LONDON — When the pain passes, only pride will remain. Arsenal ultimately finished the 2023-24 Premier League season with the same second-place finish as a year earlier, but it feels very different this time.
The Gunners went into the final game against Everton two points behind Manchester City and with a chance of landing their first title since 2004 but, in truth, from the moment Phil Foden scored City’s opening goal against West Ham United inside 78 seconds, Emirates Stadium never truly believed.
There were brief flashes of hope. Arsenal recovered from Idrissa Gueye‘s deflected 40th-minute free kick to win 2-1 with goals from Takehiro Tomiyasu and Kai Havertz, but the latter came in the 89th-minute, moments after West Ham had a goal disallowed at the Etihad to extinguish any lingering doubt.
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No recriminations came at the final whistle, however. Warm applause greeted an Arsenal team that have given their all, going stride for stride against a City side creating history.
It is a far cry from the previous campaign, when the Gunners wilted in the final sprint, winning just three of their final nine matches as pressure and fatigue affected a squad unaccustomed to the rarefied environment of a title race. There can be no such accusations this time. Since the turn of the year, Arsenal won 16 out of 18 games, scoring 54 goals and only conceding nine. City played one more match than the Gunners but scored fewer, conceded more and took the two extra points that ultimately separated the sides.
Arsenal were edged out by a trophy machine, winning their sixth title in seven seasons and an unprecedented fourth Premier League in a row. The Gunners ended with 89 points, their second-highest tally in Premier League history. The club’s famous “Invincibles” side, who won the 2003-04 title without losing a game, garnered 90 points.
Arsenal set a club record of 28 Premier League victories in a season. They have only once fared better in their entire history, with 29 wins in 1970-71 (and 28 in 1930-31.) They scored 91 goals, a club record in the Premier League era. They were unbeaten against the traditional “Big Six” sides, taking 22 points from 10 games against City, Chelsea, Liverpool and Tottenham Hotspur (City, by comparison, won 15 points in those games.) They ended this season with the best defensive record in the division.
The margins were so small as to be almost imperceptible. Here’s how Arsenal ran Man City so close, and where they can find improvement to finally win their first title in more than 20 years.
There was also a desire to highlight the unwritten rule of the “first foul” escaping a yellow card. Sources added that Arsenal believed some sides were taking advantage of a referee’s leniency early on in a game — traditionally to avoid bookings too early in an effort to let a match flow — to inflict strong challenges on certain players. The Gunners felt Bukayo Saka was particularly harshly treated in this respect; later on in the season, sources told ESPN that Arsenal felt their front three of Saka, Gabriel Martinelli and Gabriel Jesus, were not receiving as much protection from referees as they would have liked.
Arsenal’s set-piece prowess is well documented, scoring a season-high 22 times (excluding penalties). Sources say they worked on dead-ball situations during their midseason training break in Dubai but not excessively so, with specialist coach Nicolas Jover’s methods established much earlier.
Declan Rice‘s emergence as a set-piece taker came in the second half of the season, but both player and manager insisted it was something they had discussed as a possibility earlier in the campaign.
Sources say Arteta’s search for an edge included requesting regular briefings from the prematch news conferences of opposition managers, explaining in part why the Spaniard himself is often evasive when giving Arsenal team news before matches. A staff member — or on occasion Arteta himself — would watch on in hope of team news or any early information which would aid planning. One key example cited by staff was Paul Heckingbottom’s news conference before Sheffield United‘s visit in October. Amid rumours of around 10 players being sidelined through injury, Heckingbottom all but confirmed the absence of several players. Arsenal won the game 5-0.
This also extended to watching opposition teams arrive at stadiums. Arteta said in December that “if I am good at mind games, maybe you don’t notice” and sources told ESPN that once such moment came when Saka was an injury doubt ahead of October’s home clash with City. Saka made the journey on the team coach, even pictured walking off towards the dressing room with his washbag before it was confirmed he was absent through injury. City were left guessing until the last possible moment.
