Quality over quantity: The fine line Arsenal must walk to challenge for the Premier League
Mikel Arteta's small squad may frustrate fans to no end, but it's exactly why the North London club continue to outperform their richer domestic rivals each season
After a frustrating week in which Arsenal fans were forced to confront the fragility of their squad, it would have undoubtedly been extremely satisfying to see their team overcome Leicester City with what felt like blunt-force determination. After a dull first half which saw Mikel Arteta fumble with an untested and unreliable front line of Raheem Sterling and Leandro Trossard, the Arsenal manager then opted for a more straightforward approach by throwing defensive midfielder Mikel Merino up front.
As we all know, that worked wonders for the North London club with Merino scoring not one but two goals. However, rather than just being a match that showcased what Merino could do in the opposing box, it was also one that once again highlighted the remarkable resilience of an Arsenal side that simply refuse to give up on their hope of challenging for the league title. And while Liverpool seem determined to keep their lead at the top of the Premier League table, there’s no doubt that the progress Arsenal have made to even be the second-best team in England this season is deserving of praise in itself.
Indeed, now in their third successive challenge for the league title, it’s easy to forget that Arsenal really have no right to be pushing for major honours in the Premier League when we consider their financial standing among their domestic rivals. Although Arteta’s side made six of the club’s ten most expensive signings ever in the last 10 seasons, with some notably big signings like Kai Havertz and Declan Rice, the North London club’s spending has actually been rather tame in comparison to the other big hitters in the Premier League.
For example, in the last five seasons Arsenal’s net spend on transfer fees stands at €556 million. That may seem like a lot, but it only places them fourth in English football, behind Chelsea, Manchester United and Tottenham. Three clubs that fans of the Gunners will happily note have received far fewer returns for their investments in the transfer window in recent years. And when we take a look at the club’s pure expenditure on new players, it comes in fifth in the league at €783m. That, crucially, is €186m less than what Man City have spent on new players, while largely offsetting their investments in the first team squad with the sale of dozens of academy players over the years.
Arsenal’s success on the pitch in recent years is also underlined when we consider the wage bills of English football’s biggest clubs. According to Forbes, the North London club have an annual wage bill of €384m, which is the fifth largest in the Premier League, behind Chelsea in fourth, Man Utd in third, Liverpool in second and Man City in first with an annual wage bill that reportedly stands at €97.2m more than the one Arteta has to work with each and every year.
To put that into perspective, with an extra €97.2m per year added to their wage bill Arsenal could afford to pay the wages of Erling Haaland, Mohamed Salah and Kevin de Bruyne on top of what they already pay their title-challenging squad, with enough money left over in the budget to more or less sign another Martin Ødegaard or Declan Rice to the squad. This, of course, excludes transfer fees, but the point still stands: the fact that Arsenal are capable of challenging these clubs and in many ways surpassing them on the pitch is a huge achievement.
To do this, Arsenal get more for less in the transfer market. As previously noted, the club have spent €783m on new players in the last five seasons, but 74% of that money was spent on signing just 11 players. As we can see in the pie chart above, 25% of the budget was Havertz and Rice’s transfer fees alone and while there are some players that haven’t quite lived up to the billing like Gabriel Jesus, Fábio Vieira and perhaps even Oleksandr Zinchenko, the vast majority of Arsenal’s signings in the last five years have been important additions to the team. In other words, Arsenal’s hit rate in the transfer market has been solid and in turn has been the backbone of their ability to leapfrog teams with bigger budgets.
Interestingly enough, when we then make the direct comparison to Man City’s spending in the last five seasons we find that they too have 11 signings that make up around 75% of their total spending on new players. But, unlike Arsenal, they have a number of players that haven’t lived up to the high price tags, such as Jack Grealish, Matheus Nunes, Jeremy Doku and Kalvin Phillips, while three of their January transfer signings also make it into the higher tier of signings in Omar Marmoush, Nico González and Abdukodir Khusanov. It remains to be seen whether these players go on to justify the €175m, but it’s worth bearing in mind that the €40m that was casually spent on Khusanov would have made him Arteta’s seventh-most expensive transfer ever had Arsenal made the same signing. For Pep Guardiola’s Man City, he doesn’t even feature in the top 20.
Arsenal’s focus on spending big on fewer players also translates over to the wages of each squad too. As we previously noted, Arsenal have the fifth largest wage bill in the Premier League but according to Capology the North London club have no fewer than nine players in the top 50 highest earners in the English top-flight. Among the Premier League’s traditional “Big Six” clubs, only Man City have more players in the top 50, with 13. But, notably, Arsenal have more than Chelsea (seven), Liverpool (six), Man Utd (six) and Tottenham (four).
Here, again, we can see the club’s specific approach to the market play out differently than their rivals. For example, while Chelsea have an annual wage bill that’s reportedly €12m higher than Arsenal’s, the North London club roughly pay Rice (€14.9m per year) as much as their Stamford Bridge rivals pay for the services of Ben Chilwell, Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall and Joao Felix (€15.1m). One club has opted to use most of their resources to sign fewer players of higher quality, while another has decided to spread their resources out to sign a number of players of varying quality. And while Chelsea’s transfer policy remains a mystery to most, Arsenal’s strategy in the transfer market has clearly allowed Arteta to build one of the best teams in English football.
However, there are obvious pitfalls to signing fewer players and relying on a smaller squad than your rivals. Arteta’s back-up options to his first-choice attacking line are Trossard, Sterling and Jesus, while the club still has no obvious stand-in for Ødegaard’s invaluable playmaking when the Norwegian star is either injured or out of form. And for all of Thomas Partey and Jorginho’s resilience this season, Arsenal’s midfield would simply crumble if Rice were to pick up a long-term injury and Merino was asked to step in for the England international for an extended period of time.
Which brings us back to the predicament Arsenal are in now. While fans were clamouring for the club to spend money on a number of positions in the January transfer window, Arteta and his backroom staff seemed more intent on making a daring move for Aston Villa striker Ollie Watkins. And while that may have puzzled most of the fanbase, it certainty fit in line with the English club’s policy of signing proven players that can immediately improve their squad, as opposed to spending around €90m on three or four players that may or may not turn into reliable starters for Arteta’s team.
Considering the club’s rich history in English football and the clamour for their first league title since 2004, it’s perfectly understandable why fans would be disappointed in the club not throwing orthodoxy to the wind and spending the money to bolster the squad in January to keep up and hopefully surpass Liverpool. But the club itself could also argue that if they had caved in to such temptations in every transfer window in the last five years, the squad would be full of short-term panic buys rather than the carefully curated team that is currently punching above its weight in the Premier League.
As such Arsenal currently find themselves at the crossroads of reason and fandom, where logic and emotions have locked horns and are trying to outmuscle the other for control of what the club should do next. But even that need to succeed at all costs right now dismisses the achievements that have been made to date. And while it will come as absolutely no solace to fans of the club if they find themselves finishing second for a third successive league campaign in May, it really can’t be overstated how well Arteta & Co. have done to get the club to this place in the first place.
Whether it be through smart signings, clever use of their wage budget or simply sticking Merino up front to head the ball into the back of the net, Arteta’s Arsenal continue to outthink and outperform their richer rivals in the Premier League. And that’s something that should be celebrated in May, regardless of whether or not they finish the season as league champions.