In 4 consecutive seasons of championship race, the term "gap" is the most concise term for Arsenal's battle with Liverpool and Man City. In the early years, they tried every way to narrow that gap. Later, when they became stronger, Arsenal had to struggle to find a way to maintain and widen the gap with the chasing teams.
This season is much more difficult for The Gunners as the gap in level between Premier League teams is narrowing. As of December 31, 2025, Arsenal is the team leading the entire league in terms of 1 goal lead compared to the opponent in the last 15 minutes (8 times). The draw with Wolves was the 9th time Arsenal has done this but ultimately only returned with 1 point. Among the 9 matches leading the opponent by 1 goal in the last 15 minutes, Arsenal only lost points 2 times.
It is undeniable that the atmosphere at Molineux stadium 2 days ago was very harsh for Arsenal. From being ridiculed by rival fans in the stands to collisions on the field, everything seemed to be against Mikel Arteta and his students. Viktor Gyokeres is one of the examples showing how Arsenal players sometimes fell into a deadlock on the Wolves' field when the Swedish striker could not even have a successful challenge with aerial balls, his most powerful weapon.
At some points in the Wolves draw, Arsenal players seemed unable to implement Mikel Arteta's tactical intentions. The team's confusion in the last 10 minutes reminded of last month's draw with Nottingham Forest. At that time, Arsenal also could not control the ball well and fell into chaos.
Speaking of the concept of "distance", before the matches with Brentford or Wolves, Arsenal fans were very hopeful that it could be widened with the chasing team Man City. However, is Arsenal really better than Man City in the previous 2 races?
In two seasons directly competing with Man City (2022-2023 and 2023-2024), Man City scored a total of 94 and 96 goals after 38 rounds. Erling Haaland contributed 63 goals (33%) of which is a very noteworthy statistic because Arsenal did not have such an excellent center forward despite trying Gabriel Jesus, Kai Havertz and now Viktor Gyokeres. Even with Viktor Gyokeres, he has had 15/25 matches played in the Premier League this season but could not have a single shot on target.
As of this time of the 2025-2026 season, Man City, although 5 points behind Arsenal, still has a higher average number of goals per game than the opponent (1.96 compared to 1.92). This means that Arsenal is still scoring many goals but not enough to completely surpass Man City.
If Arsenal finishes the season with an average match score of 1.92, they will have 73 goals. This is lower than Man City's 94 and 96. Compared to Liverpool last season (86), Arsenal may also be inferior.
In a few recent matches when Kai Havertz returned, while Gabriel Jesus and Viktor Gyokeres were healthy, how to arrange these 3 factors is a very difficult problem for Mikel Arteta. In the context that the club needs to score more goals to avoid only being 1 goal ahead of the opponent in the last 15 minutes, as well as increasing the average goal count per match, this is the time Arteta needs to solve that problem.
