State Of Play

Six months ago, Unai Emery began his reign as Arsenal manager. It has been quite the ride already to say the least, with the Spaniard overseeing the club’s longest unbeaten run in over a decade, ditching two of our best players and introducing Gooners to the phenomenon and forgotten art of the half-time substitution.

Arsenal sit in fifth place with just 12 games remaining in what looks like a three-horse race for fourth. So where are Emery’s Arsenal now, and where is it headed?

Let’s start at the beginning. Petr Cech almost booting the ball into his own net seems a long time ago now but it wasn’t exactly the ideal start for Emery losing his first two games. A stirring fightback against Chelsea showed promise but what followed was truly remarkable.

A 22-game unbeaten run – of which the first 11 were all wins – proved to be the club’s honeymoon period under the new boss. The form book may have looked rosy for a while, but it really did paper over the cracks in a fragile team, masking the wounds of having let go of a manager who had been very much part of the furniture for so long.

Wins and points followed, but the performances have caused concern throughout the season. You could argue Arsenal weren’t even playing to their full potential during that time, becoming known as a second-half team due to only seemingly playing properly once they were attacking the North Bank.

The team was getting found out by far inferior sides. Blackpool came to the Emirates and gave us a game. We’ve scraped past Huddersfield twice this season and they couldn’t even get one of their own players to score against us. Even Spurs beat us at home and that hasn’t happened for eight years.

It has become a strange trait of Emery’s tenure and that’s not where the curiosities end. I’m not a huge fan of popping the word ‘ball’ on the end of a manager’s name to describe their style of play but if there was a world where they were all collated into some sort of dictionary you could probably look Emeryball up and find a massive blank space where the definition should be.

Sure, there’s passing it out from the back, but that’s nothing on its own. And it sure as hell isn’t running up to the edge of the opposition box, slowing down, losing possession and getting hit on the break – repeatedly.

There’s a lack of a visible plan here. Okay, points-wise, Arsenal are in a better position than last year and arguably better-placed to at least try and finish in the Champions League places, but it doesn’t look like the team are progressing to an eventual end-point, yet. It is difficult to foresee what the finished product will look like, unlike Jurgen Klopp’s philosophy at Liverpool, for example, which are reminiscent of his successful Dortmund side.

It seems to me that Emery’s ‘system’ at this point consists of getting the ball to the attackers and relying on their potency in front of goal. That isn’t too dissimilar to Wenger’s final days which was extremely attack-heavy. Whether that just happens to be a stopgap solution while he moulds this team through training and the transfer window remains to be seen. Leaving our best player out of every game is another matter for another day.

Patience, of course, is required but few Arsenal fans possess such a precious commodity. While it may seem at times that he’s winging it, we have to assume that his desired effect will take hold and the fans will have something tangible to hold on to sooner rather than later. With no money in the recent transfer window available, it is now perfectly reasonable to see the season as a free hit and leave the more extravagant demands for next year.

Something that Klopp, Pep Guardiola and Mauricio Pochettino all have in common is that the first seasons at their current clubs have been their worst. Now, they’re locked in a battle for the title, all with separate identities, philosophies and systems.

The only way Emery can join them is if he’s granted the time to do his work, but we said this at the beginning of the season. Just because the season isn’t panning out great, does not mean progress isn’t being made.

So where are Arsenal headed? After last year, it would be harsh to suggest they’ve gone backwards, but as for going forwards, only those behind the scenes know the truth.