🧠 Food for Thought - Fast Start: The Key to Toppling City's Reign?

Arsenal have challenged City for the EPL title for the past two seasons | Getty

The 2024/25 Premier League season's afoot, and after challenging for the pinnacle of English football honors the past couple seasons against record four-peat victors Manchester City, Gooners worldwide will be hoping this is the season we finally pip them to the prestigious prize.

But just how exactly do we accomplish such a mammoth task? Well, if you've been keenly following Pep Guardiola's formidable side, you'd have noticed a less-than-welcome trend for the Cityzens that the young and fired-up Gunners (pun intended) could potentially capitalize on.

Manchester City have won the EPL title a record four times in a row | Getty

The Trope: Slow-Start City.

Did you know, Manchester City haven't been top of the Premier League table at the halfway mark (Matchweek 19) for the past five seasons, bar 2021/22? And even then, it took them until Matchweek 15 to peak.

It took City till Gameweek 15 to peak the EPL table in 2021/22 | Stats courtesy of Premier League

In 2019/20, the Sky Blues were 3rd come Matchweek 19 on 38 points, 14 points adrift of league leaders Liverpool (52 points). They were runners-up midway through 2020/21 (38 points) and 2022/23 (39 points), and 4th last season (2023/24) on 37 points, albeit with a game in hand. They did go on to lift the league title in the latter three seasons though, indicating a side that despite their lethargic starts, know how to peak and attack the season at the optimal time. However, it is crucial to note that in the one season they didn't win it (2019/20), Liverpool got off to a blistering start and never looked back, basically running away with the league. Is this, then, the key to beating City?

Liverpool ran away with the EPL title in 2019/20 | Stats courtesy of Premier League

The Antidote: Fast-Start Arsenal.

Despite struggling over the past few seasons, we have proven we are capable of a ruthless and exhilarating start to a Premier League season. Enter: 2022/23! The young and vibrant Mikel Arteta's Arsenal are thrilling and exciting to watch, mounting a surprise title challenge for the first time under the Spaniard and projected to replicate Man City's Centurion season at the midpoint (50 points, 5 clear of City with a game in hand).

Arsenal were on course for 100 points halfway through the 2022/23 EPL season | Stats courtesy of Premier League

Did you know, we were 8 points clear of Pep Guardiola's side after Matchweek 29, albeit they had a game in hand? This kind of form can topple City, but as evidenced by Klopp's Liverpool in 2019/20, it has to be sustained throughout the season. If Arsenal can replicate the first half of 2022/23 (50 points) and the second half of 2023/24 (49 points), it's highly likely the Premier League trophy dons red ribbons come the end of the 2024/25 season (99-points tally has never failed to win it).

Arsenal were 8 points clear of Manchester City on Gameweek 29 of the 2022/23 EPL season | Stats courtesy of Premier League

The Nutshell.

So, in a nutshell, my experience as a Gooner challenging for the EPL title against a team as formidable as City these past couple seasons has been an eye opener. To give yourself the best chance of lifting the elusive Premier League title, you need to get off to a blistering start. Why? Because City tend not to. It's in the second half of the season that the Cityzens tend to come alive. So, if you can start fast and maintain that form for the rest of the season, you probably run away with it (á la Liverpool in 2019/20).

A sustained blistering form into the season is key for Arsenal's title charge | Getty

So, here's to hoping we replicate the first half of 2022/23 (50 points) and the second half of 2023/24 (49 points), and then some.