New Delhi: No one remembers who came second, and that’s precisely what separates winners from others. The great football teams of the past and present have shown that it takes more than just good football and stepping up in clutch moments to go the distance in elite competitions. Not many would question the quality of the current Arsenal squad and their calibre to win big tournaments.

But the club’s failure in stepping up when required and the habit of falling short have now started to project them as football’s new ‘Nearly team’. That ‘nearly team’ which has the potential and perhaps the talent to win the big trophies, but keeps falling short at crucial junctures to miss out on the laurels, nearly every time.

There was great optimism when Mikel Arteta, a Pep Guardiola understudy at Manchester City, took Arsenal to FA Cup glory in his very first season after taking over as the manager of the Gunners in 2019. However, Arsenal have since failed to win a major trophy, despite coming close on several occasions. Arsenal have now gone five years without a trophy, a fact that doesn’t do justice to the team’s performance in all those seasons.

After winning the FA Cup in his first season, Arteta’s Arsenal made the worst possible start the following season, but a string of difficult decisions were made by the club to restructure the backroom while........

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