Mark Langdon: Pushing Manchester City to the limit is a tough task

Where's your trophy?

It seems like football fans are unable to enjoy themselves unless the victory is attached to silverware, but winning was difficult enough even before Manchester City came along and, barring West Ham bursting the bubble at their Etihad on Sunday, Pep Guardiola's side will make it four Premier League titles in a row.

This potentially historic moment in English football doesn't feel great for the league as a whole, not that anyone connected with City will care about that.

But it does mean that success needs to be assessed differently. 

There have been some people who have questioned the hoo-ha over Jurgen Klopp's departure from Liverpool because he "only" won the Premier League title once, but beating City to the league once is mightily impressive and even pushing them close is an achievement in itself.

Liverpool exceeded expectations in beating the Manchester men and Arsenal deserve enormous credit for pushing City to their limits. 

Arsenal have played 17 Premier League matches in 2024, winning 15 of them, drawing at City and the probable painful defeat at home to Aston Villa is likely to be the deciding factor in a close race where the champions have been faultless in their last eight matches by an aggregate score of 30-5.   

It's hard to see what more Arsenal could have done. The simple answer is beat Villa, however, that would be to misunderstand the difficulty in being able to get to around the 90-point barrier and it's worth celebrating Mikel Arteta's achievement in taking Arsenal close.

Arteta, in what it is easy to forget is in his first managerial role, has made numerous difficult decisions - dropping Aaron Ramsdale was seen as controversial at the start of this season but less so with Arsenal set to finish with the best defence in the league - and there were others prior with the plan to force Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang out of the club showing a ruthless side that all top bosses require.

This current Arsenal team is nothing like the one left behind in Arsene Wenger's final days. 

There is a much better balance and the age of the side - Bukayo Saka, Gabriel Martinelli (22), William Saliba (23), Kai Havertz (24), Declan Rice, Martin Odegaard (25), Gabriel and Ben White (26) - suggests Arsenal are well set to have further cracks at City with the squad in the kind of shape where adding big investments such as Rice can move the dial significantly rather than needing to spread that cash across improving the depth.

Perhaps a midfielder to improve on Thomas Partey or Jorginho is the next step, or it might be a top striker, but whatever Arsenal do next season it will still be difficult to land significant silverware. 

Fewer teams are winning trophies, so it can't be the only barometer for what constitutes success. The Champions League is seen as competitive among Europe's finest and yet Real Madrid are odds-on to win their sixth European Cup in 11 years.

Juventus ground out a 1-0 win over Atalanta in the Coppa Italia on Wednesday as beauty was slayed by the beast, with the Old Lady living up to their motto "winning isn't everything, it's the only thing that matters."

It was an ethos that grated with the late Argentinian World Cup winning manager Cesar Luis Menotti, who told Gazzetta Dello Sport in 2019: “What does it even mean? It’s like saying that the only thing that matters about being alive is to breathe. When I wake up in the morning, I don’t think about breathing. I think of enjoying life, of chasing happiness."

The banter boys will mock Arsenal if they finish second, but their fans should be enjoying life. Arteta has got them chasing happiness and there's a lot to be said for that. 

Read more from Mark Langdon . . .

Mark Langdon: New EFL TV deal could be the death of 3pm acca 

Mark Langdon: Simone Inzaghi deserves more love 

Mark Langdon: A week of highs and lows 

Mark Langdon: Damning stats that show Ten Hag needs to go 

Pessimistic about goals in title showdown 

Phil Foden out wide is no left-field decision 

Jurgen Klopp v Pep Guardiola is a Premier League masterpiece 

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