Arsenal drew their 13th game of the season as Crystal Palace made it an 18-point cause for introspection in their limp title challenge, but their January inertia may yet lead to the ultimate prize.
The end of the January transfer window saw us sharpening our knives after reports of a failed Ollie Watkins approach offered ammo for further criticism of Arsenal and their inactivity ahead of another trophyless season. But while yet another draw explained and has only delayed defeat in the one-horse Premier League title race, it was a game to extol the virtues of transfer inertia that Liverpool have reaped the reward of in order to be Arsenal’s scourge domestically but has also aided the Gunners in their quest for the greatest trophy of all.
Arsenal fans watching this game may have been considering what might have been. Would they have won the title had they signed an alternative right winger to Raheem Sterling in the summer? Would they have challenged Aston Villa for the signing Marcus Rashford in January had they not been burned by that previous deal for a down-on-their-luck Englishman? The Chelsea loanee put in yet another underwhelming performance.
And the club came in for criticism for failing to improve their attacking options in January despite Sterling’s struggles in the absence of Bukayo Saka even before both Kai Havertz and Gabriel Martinelli were struck down with injuries as the window appeared to slam shut on their hamstrings.
They offered £40m for Watkins and walked away when Aston Villa wanted £20m more in a decision they saw the benefit of across two legs against Real Madrid.
Leandro Trossard played as Arsenal’s No.9 here against Crystal Palace and scored again after his brace in that role against Ipswich, turning neatly in the box before his deflected shot found the corner, but wouldn’t be starting if a) Mikel Merino was fit to start, and b) if this game mattered.
Merino has been a revelation as Mikel Arteta’s false nine, scoring a wonderful goal in the home leg against Real Madrid and then laying on two excellent assists in the Bernabeu, and probably wouldn’t have been playing in those games, let alone starting and starring in that position, had Watkins or an alternative striker been signed in January. It would have taken quite some performance from a new recruit to improve on what the Spaniard did across the two legs.
As would have been the case for an alternative Gabriel Magalhaes backup to Jakub Kiwior.
“It’s definitely nice and I’m glad there’s interest in me,” Kiwior said in January amid reports Arsenal had rejected a £12.5m bid from Napoli for his services. “But I focus on what is now.”
The “now” looked set to be more time spent on the bench watching William Saliba and Gabriel before the Brazilian got injured, with Arsenal chests crossed and Hail Mary’s recited at the prospect of Kylian Mbappe, Vinicius Junior, Rodrigo and Jude Bellingham putting the Polish centre-back to the sword in the Champions League quarter-final.
But other than a nervy ten minutes at the start of the first leg, Kiwior looked as comfortable against the 15-time Champions League winners as any of his Arsenal teammates to more than justify the club’s decision to reject transfer bids and ignore scoffs from the masses at declaring him an ‘important player’.
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And while David Raya has One Of Those Games where he loses all sense of himself and Saliba made another uncharacteristic error as he did in the Bernabeu to gift Jean-Philippe Mateta the chance to score a quite sublime chipped equaliser, Kiwior produced two moments of brilliance against Crystal Palace to further vindicate the call to retain him.
He had a lot to do from Martin Odegaard’s free-kick, meeting the ball with his head around the penalty spot and guiding it into the corner to give Dean Henderson no chance and open the scoring. And he then denied Eddie Nketiah a goalscoring return to the Emirates with an extraordinary block in his six-yard box as he stretched his leg out behind him.
Eberechi Eze also scored a brilliant goal, volleying the ball in off the post from a corner, which means this was Arsenal’s 13th draw of the season and the ninth in which they’ve given up the lead. That’s 18 points they’ve lost from winning positions compared to Liverpool’s 11, which isn’t enough to close the gap entirely but would mean the title race would still very much be on.
It’s nearly over now and Arsenal are set for a busy summer under new sporting director Andrea Berta to bring the players in to make the final push to win the Premier League. But while it won’t factor into their decision at the end of the season and nor should it as that squad improvement is necessary, they may well finish the campaign with the biggest trophy in their cabinet having rested on their laurels in January.
There’s a lesson in there, just not one Arsenal fans will hope their club takes heed of in the short-term.
