Martin Keown recognises a Premier League title is within Arsenal’s grasp, but their brilliance will be forgotten if they remain the perennial bridesmaid.
The Gunners are on track for a third consecutive season in which they have finished second in the Premier League as they remain 12 points behind Liverpool with nine games remaining.
The first of Arsenal’s runners-up placings saw Mikel Arteta‘s side finish five points behind Manchester City despite sitting first up until late April.
The gap narrowed to two points between the clubs in the 2023/24 season as City pipped the Gunners to the post via a sensational 23-game unbeaten stretch.
City’s underwhelming performance this campaign presented a prime opportunity for Arsenal to finally break the mould and land their first Premier League crown since the Invincibles season of 03/04.
Instead, it’s been Liverpool who seized the moment under first-year coach Arne Slot.
With Slot’s side storming to the title instead of Arsenal, who have steadily built in recent seasons, Arteta must wonder if his time will ever come.
But, as Keown pointed out, the road to success can sometimes be a ‘long and winding’ one, as he found to be the case during his playing days at Highbury.
Most importantly, the Gunners great believes all the building blocks are in place for Arteta’s side to end the 20-year title drought – it just needs that ‘X-factor’ to provide the ‘icing on the cake’.
“Some people are lucky and the road to success is a straight line,” Keown told talkSPORT.com.
“Not for this Arsenal group.
“I’ve been in a similar situation. Three years on the bounce we finished behind Manchester United and you have to ask yourself the questions. You have to have a strong group and I think Arsenal have got that. The foundations are there.
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“And then of course it’s the calibre of the players. There will be purchases in the summer. But it’s been tricky for the back-end of the season where you’ve had four or five strikers that are not available. Then it looks like you should have bought one, which is kind of a hindsight situation.
“But looking back to last year, Arsenal were scoring buckets full of goals. So that seems to be the obvious areas, in the creative wide positions and down the middle, I’m sure that’s where Arsenal will invest in the summer.
“There’s a lot of good about Arsenal. A lot of teams would look at Arsenal and say, ‘I wish we had their defence, their goalkeeper and their midfield’.
“It’s just the icing on the cake now is getting those special players, that X-factor player to finish things off and win titles.”
Arteta came under fire for not purchasing an extra forward during January as season-ending injuries to Kai Havertz and Gabriel Jesus left the Gunners light on attacking reinforcements.
Star winger and key goalscorer Bukayo Saka‘s long-term injury has also proved damaging while Arsenal lost twice in the league during Martin Odegaard‘s seven-game absence following an ankle issue picked up while on international duty in September.
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The Gunners have been heavily linked with a big-money move for Newcastle superstar Alexander Isak, with many supporters hopeful he is the answer to their striker woes.
Benjamin Sesko is another who has been mooted with a move to the Emirates as Arsenal re-ignited their interest in the Slovenian in January, although a mid-season move proved complicated given RB Leipzig were reluctant to sell.
talkSPORT also revealed Arsenal are one of multiple Premier League teams interested in Lille’s Jonathan David, who will be a free agent at the end of the season.
At the very least, the Gunners can dangle the carrot of playing in the Champions League for a prospective new signing thanks to what is looming as a third-straight second place finish.
However, as Keown rightly pointed out, history only remembers the victors.
But it is in those near-misses that the team develops its mental resolve to go one better, something they must do sooner than later given their rivals are only going to strengthen across the board.
“You get nothing for second,” Keown said.
“No-one even remembers but the person who comes second. You compare it to other sports, say you get a silver medal in the Olympics, but in football, in the Premier League, you get nothing.
“Nobody really wants to be second place. In a cup final, you get a runners-up medal.
“We were four or five times in second place, but you don’t feel like you’re second-best, and that’s the thing. You need strong characters.
“And this is where you develop that kind of veneer to say, ‘No, I’ve had enough of this, I want to go the next step and we can do it, we’re capable’. You have to retain that belief.
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“It’s not an easy road because everybody else will strengthen now and get even better. City will come back.
“So Arsenal need to make sure now that the next two or three signings are key for their future success.”
Arteta knows he cannot afford to whiff on any new signings in the summer window.
If he does, it could mean Arsenal’s best window of opportunity for Premier League titles has closed.
