Reasons Arsenal will most likely overtake Chelsea and Manchester City

                                   Arsene Wenger

Haven been a close observer for several years now, it is without a doubt a clear fact  that the Arsenal style of play remains the envy of the rest of the big boys

Despite the relative lack of silverware (an actual lack until last May) Arsene Wenger has overseen a period in the club’s history that has transformed the landscape.

But it hasn’t been without it’s pain.

Even now Arsenal fans are left bemoaning the riches on offer at the Etihad and Stamford Bridge, as Sheikh Mansour and Roman Abramovic bankroll another assault on the Premier League and Champions League double.

There is no such cash swilling around the bowels of the Emirates. And what money is there – and it’s not inconsiderable – is managed so carefully by Wenger one would assume it to be his own.

There is no such thing as ‘throwing money at it’ in Islington.

Yet the years of pain are slowly starting to bear fruit.

Already the Gunners have a stadium that befits Champions League football. 60,000 seats that require no renovation or improvements.

                          The Emirates Stadium

No season ticket holders to be displaced. No new debt to burden the balance sheet. And no debate on future growth in N5.
The opposite is occurring right now in the blue half of Manchester and at the end of the Kings Road (although neither give two hoots about the impact on the balance sheet).
In terms of infrastructure both are still playing catch-up, even if the money tree had enabled them to leap ahead in the green stuff.
FFP has also threatened to put a very small, timid cat in with the killer pigeons, but with City and PSG both doing their best to pull the rug from under Michel Platini’s laudable and best made plans, the jury remains out on whether the Gunners will be ultimately rewarded for their measured approach to growth.

On the field those from North London have also stolen a march on the rest in terms of their style of football.

While the last decade has seen a spell of trophy abstinence, in fairness to Wenger in that time he embedded the tiki-taka style well before Pepe Guardiola’s Barcelona made it sexy.

It broke new ground, even if we didn’t realise or acknowledge it at the time. Now it’s the norm.
Even José Mourinho has Chelsea doing a more than passable impression of football that starts from the back and involves the ball being passed around in pretty patterns.
That the Blues do so with an edge that always eluded the Gunners, and of late has done the same to Barcelona, is the very thing that makes Roman’s dream of another Champions League a distinct possibility.
But injury nightmare aside, there is no escaping the Gooners’ years of pain are starting to bear fruit. Arsene’s purse strings are even a smidgen looser. They won’t win the title this season – and there is no escape the power of the ruble and the dinar – but the foundations are in place.
And it’s been achieved the old-fashioned way.