Arsenal told ‘it will take a long time’ to win Premier League title again after ‘regretful’ bottle job

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21 August 2024, 03:15 yayınlandı

Arsenal “will have to wait for a very long time to have such a fantastic opportunity to win the league” again after throwing away the chance to do so this season, says William Gallas.

The Gunners bottled it in the race for the Premier League title, failing to win six of their last eight games, with their defeat at Nottingham Forest on Saturday handing Manchester City the trophy.

They were top of the league by eight points, though City had a game in hand, going into their fixture at Liverpool on April 9, but surrendered a 2-0 lead to draw 2-2, .

Whether or not you like the phrase, it has to be admitted that Mikel Arteta’s side bottled it, though it was a successful season as a whole, regardless of the fact they were favourites to win it all not so long ago.

The good news is that Arsenal have an incredible group of young players that are only just getting started and will have plenty of opportunities to win the Premier League over the next few years.

That is the glass half full mindset, which ex-Gunners captain Gallas has not decided to adopt.

The Frenchman actually thinks Arsenal won’t win the Premier League again for “a long time”.

“Maybe this is going to sound harsh, but I honestly feel that Arsenal gave Manchester City the title,” Gallas told Genting Casino.

“Of course, we need to give credit to Manchester City for going on this unbelievable winning run and ramping up the pressure on Arsenal, but Arsenal gave it away. They had games in hand and didn’t take the opportunity to extend that lead at the top.

“Arsenal were top of the league with eight or nine games to go and didn’t take advantage of the position they were in. They failed. They gave the title to Manchester City.

“I think Arsenal will regret what happened and will have to wait for a very long time to have such a fantastic opportunity to win the league.

“I said a few months ago that if Arsenal don’t win the league this season, after leading the way for the majority of the season, they will have nothing but regrets. It will take a long time for Arsenal to win the Premier League again.

Gallas backs up his logic by saying four Premier League rivals are expected to be a lot stronger next season.

“I think that even if Arsenal’s players come back with the right mentality, even if they start the season well, we know that Manchester City will be there. Liverpool will be there. Manchester United will be there,” he continued.

“It will be a lot more difficult to win the title next season for Arsenal. Even Chelsea could be there – they will change a lot of things and can only improve.

“Arsenal have to start from the beginning. There are 38 games to play next season to become champions, plus they have the Champions League next season.

“It will be really hard for them to mount a challenge – they have to buy more players. They need to sign some experienced players to compete in all the competitions they will be appearing in next season.”

Gallas added: “I was working as a pundit for the Newcastle game and I asked Mikel Arteta if he thought his players could deal with the pressure in the run-in. I could tell that he wasn’t happy with me for asking the question and another player mentioned to me afterwards that he didn’t like my question, but I wanted to know.

“I was very curious to know if the players could accept the pressure that was on their shoulders and perform.

“Arteta was very confident that his team could handle the pressure, and Arsenal picked up a brilliant result on the day.

“Being in the stadium, the atmosphere was crazy, I was looking around at the fans and was thinking to myself, ‘Oh my god. This is a match that every player would want to play in.’ It was amazing.

“Sometimes players can shrink in those environments, but Arsenal had the perfect answer, they were compact, they hurt the opponent when they had the chance.

“For me, I can’t understand why they have not been able to replicate that type of performance in the last few games against Brighton and Nottingham Forest. They miss some experienced players.”