Arsenal: Now is the time to settle down

Because of the World Cup, the international break and the change of manager, it has been a disjointed start to the season for Arsenal. However, when they return at the weekend, they have a chance to settle back into the normal routine of the rigours of a season.

It’s been a weird start to the season for Arsenal. It actually all started at the end of the last campaign, when Arsene Wenger resigned, whether forcibly or by his own agency, and utterly altered the course of the club, for better or worse.

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Wenger’s departure meant that a new manager would take his place, the first time since 1996 that has been the case at the club. The lucky — or unlucky, depending on your viewpoint — man was Unai Emery, who was hired after an extensive interview process conducted by Chief Executive Ivan Gazidis, who heralded the detailed understanding and research of Emery as a reason for selecting the Spaniard.

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The change at the most important position at the club, along with the evolution of the organisational structure behind the scenes, with Gazidis shifting towards a more continental system that takes some of the aristocratic control away from the manager and spreading the responsibility more corporately, involving a series of experts in different fields to provide a more rounded approach, has led to a strange feeling in these first few weeks.

Added to that has been the disruption caused by a summer World Cup. Arsenal, as a result, completed much of their transfer business early but also had to deal with disjointed preseason with players returning at different points with different levels of fitness. Moreover, the start of the season pitted the Gunners against the two past champions. Such games are very different from the usual style. They just have a strange feel to them.

All this change and evolution and newness has led to a weird start to the season in which it has seemed difficult for the team to settle into a rhythm. It’s felt as if there’s been a lack of normality and routine. Each game has been dramatic and tumultuous, with very unique and defined patterns of their own, not conforming to the expectation.

But now, Arsenal have a run of fixtures that can provide a nice, comforting feel of settling into the usual rhythms and rigours of the football season. Their upcoming league opposition are as follows: Newcastle (A); Everton (H); Watford (H); Fulham (A); Leicester City (H); Crystal Palace (A). It looks like a far more usual run of fixtures.

Moreover, interspersed within those league fixtures are midweek cup matches, three in the Europa League group stages and another in the third round of the EFL Cup against Brentford. Suddenly, we are getting to what is considered the normal routine of the season, where the fixtures come thick and fast and teams settle into their usual rhythms.

It will be nice to see Arsenal settle down after a turbulent, if evolving, summer. They have a little ground to make up, they have cup runs to commence, they have European hopes to fulfil. And this, in the normality of the season, is when it all takes place.