By Antony Jordan
With Chelsea and the two Manchester clubs underperforming for much of last season, many people expected that it would be The Gunners who ended their EPL title drought. However, the side with the longest serving manager in English football could only finish second to Leicester thanks to a second half of the season collapse that saw them win just five league games in the final three months, seeing their lack of a league title continue since they last lifted the trophy in 2004.
Will the 2016/17 season see them claim their first league title in 13 years? Bet365.com do not believe so as the online sportsbook make them only the fourth favourites in the outright market to become the champions. The Bet365.com Premier League Odds for Arsenal are as follows:
Arsenal to become the 2016/17 EPL champions – 7.50
Arsenal to finish in the top four of the Premier League this season – 1.57
Arsenal have lost a number of seasoned players for this upcoming campaign as Mikel Arteta has retired while both of Mathieu Flamini and Tomáš Rosický have been released, but manager Arsene Wenger has also strengthened his side too.
He has spent more than £30m on two players in midfielder Granit Xhaka and defender Rob Holding but at the ages of just 23 and 20 do these players have what it takes to get Arsenal back to the top of the EPL?
Xhaka was part of the Swiss side at Euro 2016 that exited the competition at the last 16 stage and with his missed penalty in the shootout against Poland seeing them defeated shortly after signing for Arsenal there were many comments stating that he was a perfect signing for The Gunners. The reason for this is the belief that they have a history of ‘bottling’ the league with a slump in the early parts of the second half of the season.
This happened last season with just five wins in their final 12 matches and while they ended the season unbeaten in ten with five wins and five draws they were blown away by Leicester who took the title by a massive ten points. They were the lowest scorers in the top four, with West Ham bagging the same amount of goals, despite having Alexis Sanchez and Mesut Özil both scoring and creating, but really if they’re to challenge they’ll need to boost their defence with more than a 20 year old from Bolton and they’ll need at least one top level striker.
However, despite all of this, they have not missed out on a top four spot in 20 years and with Arsene Wenger overseeing another season we feel that they’re going to remain as dependable as ever and are unlikely to miss out this time around, and this is our pick for The Gunners this coming season.
Our top tip for Arsenal this 2016/17 EPL season is back them to finish in the top four @ 1.57 with Bet365.