Did the First Month of the Season Cost Arsenal Champions League Football?

Brentford-Arsenal

Did the first month of the season cost Arsenal Champions League football?

By Tom Masters

With the Premier League season done and dusted last Sunday, it is time to reflect on what ultimately proved to be a slightly disappointing season for Arsenal. 

Missing out on Champions League football to rivals Tottenham, after losing to their fiercest rivals and to Newcastle United towards the end of the season, left a bittersweet taste in the mouth.

But was it perhaps form earlier on in the season that cost the Arsenal a place among Europe’s elite? 

There is a saying in the game that the first month of the season is not going to win you the title but it absolutely can lose you the title, and this can also apply to the Gunners quest for a return to Europe’s premier competition for the first time in five years. 

So the question is, did the first month of the season cost Arsenal Champions League football? 
 

What happened? 

  
On Friday 13 August 2021, the new top flight season began as Arsenal visited newly promoted Brentford, a side who had reached the Premier League for the first time in their history.  

The Gunners were heavily tipped to win against newly promoted opposition, but they were presented with a hostile 16,000 strong crowd and a side managed superbly by Thomas Frank in what turned out to be a very tough opening fixture.  

Sergi Canós’ excellent strike put The Bees 1-0 up after just 22 minutes, and things went from bad to worse when The Gunners failed to deal with a long throw into the box midway through the second half, allowing Christian Norgaard to pounce on the loose ball and head home.  

It was to be a start to forget for Mikel Arteta’s team, who welcomed rivals Chelsea to The Emirates in Round 2 of the 2021/22 season.  

This did not prove to be any better for the Gunners, as the recently crowned Champions of Europe Chelsea stormed North London with all three points with another 2-0 win. 

Belgian forward Romelu Lukaku scored after just 15 minutes, with Reece James feeding him the perfect delivery and Pablo Mari unable to prevent Lukaku from getting first to the loose ball.  

James then got onto the scoresheet himself when he received Mason Mount’s pass out wide and fired home, to leave Arsenal without a point from their opening two games and yet to score. 

Only two weeks in, the season already looking like it would be a long, tough, campaign. 

The third game of the opening month, brought the small matter of a visit to Manchester City and it felt like Arsenal could be in trouble.

Manchester City-Arsenal

Champions City raced into a 2-0 lead with early goals from Ilkay Gundogan and Ferran Torres before Granit Xhaka was sent off late in the first half. 

Gabriel Jesus, Rodri and a second goal for Ferran Torres saw City ease to a 5-0 win, leaving Arteta and his squad stranded at the bottom of the Premier League table, still without a goal, let alone a point.  

Pressure was mounting already on the Spanish boss, as Arsenal, who had spent more than any other club in the Premier League in the summer, were seeing their pre-season expectations crushed by three defeats on the spin. 
  

What impact did this have? 

 
By contrast, the side who pipped Arsenal to Champions League football Tottenham Hotspur, had won three from three, beaten Manchester City and had yet to concede a Premier League goal, leaving the gap after just three games at an already large nine points. 

Of course that was to completely flip in September when Arsenal won three in a row (including a 3-1 win against Tottenham), but it set the team up for failure, forcing them to be playing catch-up after just three games in the season.
 
This lumped the pressure on Arteta and generally creating a difficult atmosphere around the Emirates in the early part of the season. 
 

Verdict: Did the start cost Arsenal their place in the Champions League? 

 
It is a difficult one to assess. Arsenal were in control of their own destiny with three games to go, sitting in fourth place and four points ahead of Spurs. 

But it certainly played a part in their failure to reach the heights of Champions League football. 

However, considering the magnitude of the matches played, against the recently crowned Champions of Europe and England with a newly assembled squad, they cannot have been expected to necessarily win those matches. 

Brentford is another banana skin game that you can look back on now as costly, but ultimately it cannot be said that this alone cost them their place among Europe’s elite. 

Verdict: No, Arsenal had their place in the Champions League all but secured with three matches to play, but with defeats to Tottenham and Newcastle they failed to make it, it is those matches that have cost Arteta and his team their place, not the slow start.

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