Arsenal have finished as runners-up in the Premier League title race in each of the last three seasons. The first of those campaigns could have been considered as an overachievement, with no one truly expecting the Gunners to contend, even with them leading the title race with just a handful of games remaining. The latter two, however, will forever be remembered as bitter disappointments.
It’s the pain of those near misses, however, which is fueling Arsenal’s blistering start to the 2025/26 season. The recent triumph away at Slavia Prague in the UEFA Champions League was the tenth win on the bounce in all competitions for Mikel Arteta’s side, prompting online betting sites to slash odds on the North Londoners across the board.
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The latest Bovada live betting odds don’t just consider Arsenal as a mighty short 1/2 shot to win the Premier League this season. They also make them a 9/2 frontrunner to win a maiden Champions League crown as well. But throughout the last three seasons, the Gunners have found themselves in this position before.
So, what went wrong in the Premier League specifically over the last three years? And, more importantly, why won’t history repeat itself this term? Let’s take a look.
Inexperienced Gunners Falter Under Pressure
Expectations weren’t very high at the Emirates ahead of the 2022/23 season. The Gunners had just finished down in fifth place the year before, missing out on UEFA Champions League qualification for the sixth straight season. However, the summer signings of Gabriel Jesus and Oleksandr Zinchenko from champions Manchester City brought a winners mentality to North London, and that mentality would push Mikel Arteta’s men to unexpected heights.
The Gunners won all but three of their opening 19 fixtures, losing just once and opening up a huge lead at the summit of the Premier League table. A run of two losses in three games soon followed, but Arsenal would bounce back with seven straight victories to assume command of the title race with just nine games remaining. Then, disaster struck.
With the pressure mounting, Arsenal threw away back-to-back two-goal leads to pick up successive 2-2 draws, firstly away at Liverpool and then away at West Ham. A third draw would follow at home to rock bottom Southampton, before a 4-1 drubbing away at Manchester City extinguished what little hope remained. The Gunners would miss out on the title by five points, with fans rueing their side’s lack of big game experience when the campaign reached its apex.
Fast forward to now, and this is a much different Arsenal team. The likes of Bukayo Saka and Declan Rice have been strengthened by repeated heartbreaks, both at club level and internationally. In defence, that inexperience has turned into pure steel, with both William Saliba and Gabriel arguably the two finest defenders in the Premier League on current form. No longer are the Gunners pushovers; they can grind out results when the going gets tough, and that will be crucial as 2025 turns into 2026 and the pressure ramps up.
Striker Crisis Costs Arsenal Dearly
The following year, expectations had risen, and Arsenal supporters headed into 2023/24 dreaming of a first title since the Invincibles of two decades prior. But while the Gunners had quality all over the pitch, they did look woefully short up front. While Manchester City had Erling Haaland firing on all cylinders, they had an injury-prone Gabriel Jesus, with an injury to the Brazilian striker coinciding with the club’s dip in form the previous campaign.
Mikel Arteta looked to address this with the signing of Kai Havertz, but the German international was seen as more of a deep-lying striker rather than the out-and-out striker that the club desperately needed. As the campaign progressed, that would ultimately prove to be the case. Havertz and Jesus managed just 22 goals between them, and as a result, Arsenal repeatedly dropped points as they were unable to find ways past the likes of West Ham and Fulham. They would miss out on the title on the final day of the season after finishing just two points behind eventual champions City.
This year, the Gunners do finally have that goalscorer in the form of Viktor Gyökeres. While the Swede hasn’t yet found his footing at the Emirates, scoring just six goals in 14 games thus far, his stunning record of 97 goals in 102 games with Sporting CP is hard to ignore. Add to that the fact that both Jesus and Havertz are set to return from injury and that Mikel Merino has proven more than capable of finding the net when he plays in a makeshift striker role, and it’s clear that the Gunners finally have the firepower required for a genuine title challenge.
Inability to Turn Draws Into Wins
Last season, Arsenal endured a downturn in fortunes, finishing ten points behind champions Liverpool, but still finishing as runners-up. From the get-go, it looked as though the title would head to Anfield, and that ultimately proved to be the case. However, Arsenal could have mounted more of a challenge had they managed to turn draws into wins.
Last term, Mikel Arteta’s men were unable to find ways past Brighton, Fulham, Everton, and Crystal Palace. In fact, they drew a whopping 14 games, the most of any team in the top half of the table and the second most in the entire league. This season, though, it’s clear that the table toppers have learned from their mistakes.
Arsenal have won four games by just one goal this term, with the victories against Fulham, West Ham, and Crystal Palace games that would have almost certainly ended in a draw 12 months ago. Arteta has drilled into his side a relentless mentality that one point isn’t enough, and come the end of the season, that will be the difference between a fourth straight runner-up finish or finally being crowned champions.
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