Arsenal edge to Europe final despite doubts

Arsenal edge – Ian Ladyman’s weekend football roundup weighs Arsenal’s defensive dominance and Arteta’s answers after City defeat, then moves through Rooney’s early pundit sparks, Foden’s subdued City send-off, Ollie Watkins’ record nights, Salah’s farewell controversy, Ever

Arsenal’s celebrations carried an unmistakable message: they are not sailing on vibes alone. After their victory over Crystal Palace yesterday, Mikel Arteta’s team hit 85 points over the course of the last nine months—an amount that would have won the league last season, too.

That number matters because it forces a question people have been asking for most of the year: are Arsenal truly “outstanding,” or simply efficient at the right moments in a league where others have dropped standards?

In the nine-month picture, Arteta’s side look like deserved champions. Their defence has been the headline, backed by a figure that even skeptics struggle to shrug off. Arsenal have conceded an average of only 2.5 shots on target per league game this season — a statistically best defence across all of Europe’s top five leagues.

But the doubts don’t disappear. Ladyman argues Arsenal are worthy champions while still insisting they do not match the recent standards set by Manchester City and Liverpool in the Pep Guardiola-Jürgen Klopp era. He points to Liverpool’s title-winning 84 points last season under Arne Slot. and to Arsenal’s points haul this season being the lowest by a title-winning side since Leicester City lifted the trophy with 81 points a decade ago.

The counterbalance is straightforward: Arsenal have improved on last season—every one of their key metrics has got better—and they have taken opportunity when it arrived. The Premier League season has, at times, been underwhelming beyond Arsenal, with Liverpool and City both enduring disappointing runs. City have gathered fewer points than this season’s 78 only once in Guardiola’s ten years—last year.

Arteta’s group, though, didn’t just benefit from circumstance. They were asked a serious question after their defeat at City last month, and they answered it by winning five consecutive league games. They also came through a two-legged Champions League semi-final against Atletico Madrid.

Where it lands for Arsenal now is momentum with a human edge. Ladyman describes what the run has brought them when players look in the mirror: belief. confidence. and belief underpinned by results—setting up Arsenal for Saturday’s Champions League final against PSG in Budapest. In his telling. they will start second favourites. but that status won’t harm them because they have the defensive structures and discipline to frustrate the defending European champions.

He also ties the longer outlook to the league table and the wider landscape waiting around the corner. City have a new manager incoming. Liverpool are “in a bit of a mess.” Manchester United and Aston Villa have done well but are not equipped to win the Premier League. Chelsea, Tottenham and Newcastle are also named as sides whose answers, in his view, aren’t good enough.

And then there is the summer factor. Ladyman says there is “some more money to spend. ” that the squad is young. and that most of Arteta’s players—and Arteta himself—have room to improve. His final point is blunt: this may not be an outstanding Arsenal by recent standards. but there is no reason they cannot become one.

In a rare candid moment at Match of the Day, Arteta admitted he had suffered self-doubt about whether he was really good enough after City beat his team at the Etihad Stadium. Ladyman frames it as refreshing honesty in a football world that often avoids real vulnerability.

Elsewhere on the programme, Wayne Rooney’s presence as a BBC pundit sparked its own kind of moment. Asked for his views on outgoing City players Bernardo Silva and John Stones receiving guards of honour on being substituted. Rooney said: “Save it until after the game.” He added: “If I was a Villa player I would have been fuming.” Ladyman describes the tone as bristling and says Rooney’s instinct was that it was a lovely sight but wrong at the same time because it was a competitive game. with the final Champions League placings able to be influenced.

Rooney, in Ladyman’s view, has emerged as a credible soundbite analyst in his debut season for the BBC. What he needs next is to improve in longer, deeper sections.

The weekend also delivered a study in contrasts across the league’s final day theatre. Phil Foden. in Ladyman’s telling. was sadly anonymous on Guardiola’s final day. and it’s tied to the fact that Guardiola turned him from protégé into a double Player of the Year just two seasons ago. There’s a second layer too: Ladyman says it seemed England manager Thomas Tuchel had got it right by omitting Foden from his World Cup squad. even if “shots across his bows” came from others who were similarly excluded from the 26-man list last Friday.

Morgan Gibbs-White, Jarrod Bowen and Cole Palmer scored on the final day.

And then came Ollie Watkins—going to America with Villa and leaving Stones. another World Cup squad member. on his backside for his second goal. Ladyman calls it sensational and points to Watkins’ record against what are traditionally labelled the big clubs. He adds a specific historical marker: Watkins is the first player in Premier League history to score twice against City. Liverpool and Chelsea in the same season.

Mohamed Salah’s farewell, meanwhile, was a different kind of spectacle. At Anfield. the farewell drew notice for the different ways it was handled elsewhere. with Andrew Robertson taking time out to congratulate Guardiola for his service to City and the Premier League and to congratulate departing Everton captain Seamus Coleman. Ladyman calls that “classy.”.

Salah’s moment at the Kop looked close to ending in a goal—he hit the post with a free-kick—but Ladyman’s description of the farewell is haunted by the way Salah chose to leave. He says that what he said will likely be repeated once microphones are placed before him at the World Cup. and he points back to last November’s incident when Salah took aim at his manager Arne Slot by the team bus at Elland Road. Ladyman calls it a grisly spectacle.

Everton’s final weekend also carried a sting about what comes next. Everton were bit-part players as Tottenham somehow managed to stay up, leaving David Moyes facing the summer question of how to take his club “to the next level.”

Ladyman points to Everton finishing the season with just a point more than last year and in exactly the same 13th position. He cites injuries as part of what shaped the season: Jack Grealish was injured. and Ladyman mentions young attacker Tyler Dibling as a factor—though the implication is that Everton didn’t get enough. He says what hurt Everton most was a relative lack of goals. with only two teams outside the bottom three scoring fewer.

The goal drought becomes more specific: a squad list with no single player in double figures in the league, and the note that the last proper scorer of goals Everton had was Dominic Calvert-Lewin, ending the season with fourteen—but those were “scored for Leeds.”

There is hope elsewhere in the survival stories. Seeing two promoted clubs—Leeds and Sunderland—stay up is framed as heartening, and Ladyman awards Manager of the Year to Regis Le Bris on Wearside.

Sunderland’s final day win over Chelsea. he says. saw them close within six points of defending champions Liverpool—an extraordinary fact. He also points to Sunderland’s squad overhaul last summer: only two or three survivors of last May’s play-off final win played regularly this season. Ladyman says that might suggest a recruitment model for clubs like Hull City to follow. even if he calls it easier said than done.

Sunderland will celebrate for a while after making Europe next season. But Ladyman’s tone shifts to realism: he says it will make their second season in the Premier League harder than the first and that they will need another very good summer.

Then comes the West Ham conversation, sharp and uncompromising. There’s talk that Scott Parker may be lined up to try and get West Ham back out of the Championship. Ladyman adds that the recently sacked Burnley manager got Burnley up last season and has previously done the same for Fulham and Bournemouth.

Still, Ladyman says consideration should be given to Nuno Espirito Santo first. He points out the help Nuno had through the Wolves relationship with his agent Jorge Mendes when he brought them into the Premier League in 2018. while emphasizing Nuno was still the one coaching as the Midlands club racked up 99 points.

But the biggest blame lands on Graham Potter. Ladyman says that of all the mistakes West Ham made in recent times. the decision to hire Potter in January 2025 stands out as one of the worst. He calls it the wrong fit. says “we all called it at the time. ” and adds that Potter will take Sweden to the World Cup while it will take more than a good summer in America to restore the Premier League reputation of a coach who. in Ladyman’s view. should have chosen more wisely after being spat out by Chelsea.

For Manchester United, the talk is durability rather than drama. Luke Shaw may not be going to America this summer after he was another big name not to do enough to impress Tuchel. Ladyman still praises Shaw’s impact: he says Shaw has done as much as anybody to get Manchester United back on an even keel this season.

He adds that Shaw is 30 and that his terrible injury record is well known—so it’s “heartening” that Shaw started every single one of United’s 38 Premier League games.

He then lists the other members of the “38 club” this season: Liverpool’s Virgil van Dijk, Bournemouth’s Adrien Truffert, Everton’s James Garner, and West Ham’s Jarrod Bowen.

There’s a goalkeeper pattern too. Ladyman says only four goalkeepers managed to start every league game: Everton’s Jordan Pickford, Fulham’s Bernd Leno, Bournemouth’s Djordje Petrovic, and Brighton’s Bart Verbruggen.

Finally, Tottenham’s survival talk includes a small redemption arc for goalkeeper Anton Kinsky. Ladyman says that after Spurs’ Champions League horror show. Kinsky has his redemption: a big added time save against Leeds to secure a point and now another against Everton to make sure three didn’t become one. Ladyman notes that Tottenham stayed up by two. and ends with a joke—“Build the man a statue!”—before clarifying it was a joke.

Underneath all the specific moments—the points totals. the defensive numbers. the pundit soundbites. the send-offs and the survival stakes—one theme keeps surfacing: Arsenal have earned their place by tightening up. while the rest of the league’s storyline has been built on whether teams answered pressure or stumbled under it.

Arsenal Crystal Palace Mikel Arteta Champions League final PSG Wayne Rooney BBC Phil Foden Ollie Watkins Mohamed Salah Liverpool Everton David Moyes Sunderland Regis Le Bris Scott Parker Graham Potter Nuno Espirito Santo Luke Shaw Anton Kinsky