did of all the points tallies from all the Premier League winners
10:29This is where Arsenal come on that graph 89 points plus 62 goal difference
10:36Arsenal would have been champions in 16 of the last 28 seasons
10:41In fact, if you were to gather all the infinity stones and wish to raise Pep Guardiola from time itself
10:46I think there's only like four seasons
10:49Arsenal wouldn't have won the league with that points total. That's it's not fair
10:53But that's just what they're up against and while I'm here. Can we just talk about the word bottle, please?
11:00Like I know I'm not really talking to you. I know you're fairly normal and sensible
11:04This is mostly just for lads who have like footballers as their Twitter avatar
11:07I'd have never seen a living human breast in their entire life
11:11But just this is not what bottling a season looks like. Bottling something is when you are in complete
11:17Control of it and you somehow lose your mind and throw it away
11:21Right at the halfway point of the season despite that bad run of games Arsenal had
11:26They were level on points with Manchester City and then in the second half City just got two
11:32More points and because of the fact City had to play that weird tournament in the middle of the season
11:37They were always games behind Arsenal. So while Arsenal did have more points and we're top for long stretches
11:43They were never really in control of it
11:45The fact is they upped their levels from last season to get nearer to a points total that would win it
11:51It's just that Man City
11:53Despite weirdly not looking anywhere near as good as they did last season managed to up theirs as well. I think
12:00Honestly, this was the best side in the Premier League this season
12:04And yeah, I know you can just sit there and be like whether it was the best side Adam
12:07Why did another side managed to get more points than they did and you absolutely I've got no comeback for that
12:12You are absolutely correct. You win. Absolutely nothing for me saying
12:16Oh, I thought they were good though, but I did think they were good though
12:21I thought they deserved to win the league now, of course
12:23The really big question is can they regroup can they go again?
12:26Can they up these levels once more or potentially just capitalise on Man City's dropping ever so slightly and we will answer that
12:35Another day in the meantime though, if you have enjoyed this video Arsenal fans
12:38We have done so many on you guys this season because you've been by a mile the most tactically interesting team in
12:44The Premier League and of course that will still be the case next season
12:47I assume so please you subscribe to us
12:49here on 442 and you won't miss any of those and of course if you just like reading stuff because who doesn't
12:56Pretend I caught that this is the latest issue of 442 is the euros preview edition and oh, yeah
13:01Speaking of the euros we will be covering the ever-loving snot out of that
13:05So another reason to click that lovely button you can get me on all the socials at Adam Cleary CL
13:09er why that's there the 442 socials are in the corner of the video and
13:13Look, I would just like to know how Arsenal fans feel about all of this because it must be absolutely gutting
13:19But days have passed now many many days. So you should be feeling more normal
13:24So in the comments below, please we would like to gauge the mood of Arsenal fans
13:27Did you deserve to win it? Did you not deserve to win it? Will you win it next year?
13:30How are you feeling what needs to change all thoughts all feelings all comments? Absolutely. Welcome until next time. I think that's every single thing
13:37I've got to hit on my signing off the video checklist
13:40And if not, it's too late to go back and check now. So bye
13:44Bye. Bye. Sorry Arsenal fans. Sorry. I thought you'd do it. I did but it's how it goes
13:52Bye