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London, Monday

Arsenal’s worst start to a league season for 67 years will see the Gunners spend the next fortnight during an international break bottom of the table without a point or even a goal to show from their opening three games.

To rub salt into Arsenal wounds, for the first time ever they sit bottom of the English top-flight table while north London rivals Spurs are top.

However, their decline has been a slow and steady process since the final years of Arsene Wenger’s 22-year reign in charge and has only accelerated since the Frenchman’s departure. 

AFP Sport looks at what has gone wrong for one of English football’s traditional giants.

Long after Wenger’s great sides of the late 1990s and early 2000s stoped winning league titles, he managed to keep Arsenal as part of the Champions League fabric despite a limited budget to buy players and even selling some of his best as the likes of Cesc Fabregas, Robin Van Persie and Samir Nasri departed.

Despite fan protests towards the club’s American billionaire owner Stan Kroenke, Arsenal have long since ditched their frugal policy on transfer fees.

Since Wenger left in 2018, the Gunners have spent £425 million ($585 million) on new signings and have the second highest net spend in the Premier League behind Manchester United.

Even this window they have been the biggest spenders with £130 million splashed on Ben White, Martin Odegaard, Aaron Ramsdale, Nuno Tavares and Alberti Sambi Lokonga.

However, so much of that money has been wasted. Two years on from a £30 million move from Saint Etienne, William Saliba is yet to play a game for the first team.

Young midfielders Lucas Torreira and Mateo Guendouzi have been deemed surplus to Arteta’s requirements and farmed out on loan.

As Arsenal have gone backwards, the teams at the elite end of the Premier League continue to improve.

During Wenger’s reign, Arsenal boasted a record only matched by Real Madrid of 19 consecutive seasons in the Champions League.

Now they have failed to qualify for a fifth straight season and would need a miraculous turnaround to prevent that streak stretching into a sixth year.    – AFP