Of all the teams in the Premier League this season, Arsenal are perhaps the biggest unknown quantity. After two decades of continuity under Arsene Wenger, they now have a new manager, a new-look squad and a chance to redefine themselves.
Difficult as it is to predict where Arsenal will end up this season given all the wild new variables, we can at least review their preparations for the campaign. Here’s an overview of their transfer business, pre-season and behind-the-scenes evolution, as well as an educated guess at when we are likely to see the first massive ArsenalFanTV meltdown.
The Manager
Emery doesn’t so much have big shoes to fill as the most cherished, worn-in brogues ever created. Wenger’s footprint at Arsenal will last longer than Neil Armstrong’s on the surface of the moon. Wenger was not so much a giant of English football as an enormous beanstalk reaching up into the heavens, beyond the clouds where reside the combined ideals of Total Football, tiki-taka and modern sports science; where fly myriad visions of 30-goal-a-season strikers and angels who resemble technically excellent No 10s.
That said, after a sixth-placed finish last season and only near misses when it came to silverware, Wenger has left his successor with plenty of room for improvement. That should leave Emery under less pressure than his predecessor, for this season at least. The Basque-born manager has shown that he is a capable coach having won a domestic quadruple with Paris Saint-Germain last term, though PSG’s enormous finances relative to their rivals made that achievement feel less meaningful than it otherwise would have been. It bodes well for the coming campaign that Emery is a Europa League specialist, having won the tournament three seasons in a row with Sevilla. That could be one route back into the Champions League for Arsenal, though Emery’s record with PSG in Europe’s premier competition makes for less impressive reading.
Summer Transfers
The first sign that Emery intends to do things differently to Wenger has come in his approach to summer transfer business. With transfer strategy now a collaborative effort at the club – the influence of chief scout Sven Mislintat and ‘head of football relations’ Raul Sanllehi is only set to grow in light of Wenger’s departure – Arsenal have done their business early, prioritised their weakest positions and made no less than five new signings (five!) with an uncharacteristic sense of purpose.
Where transfer business in the late Wenger era was typically done at the last minute and with too little strategic focus – arguably a reflection of the all-powerful role of the manager – Emery and his supporting cast have identified key targets and tied them down quickly. So they have signed a combative midfielder in Lucas Torreira, two experienced defenders in Sokratis Papastathopoulos and Stephan Lichtsteiner and Bernd Leno to serve as goalkeeping competition for Petr Cech. All of those signings come in areas of the pitch which desperately needed strengthening, even if Sokratis, Lichtsteiner and Leno need to dispel early doubts about mobility, age and individual errors respectively.
Key Players
Speaking of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, this is going to be a massive campaign for the former Borussia Dortmund striker. Having scored 10 goals from 13 Premier League appearances last term – becoming the fastest Arsenal player to reach that tally in the process – many are now expecting him to have a season to rival Robin van Persie and Thierry Henry.
While Aubameyang will shoulder most of the expectation up front, there are two midfielders who will be under similar pressure. The spotlight will be on Mesut Ozil after his headline-grabbing departure from the German national team, with last season’s total of eight Premier League assists well below his capability. Meanwhile, Aaron Ramsey has one year left on his current contract and will be desperate to recreate something like his peak form of the 2013/14 season.
Verdict
While Arsenal have no doubt strengthened and been decisive in the transfer market this summer, a concerted title challenge still seems a way off for the north Londoners. They haven’t been helped by the fixture list, with Manchester City and Chelsea their first two Premier League opponents, and we could well see an ArsenalFanTV implosion before matchday three. Emery’s first priority should be to bring Champions League football back to the Emirates. Whether that is through a steady season which ends with a top-four finish or a campaign that culminates in an all-or-nothing Europa League final, Arsenal need to restore their status as one of England’s best teams before they can set their sights on bigger things.