Will Arteta's Arsenal get another golden chance?

Gunners should be stronger next season... but so will their rivals

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It may feel like spring but we are not yet in March, and already the post-mortems of Arsenal's latest title push are under way.

Wednesday's draw with Nottingham Forest, followed by Liverpool's win over Newcastle, left the Reds 13 points clear of Mikel Arteta's side at the summit with 10 games to play. From here, it is just as hard to imagine Liverpool dropping enough points to make it interesting as it is to believe that a depleted, toothless Arsenal, who have used midfielder Mikel Merino as an auxiliary centre-forward, will be faultless in the run-in. Injuries have been a factor in a title race which has never got going, while bad luck and slack discipline have hampered Arsenal.

Most fans point to a disappointing summer, during which the club did nothing to improve Arteta's best XI, and a January window when they failed to land the striker the head coach so desperately wanted as the biggest reasons for falling short again, while Gary Neville has even pointed to Arsenal's "obsession" with set-pieces (which, as an aside, makes you wonder if we are heading for the inevitable backlash against the cult of set-piece coaches like Arteta favourite Nicolas Jover).

Challenge ahead