3 Reasons why Arsenal will not finish in Top 4 in the Premier League 2018-19

Arsenal have been in this situation before in the Premier League. They have experienced this adversity and they are again in a similar situation in the Premier League 2018-19 season. After the defeat they have suffered from the hands of West Ham United with a score of 1-0, they face an even more difficult task.

They are currently playing in the Europa League and find themselves at the 5th spot fighting with other top clubs in the battle to play in the Champions League next season.

The way they are playing at the moment, they don't look like they can really trouble Chelsea who is sitting at the 4th spot and they don't even look like holding to their 5th spot for too long as Manchester United have started to play free-flowing and attacking football now.

Arsenal haven't got any attacking flair in their football. If they keep playing boring football under Unai Emery and doesn't create many chances for their strikers to put the ball in the back of the net, they might play in the Europa League again next season.

We will look into three reasons why we think Arsenal can't reach the top four and might even struggle to hang onto the 5th spot.

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#1 Poor Defending

Arsenal has defended poorly throughout the whole season.

Arsenal defense has been shaky throughout the season so far. They have not been able to keep many clean sheets and that's the main reason for their standings in the Premier League points table.

Even against West Ham United in their previous fixture, they were caught badly when the ball came to the feet of West Ham Midfielder 'Declan Rice' who got a clear sight to put the ball in the top corner of the post which he easily did.

The defenders have been caught way too many times and have been kept busy by the opponents which have led to bad mistakes. If they don't clear their mess quickly which at the moment doesn't look like they really can, they will struggle to book their spot in the top four.

#2 Lack of signings

Arsenal won't sign any players in the January transfer window.

Unai Emery announced last week that Arsenal will not be signing any players on a permanent basis in the ongoing January transfer window. So all they can do in January is bring in players on loan deals which might not be a good idea as there aren't many good quality players available on loan.

The problem here is that it's pretty clear that the team lacks depth in the squad and with Aaron Ramsey leaving for free this coming summer, Arsenal will be under pressure to bring in new faces in the summer transfer window.

The fans have already started showing their frustration regarding the owners of Arsenal not spending any money to make their squad competitive. They are nowhere near the quality of the squads of their rivals like Manchester City and Liverpool and with no money to bring in high-quality players is going to have a serious effect on the squad they have.

If the owners continue to keep their pockets tight and don't bring in some quality in the January transfer window, it's looking like they will miss out on the top-4 spot this season.

#3 Wrong team selections

Unai Emery hasn't made the correct decisions in several moments

Unai Emery was brought in the club to make them the title contenders they could not become under Arsene Wenger but it looks like the current manager hasn't learned from the mistakes of the former manager.

He has made several mistakes during his time at Arsenal with regards to team selection. Players of the quality of Aaron Ramsey and Mesut Ozil aren't getting much game time when they should be playing the whole game every week. This is one of the reasons why Arsenal couldn't extend Ramsey's contract and as a result, they will lose him in the upcoming transfer window for free.

They have dropped Mesut Ozil many times now and they lack the creativity part when players of this quality aren't part of the starting XI. Mesut Ozil trained for the whole week before the West Ham United game but somehow he wasn't seen fit enough to play any role in the whole match.

If the selection continues to punish Arsenal in their matches by costing them points, not only will they be fighting for a Europa League spot but also Unai Emery will fall out with the fans as well as with Arsenal leadership.