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In a season full of twists and turns Arsenal came agonizingly close to finishing in the last Champions League spot, eventually finishing 2 points behind bitter rivals Tottenham in 5th.
Seemingly in the driver’s seat for the final spot, Arsenal crashed and burned at Tottenham and
Newcastle to slip out of the top 4. While it has been a season of progress for the Gunners,
missing out on the Champions League would have hurt both from a sense of prestige and the
financial bonus it would have been for the club.
So, what is the blame for Arsenal not securing Champions League Football? Was it the young
players? Or was Arteta to blame? The answer as always is a combination of factors.
1. Poor Recruitment Policy
The biggest mistake Arsenal made this season was in terms of recruitment. While the summer
transfer window was successful for the club, adding key signings like Ramsdale, White and
Odegaard - the winter transfer window was a disaster. In his focus to get rid of deadwood within the squad, Arteta went too far and let valuable backups like Ainsley Maitland Niles and Callum Chambers leave the club. Players like Guendouzi and Saliba who could have played a part this season were allowed to leave on loan in the summer. Not signing anyone in the winter further compounded problems for Arsenal, and left their squad very small in size.
Arsenal also let Pierre Emerick Aubameyang leave for Barcelona in the winter. This left with only two first team strikers, with one of them being young Eddie Nketiah. While Aubameyang had to leave the club for attitudinal and disciplinary issues, having seen Aubameyang find form at Barcelona must have definitely hurt.
This left Arsenal’s squad threadbare, and when injuries hit Arsenal’s key players (Partey, Tomiyasu and Tierney) the drop in quality was visible. They lost 3 in a row to Crystal Palace,
Brighton and Southampton dropping 9 points in the process.