Arsenal FC are one of the great soccer institutions in the world. They are one of the few teams to have been ever-present in the Premier League since its inception in 1992 and have won the league on 3 occasions. Their manager is Mike Arteta, a former midfielder for the club. At one stage this season he was the betting odds favourite to be sacked, but he has since turned their form around, and now betting companies have much longer odds on him to be the next manager fired.
Now, for bettors who like to bet on soccer, finding odds and placing bets on Arsenal will always be incredibly popular. Fans will be able to search for the best offshore sportsbooks to find the latest odds on Arsenal’s upcoming matches, and a few options to bet on, like the next goalscorer, the number of corners or yellow cards in the game, as well as a number of other fun and intriguing betting markets to check.
As we are now 15 games into the 2021/22 season, let’s look at how the Gunners have been getting on so far.
Emergence of youngsters the story of the season
Now that Arteta has been in charge for a few years, he has had long enough to work with the players to know who he can rely on, and who he will only use if he absolutely has to. This has upset a number of the players who were signed for a big transfer fee, such as Nicolas Pepe and Alexander Laccazette. Both of these players would be expecting to start every week, but clearly Arteta feels they don’t bring enough to the team, so rarely gives them a run out in the Premier League. The betting odds show both players could well leave the club in the next few transfer windows.
Instead, Arteta has put his faith in a number of youngsters, academy players who he deemed had the right ability, and equally as important the right attitude, to make it as Arsenal players. It is these individuals who have shone so far this season, players such as Bakayo Saka and Emile Smith-Rowe. Meanwhile, other youngsters brought in from elsewhere such as Martin Odegard, Aaron Ramsdale and Albert Sambi Lokanga have also performed to a very high standard, and were all key figures in the 10 games unbeaten run the club had between early September and late November.
Has Aubameyang’s star started to wane?
There is no questioning that since Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang arrived from Borussia Dortmund in 2018, he has been one of their standout players. Without him, the betting odds would rarely have been in Arsenal’s favour in any of their big games against the other top 6 teams, but with him leading the line, you could usually find relatively short odds for him to score in any given match.
However, over the last 6 months or so, it does appear that the Gabonese striker is beginning to slow down slightly. His running stats are down, as are his pressing stats, and he doesn’t seem to be offering as much in terms of goals or assists. He has 4 goals in 15 games so far, which is much lower than we’ve come to expect from him. Against Newcastle, a game which Arsenal won 2-0 he had an incredibly easy chance to boost his goal-scoring stats, but somehow managed to miss from just a few yards out.
There have long been rumours that he wanted to leave North London for somewhere new, with some online betting companies giving odds as low as 2/1 for him to join Barcelona in the next year. While many Arsenal fans would be sad to see him leave, there will also be some who feel content that his time at the club, which has been great, might be drawing to a close.
Will they make it back into the top 4 this season?
This is the question on everyone’s lips, will Arteta be able to steer the club back to the Champions League spots once again, having missed out on them for the last 5 seasons. It will not be easy, as there are several teams who will have similar ambitions to Arsenal’s.
It is widely expected in the betting odds that Liverpool, Manchester City and Chelsea will finish in the top 3 (even if most sportsbooks can’t decide on which order they’ll finish in) so that leaves Arsenal, Manchester United, Tottenham and West Ham all fighting it out over the final spot.
Will Arsenal be able to make it? Many oddsmakers have them at around 6/1 to do it, which does not bode well for them. All 3 of Man United, Spurs and West Ham have shorter odds at the time of writing, so Arteta will really have his work cut out. Thankfully there are still 23 games left to play in the Premier League, so the picture could still change drastically between now and May.
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