Arsenal dressing room's feelings on 'problem' behind Premier League title misses

The Arsenal dressing room believe injuries have prevented them from ending the club's long wait for a domestic title after finishing as runners-up in the Premier League three seasons running.

That's according to Martin Zubimendi, who has revealed the squad's sentiment was that the Gunners' came 'undone' as they struggled to cope with key absences. Injuries to Bukayo Saka and Martin Odegaard saw Mikel Arteta's side struggle to find creativity in attacking positions last term, while they often lacked a traditional forward presence.

The north London side finished 10 points behind Liverpool as the Reds wrapped up the league title with a month to spare. And after also being burnt by injuries in previous years, Arsenal set out to rectify that situation by improving squad depth this summer, adding Viktor Gyokeres, Eberechi Eze and Noni Madueke in attack as well as strengthening in midfield and defence.

That was noted by Zubimendi, who told he told the Guardian: “From what teammates have said to me, the problem was the injuries, that when someone got injured, the team came undone.

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“This year the club has invested a lot in having two players in every position.”

The Spain international does not believe his addition is a particular game-changer, however, because he feels the north London outfit were already stocked with quality midfielders. “Actually, I don’t agree with that,” he added. “Because the midfield there was already very strong.”

Zubimendi hopes to benefit from his transfer, too, and he is already shifting his mentality to a new style of play. “Yes. The mentality is: be a man. Go into clashes hard,” he said.

“It’s more direct. In Spain when you get the ball, it’s more about keeping it; [in England], whenever you win it, it’s straight on to the attack. Transitions are unavoidable, it’s harder to control.

“But [handling] that is not about ability as such, it’s getting your mind used to it. That’s different to La Liga but the thing that has most struck me is the dead ball, how important it is.

“I’m seeing loads of goals from that and they’re often what opens up the game. We have a set-play coach and we work on that practically daily.”

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