analysis
Under Mikel Arteta, Arsenal FC has often come close to winning the title, and this season his team seems ready for it. FC Bayern Munich will also feel this in the Champions League on Wednesday (from 9 p.m. in the Sportschau audio stream).
In recent years, when Arsenal FC were on the other side of the football pitch, that wasn’t a reason for FC Bayern to have to worry too much before kick-off. The game has been played five times since November 2015, the first three times Munich won 5-1, and last season it was close again for the first time in the quarter-finals with a 2-2 and 1-0 win. And now things could get really tight.
Most points in the Premier League since 2022
Since 2019, Mikel Arteta has been working on making the “Gunners” an absolute top team again, but apart from the FA Cup title in his first season, nothing significant has come of it so far. Especially in recent years, Arteta’s team has always been close and has been runner-up in the Premier League three times in a row. Since the start of the 2022/23 season, Arsenal have scored the most points (276), even more than Manchester City (273), who became champions twice during that time.
Arsenal coach Mikel Arteta with Pep Guardiola
As an assistant coach at the Citizens, Arteta learned a lot from which the club from north London is now benefiting. Pep Guardiola is his teacher; the now 54-year-old wanted to bring him to FC Bayern before, then he became his assistant in Manchester. Now Arteta and Guardiola have been opponents for many years, have even been on equal terms for a few years and Arsenal have now even overtaken Man City and all other national competitors (for now).
No superstar, but many sensible transfers
Like Bayern in Germany, the “Gunners” confidently lead the Premier League table by six points and play exceptionally confident football. What sets them apart from the English competition is that there is no dependence on individual superstars, Arteta has made his style a star, the team doesn’t need Erling Haaland or Mo Salah, the system decides the games. It hardly matters that Kai Havertz and Martin Odegaard are currently missing exceptional talents.
Declan Rice celebrates after his team scored against Tottenham Hotspur
The fact that there isn’t one lighthouse in the team doesn’t mean that Arteta’s system is so good that it can be used so successfully by middle-class players. A lot has also been done in the transfer market to make the team what it is now. Outstanding players like Declan Rice and Ricardo Calafiori have become even better under Arteta and have lifted Arsenal further up the ranks; around 350 million euros were spent on new players in the summer.
Eze in top form before the Bayern clash
Almost 70 million euros of this went to Crystal Palace’s account, and Eberechi Eze came to London for this sum. A name that doesn’t immediately make ears ring, especially outside of England, but also one of those players who have huge potential and are making the most of it under Arteta. Last weekend, Eze single-handedly won the prestigious North London derby against Tottenham Hotspur (4-1) with a hat trick.
This game once again made it clear to FC Bayern that they have at least as big a task ahead of them in the Champions League on Wednesday as they did in the 2-1 win at Paris St. Germain. Once again it’s a duel between the top two in the group phase, Munich is ahead with twelve points and 14:3 goals after four games, Arsenal has an equally perfect result with 11:0 goals.
Arsenal are hard to beat defensively
This goal difference also expresses what is probably the team’s greatest strength: defense. It’s a mixture of strong defending and good control of the ball and the opponent, who hardly gets the opportunity to put Arsenal under pressure at all. Until Richarlison’s 40-meter dream goal to make it 1:3 after 55 minutes, Tottenham had not been allowed to fire a shot on goal, no matter how dangerous.
The defense is missing a very important player in the Brazilian Gabriel, but Piero Hincapie is a player who is also fondly remembered by FC Bayern. With Bayer Leverkusen, the Ecuadorian gave the record champions an incredibly painful experience in 2023/24 when the “Werkself” became German champions by a very large margin.
Piero Hincapie in the Bayer Leverkusen jersey in the game against Bayern Munich
Now Hincapie is on the way to achieving something similar in the Premier League with Arsenal. It wouldn’t be the club’s first championship title like in Leverkusen, but it would still be a great relief, because the last time will have been 22 years ago at the end of the season. This period of suffering could soon come to an end, but the success should extend beyond the national league and FC Bayern should only be an obstacle on the way. Arsenal FC is number 1 in England, but perhaps even in Europe.