Arsenal: Unai Emery needs to show he’s the man to lead us

Now all that transfer malarkey is over we are now on the eve of the new season and it’s a big one for Arsenal and especially Unai Emery.

First thing I’m going to say is that Arsenal have had a great transfer window. I remember back in May Unai Emery stated the kind of players he wanted and the positions that needed improving and full credit to Edu and Raul Sanellhi who have gone above and beyond to bring these types of players in.

If someone would have asked any Arsenal fan at the beginning of July if we could add Nicolas Pepe, Kieran Tierney, Dani Ceballos, William Saliba and David Luiz before the end of the transfer window, we would have snapped your arm off. And you have to question if signings of this calibre would have happened under the old regime. It also shows that the board are backing Emery to lead this team forward.

Ever since he took over at the club, Unai Emery has divided opinion on whether he is the right man for the job and many feel that there wasn’t much of an improvement last season. This is despite Arsenal improving their record against the top six and gaining more points than the season before.

One thing we were all in agreement about, however, was we were willing to give him a chance because it was his first season and he had inherited a mess.

Now, as we go into season two of the Emery regime, the comfort blanket has been removed and all eyes are going to be on him and every decision is going to be judged and yes, we are going to be a lot more critical this time round. One thing I won’t tolerate this season is under-performing players and schoolboy defending.

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In the first few weeks, Emery is going to have some big decisions to make, especially with the new signings coming in and who they will replace in the current first team. When you add in the fact that we have players like Joe Willock, who was immense in pre-season, and Reiss Nelson pushing for first team football, a lot of the usual first team regulars must be fearing for their place.

Unai Emery has to be man enough to drop players if they are coasting this season and he can’t be afraid to take risks by playing some of the hungrier younger players in place of them. Unai Emery showed his authority last season by dropping Mesut Ozil for long periods, he now needs to do it with players like Granit Xhaka and Henrikh Mkhitaryan if they aren’t in form.

Unai Emery said in pre season that he wanted Arsenal to focus on defending better this season, and this was key to us improving.

However, from what I saw in pre season, we were still guilty of the same defensive mistakes that we were committing last season and the five seasons before that. The signings of Kieran Tierney and David Luiz will no doubt improve our defence this season but when you consider that Tierney, Rob Holding and Hector Bellerin are still not match fit, it could be a good few weeks before Emery has his expected first choice back four.

So we are going to have to cope with pretty much the same defence who have been making these mistakes for the first few games of the season, which will include trips to Anfield and a North London Derby, so I hope that Emery is keeping to his word and working with the current players we have in defence and weeding the mistakes out.

Emery is the right man for the job. It seems crazy that a lot of people are questioning him when you consider his history at Sevilla and PSG. He is a fantastic coach and you can see his qualities.

That said, the Premier League is the best league in the world, and better coaches have failed before. As I said before, this season is a big one for Emery and the first few weeks are the most crucial. If we see the same mistakes in the first few games, then the pressure is going to build very early on and it could all unravel. The board have trusted Emery with these new players, now Unai Emery needs to step up and show that he is the man to lead us forward.