15 years ago, Arsenal would never have been a team that one would imagine sleeping out of the top 3 conversation. For the longest time in the last 15 or so years, the Gunners have been a team that was in a place to compete for the trophy however, the times have since become darker and in the last 4 years, they have had to watch even their immediate neighbors Spurs give them a headache when it comes to Champions League qualifications.
Clubs like Manchester United, Manchester City, Liverpool and Chelsea are willing to spend over 80 million pounds on just a single player something that Arsenal can’t seem to grasp. Newcastle will soon join this party and it won’t take long before Arsenal are pushed out of the top 6.
To make matters worse for most Arsenal fans, this season, Spurs have qualified for UEFA Champions league finals in a match that they will be playing against Liverpool on 1st of June and will have automatic qualification for next season’s UCL.
Arsenal have been falling down the pecking order both on domestic and European levels. In Europe, Arsenal for the last two seasons have struggled to make it to the UEFA Chmapions League only managing to qualify for Europa League and that was after dismal performances in the previous campaigns in UCL where they didn’t go past the round of last 16.
But here is the real kicker, Arsenal have been struggling to get back into championship winning ways and this Wednesday, they are presented with the rearrest of opportunities to win a European title as they take on London rivals Chelsea in a game that both teams are looking at for redemption.
Winning the Europa League will give Chelsea some bit of limelight for what has been a horrible season and for Arsenal, winning the Europa League will mean that they qualify for Champions League next season but also they can talk amongst clubs that have won a European title.
For Arsenal, failure to qualify for UCL will be a huge set back both as a team but also in the transfer market because of two major reasons. First, the owners of the club have stated that they aren’t investing more than 50 million pounds which is ironic because in that money, Emery can only get one player or two and given how some players have been poor, even their resale value may not get him enough money to buy players that can help the team become competitive next season and so he needs to win the title and get more money from UCL.
Secondly, Arsenal will not be able to attract players who consider themselves in the A-list category because they will always want to play in the Champions league, some of the players include Ziyek from Ajax, Rabiot from PSG, Partey from Athletico Madrid among many others.
With Newcastle getting taken over by Sheik Bin Zayad who is a cousin of the owner of Manchester City, I expect that Newcastle will be very busy in the market looking at how they can bring huge talents from around the world to help them compete for EPL.
This will only get worse for a club like Arsenal who is struggling even with the current crop of players that can’t deliver and seem like they are not even bothered when they string together a bunch of poor results.
Petr Cech recently came out and claimed that there isn’t much pressure at Arsenal even when they lose a game something that he says at Chelsea was unheard of as even a draw would see the dressing room in a bad mood.
For Arsenal, to become competitive in the near future, the owners will need to realize that Arsenal can no longer depend on pedigree to get results but rather invest in really good players that can push the club forward.
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