Arsenal: A problem with the squad’s core

Looking at the top 15 minutes makers in the Premier League for Arsenal this season, there is a consistent problem: few should be at the club next season.

When Unai Emery arrived at Arsenal to succeed Arsene Wenger, the one thing that I was most interested to see was how many of the formerly under-performing players would respond to a new manager and system.

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There had always been a debate about whether the vulnerabilities of the team under Wenger were because of his system and his philosophies or were simply because the players weren’t good enough to compete and the Gunners could not rival the growing financial power of other domestic and European clubs in the transfer market. In playing for a new manager, we might be given a sneak peek at the answer to that question.

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And looking at the core of the Arsenal squad, — I have defined this as the 15 players that have played the most minutes in the Premier League — there is a clear and concerning trend: Either they are not very good and need replacing, they are old and need replacing, or they are both and definitely need replacing. This trend suggests perhaps the players were to blame that many of Wenger’s biggest slighters would have you believe.

Here is the list, in order of minutes:

1. Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang
2. Granit Xhaka
3. Lucas Torreira
4. Shkodran Mustafi
5. Bernd Leno
6. Alexandre Lacazette
7. Matteo Guendouzi
8. Hector Bellerin
9. Sokratis
10. Alex Iwobi
11. Sead Kolasinac
12. Mesut Ozil
13. Nacho Monreal
14. Aaron Ramsey
15. Henrikh Mkhitaryan

Of those players, five will turn 30 in the next year or are more than 30 already: Aubameyang, Sokratis, Ozil, Monreal, Mkhitaryan. All will need to be succeeded in one way or another in the next year to three years. Another four simply are not good enough to be regular starters for a top-four or title-challenging team: Xhaka, Mustafi, Iwobi, Kolasinac. Add to that the fact that Ramsey is already departing and the problem is plain for all to see.

Much has been said about the deficiencies of the Arsenal squad. I have written plenty about it this season, and I will continue to in the lead up to a critical summer transfer window in which a squad overhaul is still required. But perhaps this helps to hammer the point: the players that Unai Emery is relying on to deliver for him on a regular basis are old, not very good, or both.

And these players are not those on the fringes of the squad. It is not like they are the third-choice left-back or fifth-choice centre-half. These are key pieces that Emery depends on greatly. When the core of your squad is in that much of a mess, it is obvious that any manager must be given time to enact change.

Where the blame of the latter Wenger years should be apportioned will never be fully answered. But as the Emery era unfolds, I am beginning to realise just how poor many of these players were. And that is a major problem that Arsenal must now solve.