A Review of Unai Emery's First Season in Charge

My name is Job Kimani, an Arsenal fan from Kenya who has followed the club keenly for ten years plus. I blog about mostly Kenyan and African football on my personal blog 18yardjob.com, also on my twitter account @kimjobil. My love for Arsenal has ebbed and flowed over the years, to a hopefully mature standpoint now, and I hope this blog post offers a balanced view of Unai Emery's first season in charge, as we enter the post-Wenger, "financial independence" era at Arsenal.

I think it is important to do this blog post now before crucial games in the English premier league and Europa league come, which might colour my emotions either positively or negatively and sway my opinions too much in one way or the other.  I wrote this blog post the day after watching arsenal deliver a solid one nil away win in the Europa League, one of the refreshingly mature, balanced, confident performances against a big club I  have witnessed in a while.

Positives of the season

The biggest positive of the season for me has been the positivity amongst the Arsenal faithful. Too much effort, emotion and time were wasted arguing about the merits and demerits of the legendary Arsene Wenger and having a season where one can log in onto twitter, without seeing the childish fan tv characters criticizing a legend has been blissful. Fans might have become too optimistic about the new era, as chants of "we got our Arsenal back" proved premature in late 2018, but when the biggest beef of the season is the skills of players and not a manager, I think we can all get behind this.

Secondly, arsenal has become better against the big boys, the so-called top six, especially at home. 2-0 wins against Chelsea, Manchester United, a superb draw against a genuinely incredible Liverpool side, and the 4-2 win against our north London rivals will leave long in the memory, as well as a solid 3-0 aggregate win against a Napoli. We might have capitulated twice against Manchester City, but tell me who has not. We go into big games now with a plan, and when it does not work, we can count on the coach to make changes in the second half. Lovely.

Arsenal has also already gotten as many points this season as it did in 2018, with five matches to play. That is the progress that many wanted to see, and it is proof that the club has handled the exit of a long-serving manager, and all the turmoil that that could have brought in a very mature and positive manner.

Off the field, I must comment on the excellent summer signings that were made. Bend leno, Lucas Torreira, Matteo Guendouzi have been positive additions to the squad. While the free transfer of Stephan Lichsteiner has been a flop, it has not cost us much, and the sooner that denis Suarez can finish his loan spell with us, the sooner we can all pretend that signing never happened. Going forward, the resignation of the man who recruited these summer signings, the German from Dortmund may prove to be problematic, and the lack of a head of recruitment going into the end of the season is a bit of a worry. However, the new leaders have earned my benefit of the doubt and I will wait to see who replaces him before I criticize.

Negatives of the season

The biggest drawback for me this season is the manner of play that has become our style. During the Wenger era, one could always count on the boys to put on a show, no matter what. However, this season, as Aaron Ramsey and Mesut Ozil especially spent time on the sidelines, the football was at times, especially away from home, very bad. The plan always seemed to be to score from a Hector Bellerin/Sead Kolasinac cutback, and I didn't enjoy these tactics much. I hope next season, Arsenal will be better to watch.

Our away form has also been problematic, to say the least. Wins have been too few and far between, with only a draw against Spurs to talk about. The 5-1 humiliation at Anfield was hard to take, especially, and losses to weak opposition in the Europa league such as Bate Borisov and Rennes was annoying. Hopefully, this will improve next season, as the mentality and confidence of the squad improve. If it was not for a superb home record (third best in the English premier league) this season would have been a write-off.

Another negative for me, I may be nitpicking, is I think there has been a lack of a plan A too many times. Too much tinkering with formations, lineups and gameplans mean that it is hard to tell what arsenal stands for, especially compared to rivals such as Chelsea and Manchester City. Michael Cox (@zonalmarking) talks about this lack of a plan A here, check it out. Hopefully, this will happen over the course of next season.

Prospects for the future

My fingers are crossed for a win in the Europa league and a finish in third this season, however, to be honest, I would take any return to the champions league. Anything else is a bonus.

Going forward, I hope that players such as Reiss nelson and Emile Smith Rowe can become first team regulars, while off the field, high earners such as Petr Cech, Koscielny, Lichsteiner will all be let go next season. It promises to be another summer transfer window of flux.

I would love to bring in a winger, maybe Nicolas Pepe or David Neres, and a central defender (Dayot Upamecano or Nathan ake) into the club for next season too, and while the likes of Manchester United will no doubt be stronger, another season of fighting for top four beckons, much as it pains me to say.

Conclusion

in a nutshell, I have enjoyed this season as a fan, and while the football hasn't been always glorious, we have become harder to beat and the coach is more proactive with changes, setting up the team and substitutions. All in all, I am cautiously optimistic about going into the future.

Up the Gunners!