Time flies when you’re a big club but can’t win the league.
Rebuilding never seems complete; transitions turn into droughts and, before you know it, years become decades.
It’s more than two decades since Arsenal won the EPL title and Generations Y and Z have grown up wondering.
Liverpool were lost in the Atacama Desert for 30 years before reclaiming the crown.
Manchester United are still stumbling in their own Sahara since Fergie left and as for Spurs…
At least they’re good for a laugh – especially for Gooners: their grandparents can’t remember 1961.
But, worryingly for Arsenal, the sense that it might be on the way is becoming familiar. On the way but not yet arrived.
It’s been like this for a few seasons.
An early FA Cup win for Mikel Arteta over Chelsea in 2020 proved a false dawn and the 2020-21 campaign saw them finish eighth – their first outside Europe for 25 years.
Then came the Amazon Prime ‘All or Nothing’ season when they started with three defeats in a row but narrowly missed the top four.
2022-23 saw them lead but wobble, and get outclassed by Man City while last season, reinforced by Declan Rice and Kai Havertz, they gave City a fright.
And so to this season with City still there, immovable, implacable, imperious: the first club to win the league title four times in a row.
That said, more encouraging for Arsenal, the sense of inevitability about another City title has slightly diminished.
It’s the final season of Pep Guardiola’s contract and you wonder if he’s going to be quite so manically motivated for a fifth after making history with four.
You wonder if the players will be, and you also suspect that Pep may prioritise Europe where he has seriously under-achieved with just one triumph in eight attempts.
The other elephant in City’s locker room is the case of the 115 financial fair play charges hanging over the club.
The EPL has promised to deal with it during the season and just how it plays out and whether it affects the team on the field we can only speculate.
There will be all sorts of rumours – from Pep resigning, relegation to the umpteenth tier or getting off scot free.
But Arsenal must turn a deaf ear to all that and make sure they’re in a position to take advantage whatever happens to their rivals.
Right now, no one else looks capable of mounting a challenge. Liverpool are bedding in a new manager and an entire backroom regime.
United have been badly hit by injuries just as things were looking up; Chelsea remain a basket case in the transfer market under a new boss.
Aston Villa have also been busy but not noticeably improved and will have a lot on their plate as rookies in an elongated Champions League.
You can’t see either Spurs or Newcastle being anywhere near.
But there are reasons for Gooner optimism regardless of City’s fate in court.
First there’s Arteta, himself, a real Pep clone who learned at the master’s knee.
He combines astute signings with shrewd tactics and he’s immensely popular at the club.
You get the sense the players really are playing for him, but he has a ruthless streak.
He backed himself to spend over £110m on Rice as a game-changer and it almost worked in his first season.
He was proved right about David Raya being a better keeper than Aaron Ramsdale and managed to extract £34m for fan favourite Emile Smith-Roe.
He may even feel that a season-long injury to his third big signing of last year – Jurrien Timber – was the difference.
The versatile Dutch defender will be like a new signing this season, assuming he recovers from yet another knock.
Arteta’s perfectionist trait was evidenced by his shoring up what is already the stingiest defence in the league with Italian full-back Riccardo Calafiori, a £42m capture from Bologna.
This willingness to splash the cash is still hard for many Arsenal fans to get used to as the ownership hasn’t changed: but their approach has.
It’s still Kroenke Sports & Entertainment (KSE) owned by Stan Kroenke who hardly endeared himself to the fans in his early days.
Keeping mum over a club in decline, he was the subject of protests and known as ‘Silent Stan’ for his reluctance to either speak or spend in the late Wenger era.
Because of the debts caused by the shift to the new stadium, he didn’t exert full control until 2018, but it is his son, Josh, who has done the talking – and the spending.
One of the more acceptable faces of trans-Atlantic ownership, he spends his dad’s money like a genuine fan.
It has worked with the franchises the Kroenke’s own, all of which have won trophies in American sports.
But Josh Kroenke is a keen student of the game and has formed a successful partnership with Arteta and sporting director, Edu.
This trio run the football side and pose a threat to City’s hegemony.
There are not many weaknesses. In Martin Odegaard, Arsenal have their very own Kevin de Bruyne, but what they don’t have is a Haaland.
Still, they were the highest scorers last season with goals coming from all areas of the pitch including both full-backs.
With Rice a commanding figure, goal threats from both flanks in Bukayo Saka and Gabriel Martinelli, they’re not far off matching City man for man.
And if Arteta can keep Gabriel Jesus fit and get more goals out of him, the Brazilian could finally realise his full potential.
If there’s any slip by City, it could be enough to swing the title.
The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of FMT.