Man United had a better season than Arsenal
“We don't make the rules” - Some random guy on twitter
It’s one of those questions that doesn’t always have a straight answer.
What makes a successful season? Is it winning the league? Winning any trophy? Or is it something more than that?
It feels like I’m back in philosophy class, where we’re asked to compare logical statements and find which makes the most sense. And I think answering questions like these tends to require philosophical reasoning instead of random fan banter.
Let’s imagine ourselves in philosophy class. We’re asked to look at three statements and find the one that makes the most sense;
“Arsenal had a better season than Manchester United .”
Too vague.
It doesn’t specify what we’re comparing. Are we comparing the teams’ overall records? Their goals? Their points total?
“Arsenal had a better season in the Premier League than Manchester United.”
More specific. It compares the teams’ records in the League, a specific competition.
But it’s still not clear what we’re comparing or what specific metrics we’re using to make any comparisons.
“Arsenal had a better campaign than Manchester United.”
This statement is the most specific.
It compares the teams’ overall performance throughout the season. Which includes their records in all competitions and their individual and team achievements. It’s the only statement considering all factors contributing to a successful season, which would be a disservice if we only take one competition into account.
So the difference here is language.
If you ask a child, “Who had the better season?” They won’t care about the teams’ records or individual achievements. They’re going to ask, “Who won a trophy?”
Success is a funny thing.
It’s subjective and relative, and it can mean different things to different people.
But one thing is for sure:
In football, no one remembers the second-best team in the league.
Just ask Jose Mourinho, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, or Jurgen Klopp. They’ve all finished behind an outstanding Pep Guardiola team, and very few people still speak about their “success.”
So what does it mean to be successful in football?
It means winning.
It means winning trophies, winning titles, and winning the biggest games.
Of course, winning titles isn’t everything. The steps you take towards winning are equally important, so finishing second is absolutely not failure.
Brighton's season in the league cannot be seen as a failure simply because they did not win a trophy. Success is relative, and it depends on the context and expectations surrounding the team. Arsenal and Manchester United are expected (sometimes unrealistically) to challenge for the title every season, while Brighton are not. So Brighton's sixth-place finish this season can be considered a success, given their smaller budget and less illustrious history.
For most fans in the lower leagues, other factors are seen as success; playing attractive football, developing young players, and creating a positive culture within the club.
Arsenal had a fantastic season in the league.
They spent 248 days at the top table this season.
No other team in EPL history has spent that long at the league summit without winning the title. So realistically, by those standards, they had a better season than Man United. But those aren’t the only standards in football. They’re certainly not the best standards.
Before we go further, I think it’s essential to address the points tally arguments because many people seem use it as some defence or validation.
This whole obsession with comparing points across different seasons is pointless.
It’s like comparing apples and oranges.
Points only hold weight within the specific context of the season they belong to. So, if you’re using Arsenal’s higher points tally this season to claim superiority over Man United’s legendary treble-winning team, that’s just playing dirty with the truth.
Remember when Liverpool racked up 97 points in the 2018–2019 season? That was impressive. But guess what? They still ended up second, trailing behind City. A case of “close, but no cigar.”
So these comparisons are nothing more than smoke and mirrors.
Arsenal’s season in other competitions took a nosedive shortly after the dawn of the new year.
Their aspirations fizzled out in a disheartening way, succumbing to defeats in the third round of the EFL Cup, the fourth round of the FA Cup, and the round of 16 in the Europa League.
But they were brilliant in the league, amassing a commendable 81 points (and counting) with only 6 losses and a remarkable tally of 25 victories.
A solid and respectable showing in the league.
Erik Ten Hag’s Manchester United took part in the same trio of competitions as Arsenal yet managed to outpace them at every turn. They surged ahead, securing the EFL Cup while finishing inside the top-four, and made it home in time for an FA Cup final.
Sure, we could dissect the contrasting points or league positions, but let’s face it: trophies aren’t awarded for total points accumulated or league standings. Trophies are won by, well, winning trophies.
And in that regard, Manchester United had a better campaign than Arsenal.
When Arsenal won the FA Cup, after finishing 8th in the league in Mikel Arteta’s first season, United finished 3rd under Solskjaer, but the Gunnars caught most of the plaudits for winning the Cup, despite finishing nowhere near the top 7.
It wasn't like they outperformed United that season. All they needed to do was win the FA Cup and the consensus was that they had a better season.
Why doesn't that logic suddenly apply this season? Because they spent over 200 days on top of the league, keeping the seat warm for City? Or because it’s just Man United?
Unai Emery had been in charge until he was sacked on November 29. Arteta took over and managed to beat Chelsea in the FA Cup final to secure the win. And, of course, their disastrous campaign was saved by that trophy, and despite them finishing significantly below United in the league table.
Things got pretty messy towards the end of Mourinho’s time at the club. It was all chaos and drama. But the season before he bid farewell, he led United to a solid second-place finish in the league. They even made it to the FA Cup final, With 25 wins and only 7 losses in the league.
“If I tell you, for example, that I can see that one of the best jobs of my career was to finish second with Manchester United in the Premier League? You say ‘this guy is crazy. He won 25 titles and he’s saying that second position was one of his best achievements in football’.” Jose Moirinho, 2019
What’s interesting is that Mourinho himself considered this accomplishment as one of his best, despite not winning a trophy.
What does that tell you?
Solskjaer’s 2020–21 campaign was one of the club's best in recent years: a second-place finish, an EL final, 6 losses, and 21 wins.
Many brandished their pitchforks and called for Solskjaer’s head because they saw this as a disaster. And like Ten Hag, he went further than Arsenal in every cup competition, but not many people believed Solskjaer had a good season.
We could argue about which teams played better football, made the most impact on the pitch, or faced better opposition. But the truth is, it doesn’t matter.
The season is over, and everything ended on the final day with the final whistle.
Now, it’s time to look ahead to the new season. A new mini-universe with new stories and new conquests. A new chance to win, lose, learn, and grow.
Arsenal had one of their best seasons in over two decades, they’ve finally managed to get back to playing UCL football, but they didn’t have a better season than Manchester United. Not if we use the ideology most pundits have been adopting for years.
An ideology that puts trophies ahead of everything else. Again, I ask; Should that conveniently change because Arsenal finished higher than Man United in the league?