Premier League 2017-18 season grades: Arsenal
By Ty Finch
Arsenal finished sixth in the Premier League in 2017-18, but what grade do they get for their performance?
For the first time in decades, Arsenal came into their upcoming season with low expectations. Arsene Wenger signed a new contract during the previous league year that was met, to put it delicately, with disdain and a rueful shake of the head from supporters. Arsenal had missed the Champions League for the first time in Wenger’s tenure the year prior. Their best players were openly pining for a move away to greener pastures. Their rivals were spending enough money in the summer to make Jeff Bezos blush.
To give Arsenal at least a bit of credit, they ended up meeting those shallow expectations with aplomb. The Gunners securely finished in sixth place in the Premier League and never looked like battling for a Champions League spot after a few months, let alone challenging for the title. And that’s the good news.
The bad news is, well, just about everything else. Arsenal began the season with a thrilling 4-3 comeback win over Leicester, a game that foreshadowed what the rest of their campaign would look like; moments of brilliance and excitement offset with long stretches of horrific play. They would then go onto lose four of their next 10 games, including a 4-0 thrashing from Liverpool that took most of the air out of the new season’s sails.
Arsenal never had their patented winter/spring collapse, mainly because they never gained enough ground to be able to. Most of the season was spent building some sort of momentum and promptly squandering it as soon as they could. From around November on, the Gunners were firmly the sixth best team in the Premier League. While that’s not a far cry from their usual third and fourth place finishes over the past decade, it did mark a significant change in competitiveness.
The manager
It’s impossible to bring up Arsene Wenger at this point and not mention him stepping down after over two decades. His announcement just a few weeks ago was shocking, especially considering he signed a two-year deal last season. Wenger always said that he will honor his contract, so it seems more of a “mutual parting” than him willingly leaving.
Even so, his time had passed at Arsenal. Instead of battling for titles, Arsenal were battling for Champions League spots. They were becoming stale and listless, a shadow of their previous squads. The Premier League had moved passed Wenger’s tactics and ideas.
Arsene Wenger will walk away from Arsenal as a legend to the club and the Premier League. His invincible team in 2003-04 may never be matched. He transformed the English game and the league is better off because of it.
However, all of that was for naught when it came to this past season. Wenger toyed around with different formations for the first half before making a semi-permanent switch to his preferred back four. Neither formation gathered any steam, and the constant switching between formations never allowed for continuity or familiarity between players.
He left a lot to be desired in the transfer market as well. While that’s to be expected from Wenger, it was for a different reason this time. The club’s record signing, Alexandre Lacazette, was mostly a bust until the last third of the season. Instead of shoring up a desperately poor defense in the winter, Wenger broke the club’s record on yet another striker, Pierre-Emerick Abaumeyang. While clearly the better forward, Abaumeyang was simply not the player Arsenal needed.
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The players
There’s a reason the next Arsenal manager should be asking for loads of cash in the summer window. The squad needs an overhaul of failed Wenger experiments like Calum Chambers and Carl Jenkinson, and should offload many fringe players impeding exciting youth players or potential signings. There’s little to no use for Jack Wilshere, Petr Cech, Lucas Perez or Joel Campbell (who never got out while he could) anymore.
The jury is still out on many others like Granit Xhaka, Shkodran Mustafi, Danny Welbeck and Mohamed Elneny, who have either failed to meet expectations or should not be in the plans for the first team next season.
While there are quite a few moving parts for the next manager to handle, there are some key cogs still in place that met or exceeded expectations this past season.
Aaron Ramsey is one of Arsenal’s best and most important players whenever he’s fit to play. He ended up third on the team in goals scored and tied for second in assists. This isn’t an astonishing tally, but for a box-to-box midfielder who has battled injury this season it’s solid.
Mesut Ozil had a relatively down season considering the wages he’s currently on, but he’s far and away Arsenal’s most important player. His eight assists led the team, and with an entire year of feeding Abaumeyang instead of the hodgepodge of strikers and disgruntled attackers, he should be able to re-create his 2015-16 form. Together with Henrikh Mkhitaryan, who came over in the winter as part of a swap deal for Alexis Sanchez, the two could form a formidable duo in the 2018-19 season.
Overall, the Gunners had a poor showing. Their Europa League run ended at the hands of Atletico Madrid in the semifinals, which was the only aspect that could’ve made this campaign a success. While Wenger’s last few matches will have a lasting memory and provide supporters with one last gasp at happiness, it can’t overshadow what was the worst season the Gunners had under Wenger.