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The last time Arsenal notched up three consecutive second-place finishes in the top flight, they went on to win the league fairly comfortably the following season, beating Liverpool by seven points. With Mikel Arteta now in Phase 19 of the five-phase plan he embarked on to establish his side as champions, trophy-hungry fans of the club will be hoping he can emulate his predecessor, Arsène Wenger, by masterminding a successful title tilt after back-to-back-to-back finishes as runners-up. During his time at Arsenal, Arteta has left virtually no stone unturned in his attempts to maximise the potential of his squad, using opposing team’s anthems, a team of pickpockets, a longwinded metaphor involving lightbulbs, a training ground labrador, a bowl of lemons and an olive tree in his as yet unsuccessful efforts to get them over the line and on to the Premier League winners’ podium in May.
Of course with each passing failure there’s always “next season” and for impatient Arsenal fans whose team has now won the square root of nish-all in five years, they are currently living in those heady days of optimism where the assorted calamities visited upon them last season have been boxed off and temporarily forgotten, while those of next season have yet to make themselves known. While it is widely accepted that Arsenal’s inability to win the title in 2024-25 was down to a combination of factors including knack, a refereeing conspiracy and the minor detail that Liverpool were much better than them, Arsenal’s apparently shrewd and early dealings in the transfer market mean that among their fans there is a feeling – much like there always is – that their time has finally come.
