Detailing Arsenal’s struggles in the Premier League this season

The English Premier League can be a hostile place. It only takes a few changes amongst the playing or coaching staff for the fortunes of a club to change almost overnight. Take Manchester United for example. For the first 20 years of the competition, they were far and away the most dominant side, picking up an almost unbelievable 13 titles during the reign of Sir Alex Ferguson. No matter the opposition, they would have favourable odds to win each game. Most United fans felt the good times would never end.

Once Ferguson retired, it all began to unwind at a considerable pace. Within a single season they went from 1st to 7th, and while they have recovered to finish in the top 4 for the last few seasons, they have never really sustained a serious title challenge. They currently have odds of 100/1 to win this year’s Premier League title, which really proves just how far they have fallen.

Another side who are comparable to United are Arsenal. During the late 90s and early 00s, they too were perennial challengers, winning the league 3 times in this period. With revolutionary coach Arsene Wenger at the helm, they were also many people’s favourite side to bet on. They could beat anyone on their day, including Manchester United, so their odds were always worth examining before each game.

Betting on Arsenal in the modern age is easier than ever, you can even take advantage of the latest deals like the BetMGM sportsbook bonus, when placing bets on the Gunners like you can surely do so this Saturday when they take on Southampton, where they are currently 17/25 favourites to win. You’d certainly expect Arsenal to have enough in the locker to beat a struggling Southampton side, so they look like great odds to take advantage of.

While in this game Arsenal are the bookmaker’s favourites, that hasn’t always been the case this season. Under current manager Mikel Arteta, who played for Arsenal whilst Wenger was still in charge, their form has been well and truly up and down, so fans of the club never really know what to expect from their side.

Let’s take a more in-depth look at some of their results this season, to try and establish why they don’t seem to be climbing the table.

Tough start had them on the back foot

The first few games of the new season for Arsenal were incredibly tough, for a variety of reasons. They began the new campaign away against newly promoted Brentord, who’s fans were seeing their team in the top tier of English football for the first time in over 70 years. The betting odds had Arsenal as favourites, but the atmosphere inside the Brentford Community Stadium was electric, and clearly intimidated the Arsenal players.

Ben White had a debut to forget, and was cupbable for one of the goals as Arsenal lost 2-0. It didn’t get any easier from there, as their next 2 fixtures were against the current Champions League holders Chelsea, and the Premier League winners Manchester City.

In all honesty, given the odds that Arsenal had on most online sportsbooks, it was no surprise that they lost both games without scoring a goal. Chelsea left the Emirates with a 2-0 victory, whereas the trip to the Etihad, a stadium Arteta knows well after coaching there for several seasons, was a disaster. Arsenal had a man sent off, and were thoroughly beaten 5-0. At that point, Arteta was the oddsmaker’s favourite to be sacked.

Unbeaten run lifts them off the bottom

Thankfully for Arsenal fans, Arteta kept his job, and managed to steady the ship, and get the club back to winning ways. In fact, he took them on an 8 game unbeaten run, beating sides such as Norwich, Leicester and rivals Tottenham along the way. This lifted the Gunners up to near the top of the table, breathing down the necks of the teams in the top 4.

With Arsenal, despite having missed out on the Champions League for over 5 seasons, the plan is for them to make it back to the promised land as soon as possible. During this run, Arsenal fans might have started to believe it was possible this season.

Started to unravel again?

Unfortunately, it only takes 1 or 2 bad results before things start to fall apart again. A 4-0 hammering by Liverpool was a stark reminder of how far they still have to go before they are challenging right at the top again. They did manage to beat Newcastle 2-0, but followed that result up with consecutive losses to Manchester United and Everton.

Now, they look in trouble again. Some betting odds have them as 6/1 to make it to the top 4, behind United, Spurs and West Ham. Thankfully for Arteta, there is plenty of the season left to recover, but they’ll need to improve their form quickly if they are going to avoid slipping even further behind the top teams.

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