Bailed out by individual quality
Even during Arsenal’s 22-game unbeaten run, there was the feeling that they were riding their luck a little. For the majority of those games, Arsenal’s results were far better than their performances.
Looking at this squad, it’s very clear to see that the Gunners have two of the finest strikers in the Premier League in Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Alexandre Lacazette. Behind them, Lucas Torreira and Matteo Guendouzi are certainly among the finest young midfielders in the world.
Apart from that, there’s not a lot to write home about, and it’s safe to say Arsenal surely cannot build much of a team simply relying on moments of individual quality from their attacking players to bail them out.
It was noted that, despite winning so many games, Arsenal often went in behind at the break due to slow starts, and it was always only going to be a matter of time before that caught up with them.
As touched on in the point above, after this long in charge of the team you would expect something a little more sophisticated and coherent than this.
No progress
The season isn’t over yet, but as things stand Arsenal are looking a decent bet to finish sixth in the Premier League, both scoring and conceding in high numbers as they did last season, and with no silverware once again.
There is still the Europa League to play for, which could mean a debut-season trophy and Champions League qualification for Emery, which admittedly changes the picture a lot, but you wouldn’t look at this side and call them favourites for that particular competition right now.
On top of all that, it will be another season gone in which many of their best players like Aubameyang, Lacazette, Ozil and Koscielny are a year older, and Ramsey is gone as he looks set for a free transfer to Juventus, according to Sky Sports and other sources.
So, to recap – that’s no title challenge, probably no Champions League football, still losing star players, not many top young talents coming through and no sign of a system or philosophy being built, no project for the fans to believe in.
Will it soon be time for Arsenal to admit they got this managerial appointment very, very wrong?
