Arsenal’s Premier League title bid looked even more shaky on Wednesday, leaving many Gunners fans wondering: “Will it happen again?”
The 2-2 draw with bottom-of-the-table Wolverhampton Wanderers was pretty disastrous considering they will be competing for the title in 2025-26. Mikel Arteta’s side took their fate into their own hands, dropping points in their last league game with a 1-1 draw against Brentford, and then failing to take a two-goal lead against Molineux and failing to widen their lead over Manchester City to seven points.
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Arsenal, who had been top of the table since September, had lost momentum at a crucial stage of the season in recent weeks. They have won just two of their last seven league games.
City’s lead at the top of the Premier League has shrunk to just five points, leaving City (with a game in hand) holding their breath. Simply put, if City win all 12 of their remaining games, including the home match against Arsenal in April, they will finish top of the table. The same goes for Arsenal, who have no margin for error as they rally to win their remaining 11 games, including the all-important trip to the Etihad.
All is not lost yet, but recent history does not make for pleasant reading for Arteta’s bearish side. Regardless of their place with the Gunners, City have put together far stronger finishes than Arsenal at the end of the past four seasons.
There is still plenty of football left in this season, but the fact is that Arsenal have won fewer points than City in any season after this stage in 2021-22. They will have to buck that trend if they are to avoid continuing their agonizing wait for a Premier League title into their 23rd year.
2021-22
Arsenal were the youngest team in the Premier League, with an average age of just 24 years and 308 days. Also, they were never actually in the title race, instead competing for a European spot. Despite being chased hard by Liverpool, City spent the second half of the season in first place and ultimately won the league by one point.
For comparison, Josep Guardiola’s champions picked up 30 points with 12 games left in the season, while Arsenal only managed 18 points in the same period, finishing fifth and qualifying for the UEFA Europa League.
2022-23
At this exact moment three years ago, Arsenal were top of the table with 27 games played, five points behind defending champions and second-placed City (sound familiar?), with both having played the same number of games.
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The Gunners remained top of the table until game 33, but were thrashed 4-1 by City at the Etihad, dropping them from the top spot in the process. City held firm and won the title by five points, taking 31 points from their last 12 games, compared to Arsenal’s relatively paltry 21 points. This season was also the first part of City’s treble, as they also won the FA Cup and UEFA Champions League.
2023-24
Arsenal will be competing for the title with Manchester City and Liverpool for the majority of the 2023-24 season. Indeed, throughout the second half of the season the three teams were often separated by just one or two points, making for what turned out to be one of the most fascinating title races in recent years.
The Gunners achieved their goals and topped the table on several occasions in May. But in the end it wasn’t enough to stop City from getting back on track and steamrolling their way to a fourth successive title. Guardiola’s side had just one point more than Arsenal with 12 games remaining, but victory over West Ham United on the final day was enough to round things out.
2024-25
Liverpool and Arsenal are set to square off at the top of the Premier League as Manchester City suffers from burnout and are way off pace in the title race. Arteta’s side had been second in the table since December, but a series of points drop in the final weeks of the season – most notably a 2-1 home defeat to AFC Bournemouth in early May – meant Liverpool finished 10 points clear at the top of the table.
Despite falling to seventh place just before Christmas, City have at least managed to improve their results since the start of the year. They accumulated more points than Arsenal (27 to 21 points) in the final 12 games of the season and finished third, three points behind the exhausted Gunners.
