The 2018/19 Season Review

Arsenal's 2018/19 season ended with a heartbreaking 4-1 thrashing by Chelsea in the Europa League final on 29th May. The manner in which we fell apart in 15 minutes of the second half triggered a knee-jerk reaction that was all familiar in the latter years of the Wenger era. Some Arsenal fans even went as far as to call for Unai Emery's head, in particular, now that Max Allegri, who was last year's favourite to succeed Arsene Wenger, has become available following his departure from Juventus. Perhaps, Emery was the victim of his own success. Combined with his proven record in this competition, meticulous preparations ahead of the final, arriving in Baku three days earlier than the Chelsea contingent, raised our expectations, after the Gunners' impressive performances and character shown against Napoli and Valencia in the previous rounds.

However, those people wanting a new coach should look at Pep Guadiola and Jurgen Klopp's first seasons, as well as the size of Emery's task compared with theirs. Those two managers failed to win silverware in their first campaigns, with Liverpool losing the Europa League final to Emery's Sevilla during Klopp's first season. Following the disappointing seasons, the two managers were allowed to spend big on improving the squad, identifying and reinforcing weak areas in each window over the new two to three seasons.

If we had had the 11-game winning streak after the opening two defeats against Man City and Chelsea (and further 11-game unbeaten run that followed it) at the end of the season instead of the early stages, a lot more fans would be reflecting on this season much happier than they are now. Nevertheless, this was an encouraging season under the new regime, in fact, better than many predicted.

Although we failed to achieve our objective of the season, a return to the Champions League, through either of a Premier League position or Europa League success, there were signs of progress.

We achieved the same points tally in the Premier League as the last season with seven games remaining. The late collapse in form saw us only collect seven more points from the last seven league games, but we finished just a point behind fourth-placed Tottenham and two behind third-placed Chelsea. Compared with the latter stages of the last campaign, when we were fighting to fend off Burnley's challenge for the sixth place, this was a clear improvement. In Europe, we also did one step better, progressing to the final.

One of the major improvements was arguably our results against fellow "top six". We doubled our a tally this season with 12 points. The highlights of those games include an exhilarating 4-2 win over Tottenham at home, a spirited comeback in a 1-1 draw with Liverpool at home, and a perfect performance offensively and defensively against Chelsea at the Emirates. We were unlucky not to complete a double over our north London rivals this season. Only the referee's failure to give us a penalty retake denied it, following Vertongen's blatant encroachment.

Also, in those games, the big atmosphere returned to the Emirates, which was lost during the last years of Wenger's tenure.

What Emery focused on during the preseason was improvement in fitness and it clearly paid off during the season as Arsenal players covered more ground than any other team in the Premier League. Pressing and work ethic are the big parts of Emery's philosophy. Although there is criticism on his style of football or lack of it, he put his stamp on the progress of the team in some areas.

Individually, Bellerin, Kolasinac, Holding, Lacazette, Xhaka, and Maitland-Niles all improved this season, as well as Iwobi to some extent. Academy players, such as Smith Rowe, Willock, and Nketiah, were given chances. All the new signings, bar Lichtsteiner, proved to have been successful. We thought the goalkeeper position was our least priority on the transfer list, but as Petr Cech announced his retirement at the end of the season, signing of a new keeper turned out to be a good call. Bernd Leno had to be patient at the beginning of the season, but when he had a chance through Cech's injury during the Watford game, the German grabbed it with both hands. Besides, his comfort with the ball at his feet suits Emery's style of play built from the back. His performances were far from flawless with four errors leading to goals, but he produced some eye-catching displays, including double save against Tottenham. Both Matteo Guendouzi and Lucas Torreira suffered a dip in form towards the end of the season, but they had an encouraging first season in English football and have time on their side, being at the age of 20 and 23, respectively. On the other hand, being on the wrong side of 30, Sokratis was always a stop-gap signing. It took him some time to get used to the tempo of the Premier League, collecting 12 yellow cards throughout the campaign, but it is great to have a defender who loves defending with passion.

It took some while for Emery to work out how to play Laca and Auba in the same XI, but the prolific attacking partnership was one of positive developments that came out of this season. Aubameyang ended his first full season at Arsenal as a joint Golden Boot winner, scoring 22 goals in the Premier League and 31 in all competitions, while Lacazette was named the Arsenal Player of the Season, with 13 league goals and 19 in all competitions to his name.

On the other hand, there were two areas the new coach failed to improve: defence and away form. We conceded more than 50 goals for the second season in a row. It was a frustrating process. Rob Holding had started to show signs of a significant improvement before he suffered a season-ending cruciate knee ligament injury in early December. He was arguably our best defender at the time, proved by the fact that we were unbeaten in all 11 games in which he started. Fortunately, Koscielny returned from a long-term injury, but it took some time for him to get back to the level he was at before the Achilles surgery. When we had just thought that we found the right defensive formula, after conceding a single goal in seven games in all competitions, we let in three goals in each of three games against Crystal Palace, Wolves and Leicester towards the end of the season. The capitulation in the Europa League final was a reminder of how fragile our defence can be.

Although we won two more away games than the last season in the Premier League, this is not an ideal form for a team that aspire to finish in the top four. Emery's away tactics seem to be too passive. His flexible approaches to different opponents have been refreshing after 22 years of a rigid Wenger strategy, but against lesser teams we need to impose our game.

All in all, we think our first season under Unai Emery was encouraging and the new coach should be given more time and money to build his own team. Most of the squad was inherited from Wenger. Emery's first task was to make the players more competitive as they had become too comfortable under the Frenchman whether win or lose. The Spaniard's high-profile struggle was the handling of Ozil. In the end, Emery did make the German playmaker work his way back to starting XI, but his disappointing showing in the Europa League final and his alleged fall-out with the coach cast a huge doubt over his future at Arsenal with two years left on his contract.

Emery refused to talk about the closed season and beyond in his post-match conference after the Europa League final, but he suggested that some players might have to leave. Whatever the next season's target is (most likely to be a return to the Champions League once again, unless Man City's place in the CL is transferred to us as a result of UEFA's ongoing financial fair play investigation), we expect a busy summer in spite of limited funds.  Emery is hoping to bring in a new winger for his favourite 4-2-3-1 formation, as well as defenders to rebuild the backline. We also need to a talent and character to replace a departing Aaron Ramsey. In the imminent departure of Danny Welbeck, a signing of a backup striker is required unless Nketiah raises his game significantly. Arsenal's transfer budget will be limited with no Champions League money to come in, but hopefully, the new shirt sponsorship will boost the kitty and the Club will recruit wisely.