Arsenal: This is very much Unai Emery’s era now

Jack Wilshere will leave Arsenal when his contract expires. Arsene Wenger also departed earlier in the summer. This is very much Unai Emery’s era now.

Arsenal has been built in the image of one man for 22 years. Arsene Wenger was perhaps the last all-powerful manager in world football. But after another disappointing campaign in which the Gunners toiled to slip out of the top-four once again, Wenger announced his resignation, though it felt more like a jump-before-you-are-pushed decision.

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That alone ushered in a new era at the club. Irrespective of the other decisions that may have been made this summer, the changing of the manager ensured that this team and organisation would look very different next season and in future seasons.

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But when you factor in the many playing-personnel decisions that have been made as well, it is certain that this club is changing its character.

First and foremost, Unai Emery is not the same manager as Wenger. He wants a high-pressing scheme. He will look for athletic players, as well as technically skilful ones. His experiences stem from Spanish football, not French or Japanese or English. They have different ideas and will build different legacies. That will have an impact on the type of players that Arsenal now sign and develop.

More than just the change in philosophy from the manager, however, a quick look at the players that have exited the club over the past year is extremely telling.

The most recent is Jack Wilshere, who announced that he would leave when his contract expires at the end of June on Tuesday. Wilshere is perhaps the most emblematic individual of the latter decade of Wenger’s tenure. Talented, skilful, technical, but ultimately flawed in his fragility. And he is not the only Wengerian player to leave.

Per Mertesacker, Santi Cazorla, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Theo Walcott, Olivier Giroud, Francis Coquelin, Wojciech Szczesny, Francis Coquelin, Kieran Gibbs, Gabriel Paulista, Alexis Sanchez. These have every much comprised the core of the Arsenal squad over the past three or four years. None of them is now at the club in a playing context.

Additionally, Petr Cech, Laurent Koscielny, Shkodran Mustafi Nacho Monreal, Mohamed Elneny and Danny Welbeck could all see their standing in the squad diminish next season as Emery continues to shape the side as he wants. And the signings that have been completed, or are close to being completed, this summer are un-Wenger like. Stephan Lichtsteiner is 34. Sokratis is a hard-man, warrior-like centre-half. Bernd Leno is a goalkeeper.

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If you were under any illusions that the change from Wenger to Emery would be gradual, the decisions that have been made this summer quickly eradicate them. This is very much a new era. It is Unai Emery’s era. Let’s see how it all plays out.