The season has come to an end, and Arsenal, despite competing at the top end of the sport for a third successive season, have failed to lift a trophy. They have watched on as the likes of Crystal Palace, Newcastle United, Bologna, and Stuttgart have lifted their respective domestic trophies, but after their 2020 FA Cup win, the Gunners have still been unable to bring silverware to the Emirates Stadium.
What was, however, perhaps the most damaging was seeing their north London rivals lift the Europa League and bring their own wait for a trophy, one lasting 17 years, to an end. Next season will not be enjoyable from a fan chant perspective, and Southampton already gave the Gunners a taste of what they can expect.
Chelsea can lift silverware on Wednesday if they beat Real Betis in the final of the UEFA Conference League. This would add more salt to the wounds as English clubs mop up the second and third-tier European competitions.
While Arsenal reached the semi-final of the Champions League, knocking out European champions Real Madrid along the way 5-1 on aggregate, certainly on paper a tougher ask than a final between the then 16th and 17th placed sides in the Premier League, the binary nature of football barely registers it. Next season, both Aston Villa and Crystal Palace will be the two English competitors in the Europa League.
After 6th and 12th place finishes in the league this season both rank as two of the favourites. Other potential rivals for the trophy include Roma, Freiburg, Lille, Lyon, Porto, Celta Vigo, Betis and the two cup winners from Italy and Germany mentioned before.
According to Transfermarkt, Palace’s squad value is €441million (£370million), and Villa’s is €627million (£526million). No other team in the competition has a value anywhere close to these two.
Roma’s for example is €304million (£255million), Porto’s is €313million (£262million) and Lyon’s is €227million (£190million). The gap in the resources Premier League clubs in the second and third tier competitions dwarfs that of any other league.
Bluntly, if neither of Villa nor Palace win the Europa League, it would go down as quite the disaster. Yet, Arsenal not being in the competition and instead losing in the Champions League only to PSG and Inter Milan, the two finalists, has gone down as a failure.
football.londonasked Arteta about the binary nature by which success and failure is measured only with silverware by so many and he said: “A worry? Well, externally, yes. I mean, you’re going to only evaluate that, then use those two words, and that’s it.
“But then, I think, make decisions in base to that. So next season, you don’t do that, you are out.
“If you do that, you are here forever. I don’t know what is it, because last night is a really good example of that. Or the final between Inter and PSG, because they’re going to be judged only if they win it.
“If not, they’re going again like the last 12 years that they have tried it. They are very different beyond that.”
But this is the reality UEFA competitions now have, after the rule change that sees no dropping down from the tier above, while Arsenal remain in the Champions League and not winning anything. There is a high chance that an English club, perhaps one nowhere near the levels of Arsenal, lifts silverware in Europe because of the make-up of the tournament nowadays.
Arsenal need a trophy and soon to appease the growing doubters. The summer will be where ambitions are assessed by the fans and that is of course linked to spending.
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