Arsenal: Premier League European dominance must provide perspective

The two major European finals will be all-British affairs. The European dominance of the Premier League must provide perspective for Unai Emery’s first season at Arsenal.

It was a fabulous week for the Premier League in Europe. All four of its remaining competitors won their semi-finals, two doing so in utterly, jaw-droppingly dramatic fashion and another squeezing through on penalties. Consequently, as May turns to June, the two major European finals will now be all-British affairs.

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Arsenal will be one of those teams. They will play London rivals Chelsea in the Europa League final on Wednesday 29th May. Four days later, on Saturday 1st June, Spurs and Liverpool will face off in the Champions League final. What is truly amazing is that the best English team is not any of these four. Manchester City will likely win the Premier League title on Sunday.

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This dominance of Europe speaks to the quality of the teams at the sharp end of the Premier League. You can also throw Manchester United into the mix, although their recent run has been laughable, quite literally. But from whatever way you want to cut it, there are six very good teams in the Premier League, as has been the case for the past two or three years now, essentially ever since Liverpool and Spurs made their resurgences under Jurgen Klopp and Mauricio Pochettino respectively.

And that makes things very difficult for Arsenal. You can only win four competitions each season. Of those four, one is in Europe and has some of the best teams in the world partake in, two are straight knockouts, and the other is a gruelling league campaign. Playing football in the Premier League is not easy.

Even if you wanted to finish in the top four, Arsenal would still have to beat out two of Man. City, Liverpool, Spurs, Chelsea and Man. Utd. Securing a top-four finish is not easy. It is not something to be scoffed at. Just ask Arsene Wenger.

This level of competition must provide perspective for how fans and analysts evaluate Unai Emery’s first season Arsenal manager. Yes, it was disappointing to see his team crumble down the stretch and fall out of the top four because they lost to teams they should be beating, but gaining more than 70 points in a league of this quality — and the quality, by the way, runs far deeper than the top six. Wolves, Leicester City, Watford and Everton are all very good teams indeed, far better than their Spanish and Italian counterparts — is a solid achievement.

You cannot win every game. You cannot win every competition. And sometimes there has to be an acceptance that your competitors are also very good and are as equally worthy of achieving the thing that you want to achieve.

The Premier League is as good as it has ever been. That is the world that Unai Emery is trying to flourish in. So let’s give him time because his job is by no means an easy one. Right perspective, I believe, is a must.