Arsenal: Unai Emery making progress, top-four finish or not

Arsenal are gunning for a top-four finish under Unai Emery. But even if they do not attain their goal, the Spaniard is still making progress in his first season at the Emirates.

It seems that Unai Emery’s honeymoon period is almost certainly over and, in predictable fashion, the negativity that has surrounded Arsenal for some time has reappeared. All of a sudden, Emery has no idea and things are even worse than they were under Arsene Wenger. Except they are not.

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Arsenal are going through a tough patch for sure, but I still regard this season to have been a largely positive one so far. They went on a 22-game unbeaten streak, beat Spurs, matched Liverpool at home and successfully nurtured Ainsley Maitland-Niles, Rob Holding, Lucas Torreira and Matteo Guendouzi into serious Premier League talents.

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They also have Reiss Nelson returning in the summer and are about to see whether Konstantinos Mavrapanos can be the player he hinted at last season — he returned to action in an under-23 game on Monday night, where he played 70 minutes and reportedly looked fit and powerful.

In the aftermath of Saturday’s loss to West Ham United, it has been said that Arsenal lack creativity without Mesut Ozil. But they have scored as many goals as Spurs, four fewer than Liverpool, and more than Manchester United and Chelsea, with Ozil very much in and out of the team. One game against West Ham, which was admittedly a poor performance, does not make a previously impressive attack toothless.

Arsenal do have deep-seated defensive issues that can only be addressed in the summer, but these have been aggravated by the absence of Hector Bellerin, Holding, Nacho Monreal and Laurent Koscielny. Furthermore, despite these issues, they are still on course to accrue more points than last season. With a loan signing or two, coupled with the return to form and fitness of key players, they could even hit the 70-point mark.

Emery’s dispute with Ozil has been frustrating and perhaps not entirely to the squad’s benefit

, but if the club can offload his wages in the summer they are suddenly more financially able to give the squad the surgery it needs. Phillipe Coutinho was Liverpool’s best player and was performing to a higher and more consistent level than Ozil is, but Liverpool took the correct decision to sell and reinvest his wages and transfer fee. They are a better team for it.

No one player is bigger than the club and the funds acquired from the potential sales of Ozil, Henrikh Mkhitaryan, Monreal, Mohamed Elneny and Shkodran Mustafi will allow Emery to improve the squad. These players will not be sold until the summer, though, so Emery will need to maximise the current squad’s potential in the meantime.

As to how he does this, it is difficult. The creative burden has been resting truly on Alex Iwobi’s shoulders, but the return of Ozil and Mkhitaryan to the squad and Aaron Ramsey to the starting 11 should ease that load. Injuries have also been a key mitigating factor in the last two months and just because West Ham was the first game with key players back, it is unrealistic to expect everything to immediately click back into place.

Clearly, Arsenal are facing issues and the squad is not at the level of the other top six in the Premier League. But after inheriting a pretty rotten atmosphere, a downbeat and angry fanbase, a squad that was in need of renewal, and a contract situation that has crippled the club financially, Emery has made a pretty good start.

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Whether Arsenal make the Champions League or not, there has been progress. I remain confident that after another summer of purchasing and selling, the club will be in the strongest position they have been in for a number of years.

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