Barney Ronay

in 2000 and certainly that 99-2000 season felt a lot more impressive than this season I think because they started the season so well because they were scoring hundreds of goals Kevin Phillips obviously won the European Golden Boot it does feel slightly as though they've snuck in but equally I think they got four points fewer this season than they did in 99-2000

But, you know, they've kept going.

They were really, really good at Everton last week.

And seemingly, you know, I've only seen the highlights, but seemingly physically intimidated Chelsea in the way they physically intimidated Everton.

So they need more investment.

There's a danger that the strain of Europe makes next season a relegation campaign.

But if they put in another 100, 120 million...

We could have the Europa League semi-finals featuring Sunderland, Bournemouth and Crystal Palace, which feels like it should be a championship playoff from about 15 years ago.

That's literally on my to-do list today.

I mean, I'd probably be covering it anyway, but, you know, nice to get it sorted.

You will not.

I think there's two related points here.

So one is, I wonder if this is the way you have to play in modern football if you want to have a proper run of both the Premier League and the Champions League.

And don't forget Arsenal's budget is only the fourth highest in the Premier League.

And what I think they've done is they've gone for depth of squad rather than necessarily having lots of great individuals.

So...

As an example, maybe rather than signing Madaweke and Jakovic, they could have signed Alexander Isak in last summer.

Now that I think would have made them better to watch.

It would have meant they scored more goals, assuming Isak had actually come in without a pre-season and not got injured.

And one of the reasons why they haven't been great to watch is that their centre forward, to be honest, isn't really that good.