Arsenal are back in Champions League action this week. After years of failing to qualify for the Premier European competition, the North Londoners are participating in their second consecutive Champions League campaign under Mikel Arteta.
To begin their European season, the North Londoners travel over 800 miles to face Atalanta at the Gewiss Stadium. The Gunners enter any competition with the purpose of winning; thus, we anticipate them to defeat Atalanta. Given their elimination in the quarterfinals last season, do you believe they can make a better run this time ending in glory?
I’m sure most Gooners believe they can beat anyone, especially following their triumph against Tottenham, though injury-ridden; thus, expect the boys in red and white to compete for the UCL title.
But when the ex-Manchester United star Owen Hargreaves on TNT Sport was asked if Arsenal has a chance of becoming European Champions, gave the Gooners little optimism. He cites Arsenal’s lack of experience; the team had not featured in the competition for around six years prior to the 2023-24 season, and a limited roster could hinder their progress in the UCL. He said, “I don’t know if it’s naivety but I think they’re pretty inexperienced at that level.
“I can’t think of many who had been there before last season – Jorginho was probably one of the few guys, Gabriel Jesus but he was a squad player at City – so I think it takes time.
“You saw that in those Bayern games, and Bayern were struggling at that point but were probably worthy winners over the two legs. So I think it takes a bit of time.
He added, “We’ve seen it’s hard [to win the Champions League] – look at Paris Saint-Germain who have invested billions and haven’t been able to win.
“I do think that Arsenal are going up – they’ll win trophies. But the competition gets fiercer every year and that lack of depth could cost them.”
Not many pundits appear to wish Arsenal well, as we saw last week when everyone was convinced that the Gunners would lose the North London derby without their best talents. Despite this, Arsenal, under Arteta’s leadership, has consistently defied the doubters, and I am confident that Arsenal can lift the 2024-25 Champions League if they mean it.
With the drive and ambition this Arsenal team has displayed four games into the season, no one should sleep on them; they mean business and will prove many, including Hargreaves, wrong.
Daniel O
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Off Topic, Apologies:
Sterling kinda makes me a little excited about our Man City fixture (just that he might not get up to 15 minutes)
We can always trust him to give a Man-Of-The-Match-Performance again City (at Chelsea) & never be wrong
He loves to hurt them for some reason
I support what Hargreaves said. Arsenal depth for champions league, Premier league, FA cup and Carabao cup is too thin with too much inexperienced players. The champions league has also involve so many games to play. It seems we’re going to get to much of injuries this season because of the number of games and also players who are prone to injuries. If Arteta doesn’t trust his bench this time around, definitely we’re going to see the worst this season.
We’ll see, beginning shortly, won’t we. I suspect (and I hope I’m wrong) that Arsenal won’t compete effectively across the four competitions they are, or will, be involved in across the 2024-25 season.
That may be down to squad strength/quality although I think Arsenal did pretty well overall (there were gaps!) in the last window. One of the deciding factors will be the overall fitness of the squad taking into account injuries (we’re usually up to three players “down” because of their long(er)-term injury problems, but also suspensions (Rice’s ghost) and in the case of some key positions (out and out striker for example) the squad was/is light if other things happen.
Arteta’s juggling of the squad will be important as well. He’s certainly done that OK so far but it’s (still) only a handful of games in.
Another factor I think will be the imperative of Arsenal winning the EPL this season. Two consecutive misses are one thing, three times in a row and questions may begin to be asked! In my opinion, it was, and remains, Arteta’s top priority, which is fair enough. Sometimes that laser-like focus brings the title but, equally, it can mean you eventually fall between all four trophy “stools” and end up with nothing. We’ll only know more when Arsenal is competing in all of them.
I still think we are a little thin in squad depth to go the distance across all competitions. We were lucky with injuries last season other than Timber. That said, Tomi and Zinchenko are regularly injured and unreliable. Hopefully once we get the current spate of injuries behind us we will have a better run. Having Sterling in the squad brings valuable experience and flair, I hope he gets a full run soon.
Our lack of squad depth will probably cost us the league as well in the end, it is really hard to compete in both competitions and keep the level up for the full season.
I find it odd that Hagreaves didn’t mention Havertz,the guy who has scored in a Champions League final for the winning side,against City which was considered the better team. By the way, I think our current squad is better than the Chelsea team which won the Champions League a few years ago.
Talking of depth,the knockouts don’t begin until next year. Saying we lack depth is a bit premature because I’ll be surprised if the squad is not strengthened in January. What we have now is sufficient for the group stages imo. Jesus has a very good record in the competition. The likes of Sterling,Zinchenko and Merino have the experience. Jorginho and Havertz have won it and Rice has been to a European final even if lesser.
It will be interesting to see what, if anything, happens in the January window. Generally, clubs rarely sell their best/better players then as they’re wanted for title runs, cups, relegation battles etc., but you never know.
I’m not sure we really need best kind of players. If it is depth we are looking for,we can get decent signings like Trossard in January. The marquee signings will probably have to wait until the summer window. We could also get opportunities to sign players in their final year of contract.
I think we need to see how the youngsters play in the league cup before making a judgement.
I would rather take the risk on this squad than have too many players with the risk of unhappy ones causing problems.
Bar too much injuries, we’ll do fine :
This is a second team, containing non of the first 11
Trossard Jesus Sterling
———Nwaneri
—–Merino Jorginho
Zinchenko Kiwior Tomiyasu Tierney
We actually thin though
Lol !
The squad depth is probably the most important limiting factor for Arsenal. A full strength Arsenal side would be a match for any team in Europe.
Unfortunately, we are down on numbers this season and it’s going to be very difficult to sustain challenges across multiple tournaments.
Our European record is poor even when we were arguably the strongest team in the early 2000’s. There are clubs that excel in European competitions, as an example Bayern have not lost at home in the UCL/European Cup in the last 41 matches, winning 37 of them. We would be doing well to get to the last
4 in my view. I believe our intention should be focused on winning the EPL after coming so close in the last two seasons.