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Arsenal has learned Liverpool truth the hard way as Mikel Arteta now faces Luis Suárez test
That looks to be the race run for Arsenal. With the pre-season debate focused on whether Mikel Arteta could overcome Antonio Conte and Spurs to finally get back into the Champions League places, it has undoubtedly been an impressive campaign of overperformance, but it will end in a familiar fashion — with Manchester City as champion.
Inevitably, words like ‘bottle’ have been thrown around, with Arsenal having faltered in the run-in. But there is a growing acceptance that it’s almost impossible for anyone to compete with Pep Guardiola’s side over a 38-game season, and Liverpool in particular will feel plenty of sympathy for Arteta’s plight.
After all, Liverpool has been cast in the role of the challenger for three of the last four campaigns, yielding three seasons of more than 90 points. Somehow, it has taken home just one Premier League trophy — a galling state of affairs, but not one which has meaningfully detracted from the achievements of Jürgen Klopp’s incredible side.
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That being said, while Liverpool is well-placed to understand the toll of going toe-to-toe with Manchester City, Klopp might well also object to this Gunners side being lumped in with his own.
For one thing, the points tallies are not at all equal. Arsenal will not get close to the historic runner-up tally of 97 that Liverpool posted in 2018/19, and in fact, cannot even reach 90 points following its loss to Brighton. All three of Klopp’s challenger seasons have been numerically more impressive.
In fact, Arsenal’s fortunes look far more comparable to those of 2013/14 Liverpool, where Luis Suárez inspired Brendan Rodgers’ side to a second-placed finish, again behind Manchester City. That team accumulated 84 points, a tally Arsenal would match with three points from its last two games.
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Of course, we all know what happened next. Suárez packed his bags for Barcelona, Liverpool’s long-awaited return to the Champions League ended in the group stages, and Rodgers could only muster a sixth-placed finish.
That leads to the next major difference between Klopp’s Liverpool and the current Arsenal nearly-men. Arteta has masterminded an undeniably great season, but it’s just that: one season. The two cannot be talked about in the same breath until the Gunners have proved some longevity.
It would take a massively pessimistic Arsenal fan to forecast a similar degree of collapse, but Arteta does face something of a Suárez test now. Can he keep this group together?
The good news for Arsenal is that most of the established superpowers are likely to be preoccupied with other things in the summer. Real Madrid is making Jude Bellingham its big-money project. Barcelona is still in a degree of financial turmoil, in the midst of which it is thinking about bringing Lionel Messi back. PSG is gradually transitioning to a more homegrown, less star-studded approach.
That only really leaves the potential threat of other big Premier League clubs, and it’s hard to envisage any of Arteta’s stars making that leap. Whether or not Arsenal is really here to stay at the very top end of the division remains to be seen, but there are probably enough reasons for optimism to dissuade the likes of Bukayo Saka and Gabriel Martinelli from jumping ship directly — with both having shown their faith in the project by signing new deals this season.
But even if nobody is poached, Arteta faces much the same challenge that Rodgers had to tackle after Suárez left. Regardless of the extent to which personnel changes, the onus is on Arsenal to prove that it can go again.
The Rodgers iteration of Liverpool comprehensively failed to build on its title push. The Klopp version produced one of the all-time great responses, putting together a 99-point season on the back of its ‘unsuccessful’ 97-point campaign to truly cement itself as a legitimately elite side.
Which one will Arteta’s Arsenal be? It has spent most of the campaign being compared favorably to Klopp’s recent challengers, but the real proof will be in the response, just as it was for Rodgers.
Regardless of whether Arsenal kicks on or regresses, and no matter if it can avoid a Suárez moment or not, Liverpool will feel bad for Arteta. This, quite simply, is what it takes to win a league now: near-perfection. But hopefully, this is a two-way street, bringing with it a fresh appreciation for what Klopp has managed over a sustained period — he is the only reason the Premier League is not about to crown the same winner for the sixth season running, and his performances up against a financial behemoth still deserve more recognition.
