Sam McGuire: Arsenal have ALWAYS been title pretenders to Liverpool

Well, well, well. If it isn’t the consequences of my own actions.

That should be how Mikel Arteta assesses this season.

Of course, it won’t be. His ego won’t allow him to accept any of the responsibility for the predicament Arsenal find themselves in. And the Arteta cult won’t dare cast a glancing eye the way of their fearless leader. They’ll just pretend they’ve been unlucky and there’s nothing more he could’ve done. They’re even trying to dress up the fact they’re 13 points off the top as some sort of victory for him as a manager.

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And while Arsenal have had some terrible luck this season with injuries, a lot of it is self inflicted. Let’s use Bukayo Saka as an example here.

The England international has been run into the ground over recent years. Injury issues were inevitable. It was a matter of when and not if it would occur.

He’s 23-years-old and he’s racked up just shy of 15,000 Premier League minutes already. Factor in cup competitions and England matches and he’s pushing 20,000 minutes. That’s the equivalent of 222 90-minute matches across six seasons. It’s a lot of football. He needed to be managed better. That falls on Arteta for not doing so.

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Look at what he’s done this season. He used Saka against Bolton in the Carabao Cup, giving his No7 70 minutes. He also featured against Preston (30 minutes) and Crystal Palace (20 minutes).

Arsenal had a 2-0 lead against Nottingham Forest after 52 minutes and could’ve replaced Saka. He played the full 90 minutes. The Gunners were 3-0 up against Sporting after 46 minutes, Saka made it 4-1 after 65 minutes and remained on the pitch for the full 90 minutes. At half-time, Arteta’s side had a 5-2 lead over West Ham but Saka remained on the pitch until the 75th minute.

He could’ve rested Saka and kept him fresh.

The same goes for Kai Havertz - appearing in games against Preston and Bolton - as well as Gabriel Martinelli, who played an hour against Preston and had 20 off the bench against Bolton.

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Arteta isn’t managing the team well.

And those defending him will claim he doesn’t have the attacking depth. He probably doesn’t, having loaned out Fabio Vieira while Emile Smith Rowe and Eddie Nketiah were sold in the summer to fund the arrival of Riccardo Calafiori. Another left-back to add to his collection.

They opted to bring in Raheem Sterling on loan and Mikel Merino from Real Sociedad too. Their recruitment has been odd, to say the least, but you aren’t allowed to question it because the narrative is Arteta has been dealt a difficult hand having not been able to spend £100million on Alexander Isak in January.

There must be someone in the academy that could be trusted. Liverpool used Jayden Danns there last season. Liverpool gave chances to their youth whenever there was an injury crisis. Arteta, often praised for his relationship with the academy graduates, always seems a little reluctant. Odd, hey?

And then there’s the elephant in the room.

Even with Saka fit and available, Arsenal weren’t tracking as a title-winning team. Nobody seemingly wants to acknowledge this.

I checked earlier and following Saka’s injury against Crystal Palace, Arsenal had 33 points from 17 matches. They were averaging 1.94 points per game - 74 points over a 38-game campaign. After 15 games, they had a 55% win rate. After 20 games, their win rate was 53%. To hit 90 points - the figure many believe is needed for the title, they would’ve had to be almost perfect for the remainder of 2025.

Before their 1-0 loss to West Ham, Arsenal had been on a 15 match unbeaten run in the Premier League but their longest winning run was three games. During this streak, they’d picked up 35 points - 2.33 per game - that is still only 88 points over a 38-game season. In 2025, they’re averaging two points per game.

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At no point, with or without Saka, have they been posting numbers of a title challenger or a title contender. But nobody wants to talk about that.

All they want to talk about is how, if everyone had been fit, they would’ve gone on an 18-match winning streak. Arteta and Arsenal desperately needed this injury crisis as an excuse to distract people from the fact they haven’t been the team they were supposed to be this season. Instead, they’re a top four team masquerading as title pretenders.