Arsenal: What constitutes a successful season?

Arsenal are gearing up for a new campaign with their summer preseason activities beginning this week. But what would actually constitute success in Unai Emery’s first year?

Arsene Wenger likely jumped before he was pushed. While it is nice to romanticise about the great man having the autonomy and the humility to accept that his time had come to an end and that it was time to move on, the likelihood is that Ivan Gazidis would have sacked him had he not resigned, and Wenger, in an attempt to save face, chose to do it on his terms.

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That fact, assuming that it is a fact, says a lot about how Arsenal felt about where the club stood, the results of the previous campaigns, and the expectations for the year moving forward, as well a the probability that they would reach those expectations with Wenger at the helm.

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Essentially, Gazidis, and subsequently Stan Kroenke and the board, was not happy with where the club was. They expected more, and they believe that Wenger was no longer the man to deliver it. And so, the change was made, a drawn-out hiring process was undertaken, rife with a raft of rumour and conjecture that Gazidis later debunked, and, eventually, Unai Emery was handed the keys to the car.

Clearly, there are targets for the Spaniard to meet. While Emery and Gazidis would not be drawn on an answer as to what they believed success was in the introductory press conference in May, privately, there has clearly been a meeting about what the aims of the club are for next season and beyond. And so, that begs the question: what a successful season constitute in Emery’s first year?

And I don’t mean just things like progression or development, vague and subjective terms that can be easily defended. I mean real, testable, hardline targets, genuine goals that can either be achieved or fallen short of.

In that sense, I think the answer is actually quite easy. Get back in the Champions League. A title challenge is beyond this team bar a miraculous turnaround. A trophy would be nice, but it is not the utmost priority as it would be the FA Cup or League Cup. The Europa League offer a neat way of winning a trophy and getting back into the Champions League, and it has been a competition of great joy for Emery in the past. But the recognition of finishing in the top four, and doing so comfortably, would be the perfect foundation for this new era to begin.

Obviously, a trophy would be nice, and the Europa League the best of them assuming that the Premier League is out of reach. But if Arsenal are able to finish in the top four, jumping up above Spurs and Chelsea, say, then that, I believe, would be a good season.

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That may seem a little underwhelming, but it is telling of the position that the club is in at the moment. It remains to be seen whether Emery, Gazidis and the board would be happy with that season, but I would settle for it.