Arsenal Premier League title would propel Mikel Arteta into ‘elite’ category | OneFootball

Are Arsenal underachieving under Mikel Arteta? Does he just need a trophy now? We entering ‘elite’ territory now.

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Mikel Arteta a trophy or two away from elite status?

I’m writing this while watching Arsenal dismantle Inter with a frighteningly complete side, one that allows a player like Declan Rice to saunter off the bench as if he’s just there for a bit of Milanese sightseeing.

Arsenal look good this season. Really good. Potentially quadruple good. However, the stick used to beat them is often Net Spend vs Achievements. This got me thinking: why do we even entertain net spend as a valid metric?

​As a business model, looking at net spend for an isolated area like transfers is a bit pointless. Gross Spend is far more appropriate. Clubs have various revenue streams, sponsorships, licensing, TV rights, and prize money meaning player sales are just one source of income among many. A better gauge of success is simply looking at what a club has spent in total vs what they’ve actually put in the trophy cabinet.

​Gross Spend vs Achievements (Jan 2020 – Jan 2026 “The Mikel Arteta Era”)

1) Chelsea – £1.95 billion spent – 1x champions league, 2x club world cup, 1x conference league, 1x super cup 2) Man City – £1.15 billion spent – 4x premier league, 2x champs league, 1x fa cup, 2x league cup, 1x club world cup, 1x super cup, 1x community shield 3) Man Utd – £1.12 billion spent – 1x fa cup, 1x league cup 4) Liverpool – £1.08 billion spent – 2x premier league, 1x fa cup, 2x league cup, 1x club world cup, 1x community shield 5) Arsenal – £1.02 billion spent – 1x fa cup, 2x community shield 6) Tottenham – £980 million spent – 1x europa league 7) Newcastle – £820 million spent – 1x league cup 8) Aston Villa – £720 million spent – nothing 9) West Ham – £710 million spent – 1x europa conference league 10) Nottingham Forest – £660 million spent – nothing

The eye test tells us plenty:

​The Big Winners: Man City and Liverpool have spent heavily but have the silver to show for it.

​The Underachievers: Spurs, Arsenal, and Man Utd have all spent around £1bn but have arguably under-delivered on that investment.

​The Anomalies: Chelsea are in a league of their own, spending an absolute king’s ransom for a very mixed bag of results.

​The Real Scrutiny: We should probably be looking harder at Villa, Forest and Newcastle. They’ve spent massive sums to achieve very little and (Villa’s current form aside) aren’t consistently challenging the elite.

We can go one step further and start to assign a points system. This is subjective but lets go with the following:

​10 Points: Premier League, Champions League ​6 Points: Europa League ​5 Points: FA Cup ​3 Points: League Cup, Europa Conference League ​1 Point: Club World Cup, Super Cup, Community Shield

This provides us with a return on investment table of spend per point of the Arteta Era which looks like this:

Club — Gross Spend — Trophy Points — Cost Per Point

1. Man City £1.15bn 74 pts £15.5m 2. Liverpool £1.08bn 33 pts £32.7m 3. Chelsea £1.95bn 16 pts £121.8m 4. Man Utd £1.12bn 8 pts £140.0m 5. Arsenal £1.02bn 7 pts £145.7m 6. Tottenham £980m 6 pts £163.3m 7. West Ham £710m 3 pts £236.6m 8. Newcastle £820m 3 pts £273.3m 9. Aston Villa £720m 0 pts N/A 10. Nott’m Forest £660m 0 pts N/A

​In my opinion, this is still the stick you can beat Arteta with. However, if he wins a (or several) major trophy(s) this year, he graduates from the “underachiever” category into the “spent a lot, won a lot” elite.

I’ll open the floor for discussion… Adam – AFC (sorry in advance if i’ve miscalculated points or missed a cup, I don’t think I have but feel free to correct me if wrong)

Are Liverpool a poor club?

Whenever I hear Liverpool fans boast about their club’s low net spend compared to Arsenal’s, I’m left with a very basic question: is Liverpool a poor club?

But as we all know, they are not. Their revenues are higher than Arsenal’s. So where exactly is all that money going?

If Arsenal, regularly mocked for ‘spending a billion for no trophies’, can outspend Liverpool so comprehensively on a net basis despite earning less and winning less, then Liverpool’s frugality isn’t some moral victory. It’s a choice. Either the club lacks ambition and the money is rotting in a bank, or the owners are stealing the surplus from the club. What it clearly isn’t, is evidence of superior management.

And that’s why it’s puzzling to hear net spend framed as a brag, rather than a question mark, especially when it hasn’t translated into an Ekitike+Isak level of depth across the squad. Jaxx B, Arsenal fan

(PS: The other possibility is that maybe net spend itself is just a useless data point for simpletons?)

Fanmail for Wik

Wik, here’s another arbitrary sum of points gained this season.

Teams that have collected more points than Arsenal in the last 22 league games:

How’s it go? It’s easy to win the league when all the significant teams around you are shite.

Much love, p James Jones, STFC

…Wik, Pretoria. Probably THE most tragic mail in the 427 years of F365 mailbox. LFC fans all over the globe a wishing you hadn’t mentioned who you support.

Much love Colin, Dublin AFC

…Best mail in the mailbox this morning has to be Wik, Pretoria, LFC. I’m always heartened by fan of big team doing badly trying to show why rival team doing well should be downplayed. This usually involves telling everyone in a roundabout way that their own team is rubbish, so not always the burn these fans think their handing out. But this latest offering has Wik do a deep dive in to the world of football statistics and arrive at ‘points won in the last 2 games’ to prove that Arsenal are only good because everyone else is useless. The irony being that this was labelled at Liverpool last season as Arsenal and City both managed to have an off season for the first time in 3 years.

There is always a reasonable debate about the overall quality of the league. If lots of teams are taking points off each other does that demonstrate a high quality league or a low quality league? I would also suggest people equate dull games with low quality when the two can easily be mutually exclusive. Others can chip on on the league quality debate if they wish. Rich, AFC

Dull Premier League is not Arsenal’s fault

Lots of noise and moaning about how the Premier League is boring this year, and in many people’s eyes Arsenal have been the flag bearers and instigators of this new boring league. (Although in terms of average goals per match this season still ranks higher than most prem seasons since ‘92).

I think Arsenal in the Champions League shows that it certainly isn’t Arsenal who are responsible for our supposed boring games. CL teams attack us and it leads to more open, chance filled and exciting matches – ending with a well deserved win for the Arsenal. The perceived dullness has come from a cycle and trend of tactics, inevitably copied from successful teams and often as a counter to the previous tactical cycle.

Arteta had to overthrow Pep’s tika taka football and Klopp’s Gengenpress. He’s tried to do that by actually playing ultra aggressive football. Arsenal play the highest defensive line in Europe (and against the deepest defensive line) to compress the pitch, he plays an organised high press to win the ball high, he plays high and wide and looks for numerical overloads in the wide areas. He has also installed the best out of possession hard working team in Europe, packed with discipline, power and athleticism. Not to mention finding a way to beat a deep block with set-pieces.

Teams have copied this so more and more teams are super well organised without the ball, super fit, can play deep defence but also be a transition threat and can press high.

What is always interesting with Arteta and Arsenal is looking at what those active in the game now say about them, players and managers, vs what ex rival players and pundits say about them. Often there is a huge contrast and I know which one I’d pay more attention to.

Arteta previously spoke about also needing the right ‘timing’ to win big trophies, he was scoffed at but he’s right. Arsenal were maybe a better team in 23/24 but City were also very good that season. Last season Liverpool benefited from the timing of both Arsenal and City having a dip season. Liverpool themselves had better teams when they finished 2nd twice to City with 90+ points. Timing can matter and sometimes you don’t have an influence on it. Arsenal have been the most consistent team in the last 4 seasons with nothing to show for it, but have never had a crisis point or mini slump, hopefully this season brings the benefits of being so consistent and always being there or there abouts to benefit from timing.

A quick word on City, for a long period Pep used the same 11/12 players for every match, it was 14 or so matches in a row. They were the ones he trusted. Any time he properly rotated City dropped points. I’ve written before saying that injuries will be a huge determining factor in the title. Pep lost his first choice CB pair, Nunes also injured and last night Silva was suspended. Just as last January they’ve dipped in to the limitless cash to try to buy their way out of trouble.

Arsenal are hopefully coming out the other side of the injuries which have been annoyingly regular this season but still retain a 7 point lead in the league and are 7 wins from 7 in the CL. This season has to end with some meaningful silverware. Despite what others will throw at us I don’t think you’ll find any Arsenal fan saying we’ve already won it or gleefully talking about quadruples.

Actually I think you’ll find the fear of not winning anything again keeps us pretty pessimistic and humble….but occasionally we will pipe up and give our manager and players the credit they deserve. Rich, AFC

Arsenal not getting the best out of Gyokeres

Another European game, another demonstration that Arsenal can, should the opposition provide the opportunity do so, play well and creatively.

Nothing is starker at this point than how the Premier League plays Arsenal vs any European team.

For all the ‘you play such boring football/anti-football/Set Piece FC etc’, the blueprint virtually every PL team adopts when playing us is ‘low block, control the space, make us pass backwards and sideways’ which makes for horrible, stodgy games. It’s not just us doing this, it takes two to tango.

Now this was the case last season as well and we were much less good at the grind then, so worse results and no title challenge.

This year, we’re built for the grind, but also signed the striker we thought would allow us to play a different way. The hope was in having Gyokeres, we could morph back and forth between possession team and fast transition team. That maybe once we went a goal up and the game opened up, we could start doing damage.

Now, Gyokeres has been disappointing, no doubt – in fact, he basically confirmed all my fears this season that he isn’t really at the level.

But this Inter game where he came on and looked good, then scored, is a world away from the game against Everton, where he got a penalty goal but generally toiled.

When Everton went 1-0 down they didn’t change how they played – they kept playing like it was 0-0 and quite reasonably reflected that, at 2-0 the game was done, but if they kept things close and frustrated our forwards, they might get a chance to nick it when we got jumpy. Gyokeres’ game stretching ability (whatever you think of it) was undeployable.

Inter, conversely, got more and more open chasing the game last night and when Gyokeres got his chance, following a wonderful ball from Martinelli, he made, then finished his chance.

So the mistake really was signing a CF that allowed us to play a different way, when we should have appreciated, at least in the league, that our high quality opposition (and ultimately at this point it’s probably fair to say in the top 50 teams in Europe, all 20 PL teams would be there – money speaks) would just jam us at the line, as it were, rather than let us run downfield.

It’s not really Gyokeres’ fault. Our opposition isn’t letting us play to anything like his strengths. What we needed was the best striker to make a chance from nothing against a loaded defence, not someone who lets us play a different way. We were naïve to imagine we could impose a new way on opposition that is much more resourceful and organised than it used to be.

That Inter kid last night, Esposito, in fact, I now want. The space he made against Mosquera and Saliba was something else. He needs a Despacito-inspired chant too. Tom (Truthfully, what we need is on-form Havertz back, the player who had 20 goals and 10 assists in calendar year 2024) Leyton

Give Gyokeres time

This constant criticism of Gyokores irks me.

I get he hasn’t pulled up any trees in the first half of the season, but it’s worth noting that he did have a period out injured, and he is in fact our top goal scorer in the league.

If he doubles his tally of eight goals this season, and remember we’re still in the Champions League, League Cup, FA Cup and have 16 Premier League games to go, then I, and I daresay most of my fellow gooners, would be just fine with that.

We’re talking about a human being here, who has taken the brave move of moving from a country and city where he was very settled, to try his luck in the biggest league of them all.

Maybe get off his back, yeah?

The same goes for Frank. He may not fit Spurs, but he’s clearly not the main problem over there. Graham Simons, Gooner, Norf London

Spurs showing us something

Go figure, missing more players than ever, effectively forced into a default starting XI and essentially in Hail Mary territory on account of the months of flaccidball and we get the best half we’ve had under Frank to date.

If we hadn’t benefited from that soft red we’d have been more susceptible to a Dortmund comeback but god knows we’ve had our fair share of those go against us so que sera.

Sometimes you stumble across a winning formula and if these boys can maintain that intensity for 100 mins in the PL maybe we’ll pick up the 2-3 wins we need to restore a bit of confidence. Oliver Clark

Will podcasters survive post-Fergie Man Utd?

I want to extend an idea from Ian Watson’s recent article about self-serving Man Utd pundits. There’s still this comforting myth that the great Ferguson-era players would automatically fix modern Manchester United. Drop the legends in, standards rise, problems disappear. The reality is harsher. Strip away Ferguson himself and most of those players don’t elevate the post-Fergie squad at all. Some survive. Some fracture it. Some quietly diminish.

Take prime Paul Scholes in the 2013–2023 United teams. Technically, he’s still elite. That never changes. But Scholes was never a self-contained system. He needed structure, movement and shared understanding. Post-Ferguson United offers none of that. Pressing is inconsistent, buildup patterns are improvised, and off-ball movement is poor. Scholes can’t dictate tempo if teammates don’t move when the pass demands it or protect him when possession turns.

Playing next to Pogba is fatal to his influence. Pogba’s positional freedom and gravitational pull dominate the midfield narrative and destroy rhythm. Ahead of Scholes are attackers who slow the game, stand still or waste timing. Scholes doesn’t shout, doesn’t publicly enforce standards, and without Ferguson or a Keane figure above him, he becomes a luxury controller in chaos. United look slightly tidier in spells, but results barely improve. His reputation actually takes a hit because control without outcomes gets misread as passivity.

Nicky Butt is the opposite. Prime Butt in post-Ferguson United doesn’t transform the club, but he stabilises it immediately. He becomes the most positionally disciplined midfielder by default, the best defensive screener, and the one player who consistently does the boring work. He doesn’t argue with Pogba or challenge him publicly; he just quietly limits the damage. Rashford and Garnacho benefit defensively. Sancho and Martial are exposed by contrast alone. Butt doesn’t fix culture, but he prevents total collapse. United don’t win titles with him, but they lose fewer absurd games and finish higher more consistently.

Gary Neville is often misunderstood in these hypotheticals. Prime Neville in post-Ferguson United brings structure, organisation and accountability. What he doesn’t bring is the authority to enforce culture on his own. At his peak, Neville thrived because standards were already enforced around him. In modern United, he spends games covering for others, shouting into the void and being labelled limited. He becomes a respected professional rather than a transformative presence. Useful, reliable, exhausted. He doesn’t make United great again because he was never meant to do that alone.

Roy Keane is where the fantasy collapses completely. Prime Keane without Ferguson above him is combustible. His public call-outs escalate, not resolve. The club hierarchy sides with valuable assets rather than standards. Pogba, Rashford and others are protected. Keane is framed as toxic, outdated, a problem rather than a solution. He either walks or is pushed within 18 months. Standards don’t rise; they fracture further. Keane without Ferguson doesn’t fix modern United, he accelerates the collision.

The most depressing part comes when you imagine the academy versions of these players coming through today. A young Paul Scholes in post-Ferguson United is suffocated. The intelligence and technical quality are obvious, but there are no automatisms to grow into, no runners to reward his vision, and no authority figure to protect him from being misprofiled. He’s rotated, misunderstood, and possibly sold before he becomes himself.

Young Nicky Butt survives better, but still never peaks. He’s overlooked by fans, quietly trusted by managers, and becomes useful before he’s valued. Without elite standards around him, he plateaus early. He’s functional, not formative.

Young Gary Neville struggles most publicly. Outperformed technically by peers, mocked early, and lacking the surrounding culture that once elevated him, he tops out as a squad player. No captaincy, no aura, no platform to grow into leadership.

The uncomfortable truth is that Ferguson wasn’t just a manager who had great players. He was the environment that allowed specific personalities to become legends. Remove him, and many of those careers shrink. Not because the players weren’t good enough, but because systems create greatness. Modern United doesn’t amplify intelligence or discipline. It drowns it. Uthum Gunarathna

Poetry corner

To Connor. 50k people file into a stadium. They watch a match. And at regular intervals will chant slogans, couplets, rhyming stanza, interpolation of songs and works of pure surprise.

When they are sad, they recite phrases that motivate the players. When they want to share their passion they do the same. When they score people scream and sing, they share the collective joy through words and sound.

There’s a famous meme that goes:

American Sports Fans: Defense…Defense…Defense

UK Football Fans: Alright lads, I’ve worked up some words about the opponent’s drink driving charge to the tune of Clair De Lune. I’ll count us off.

The idea that poetry has no place in football is wrong. It is interwoven, both in how it is played, but how the fans interact with it. Sure, they go for the game, but the experience would be diminished without the verbal poetry on show. John (Poetry should be in football, not in adverts for building societies) Matrix AFC

…As someone whose middle name is lifted directly from a poem, I think I’m more qualified than most to reply to Conor Malone. The main form of poetry football resembles is the poetry that gets published in local newspapers: haphazardly structured, either confused of meaning or furious about something trivial, and generally not very good. Ed Quoththeraven

…I sit at home and watch the sport I love,

The nations favourite or so I am told.

I protest about that chap wearing gloves

Climate change means it’s surely not that cold.

A pass unleashed to a striker in form,

The bulging net, the crowd explode as one.

A quick counter after weath’ring the storm

Against the run of play we left them stunned.

But wait! A whisper into the ref’s ear

Delivered by a watcher from afar.

What’s the infringement? It isn’t yet clear.

Will the goal still stand? Bloody VAR.

A shove in the build up, was it a dive?

The ref says foul, I say: not for me, Clive.