Arsenal have now gone two consecutive Premier League seasons finishing as genuine title contenders without winning anything. That’s not a run of bad fortune. That’s a pattern, and patterns have causes.
The most comfortable explanation - that City were simply better - is becoming harder to lean on. Manchester City’s 2024–25 campaign was arguably their most disrupted in a decade, defined by Rodri’s long absence and a squad that looked older than it had any right to. Arsenal still didn’t win. So the question shifts from why couldn’t they beat City to why can’t they close.
The squad depth argument has a ceiling
Arteta and the Arsenal hierarchy have consistently pointed to squad depth as the area requiring investment, and they’ve acted on it. The additions of players like Mikel Merino and Raheem Sterling’s loan last season were meant to give the first XI options without disrupting it. But depth only matters when the starting eleven is already making the right calls - and there’s a growing case that Arsenal’s first team, in high-pressure moments across both league and European competition, has been tactically reactive rather than decisive.
The 2024–25 Champions League exit illustrated something specific: when Arsenal concede the initiative in the second leg of a knockout tie, they struggle to reclaim it. Not because they lack the players, but because the structure becomes cautious in a way that reads as institutional rather than individual.
Arteta’s rigidity is both the strength and the ceiling
This is the uncomfortable part. The same organizational clarity that rebuilt Arsenal from a mid-table irrelevance into consistent top-two finishers is also, at this point, limiting them. Arteta’s system is well-understood - by his own players and by opponents. Top European sides have shown they can sit in, absorb the press, and exploit the space Arsenal leave in transition.
Adjusting mid-game, particularly in legs where Arsenal are chasing the tie, has visibly not been a strength. That’s a coaching characteristic, not an accusation.
The window that matters
Arsenal’s summer business will be watched closely, but the more telling indicator will be how Arteta approaches the opening phase of the 2025–26 season. If the setup looks identical to the previous two campaigns, the results probably will too. At some point, marginal squad improvements stop mattering when the strategic approach hasn’t shifted.
Gunners fans have been patient. The infrastructure is real, the squad quality is real. But proximity to trophies without winning them eventually becomes its own kind of failure.