Arteta must now deliver the prizes that matter the most

After spending £650m on new signings, the Gunners have one FA Cup so can their manager beat Pep over a season?

- KARL MATCHETT

Gradual progress, incremental improvement. Arsenal have been on a serious upward trajectory over the past few seasons, and now there's only one place left to go. Of course, that final step is always the most difficult, yet it is also the end ambition, the goal, the whole point of a new direction, new investment and new reason for optimism.

Mikel Arteta like most bosses who go up against Pep Guardiola-led teams - remains unproven in that most important context. If last year was about showcasing they could stay the course and be in a genuine title fight into the final week or two of the season, then 2024/25 must be about underlining the reasons why Arsenal can take the final step - and, of course, about actually taking it.

Two points off the title as they were last year feels close, and yet... it never feels that close to Manchester City, somehow. This is after all a team who have twice won the league recently by single-point margins, have hit record tallies along the way and have become experts in seeing out the season.

If you're behind them by a point, or four, with seven or eight games to go and win the rest of your matches... you probably finish a point, or four, behind them. To win the English title, rivals have two options: be damn near perfect, or wait for City's fairly minor slip-ups and be ready and in place to have a merely exceptional season themselves.

Let's put that into context for Arsenal. The Gunners were largely very good last year, won 28 of 38 games and claimed 89 points. It wasn't their best-ever season: their record points haul for a single top-flight season is 90. They achieved that over two decades ago, in 2003/2004.