Arsenal: Of course this is a “new club” under Unai Emery

Arsenal are apparently like a “new club” under Unai Emery, according to Hector Bellerin. Well of course they are, that goes without saying.

Arsenal are in a new era, an era that many fans never thought they’d see. People often joked that Arsene Wenger would be here forever. No one actually expected him to be, but… would it have been so unbelievable?

So now that Wenger is actually gone, the club is transitioning and all these players that got used to the regime that Wenger had established are left scratching their heads. This is something they have never encountered at the Emirates. It’s something “new,” you could say.

And if you needed any further proof that this is new, take it from Hector Bellerin, who highlighted that everything felt so “new.” 

And all I can think is, “duh.” Of course this is all new. Never before have any of these players had to look to someone else on the sidelines. Never before have they had to actually question their relationship with the boss.

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It goes far beyond the change of the staff. Yeah, there are tons of new staff members coming into the club, and plenty that are leaving, but the newness goes far beyond that. The newness comes, not only from the look of the club, but the spirit of the club.

This “newness” is exactly what the club needed. The worst enemy of a top-tier club like Arsenal is complacency. It is the No. 1 problem that the Gunners faced over the last years of Arsene Wenger. Too many players were far too comfortable with where they were. It wasn’t always a conscious thing, sometimes it was just a matter of not having any pressing need to go for more.

As such, you could have put a scarecrow on the sidelines and gotten a big piece of what was needed from the club – a change up. Now obviously it goes further than that, as we are currently seeing and experiencing, but the essence of the club is all new. And that is fantastic news.

None of this should be shocking to us as fans, but as players, I can understand completely why this would be something that feels uncomfortable and, to bring the word back, “new.”

In conclusion, may the newness continue, because as long as it is new, no one can be comfortable, and as long as they are uncomfortable, they will have to be at their best.