Arsenal and Unai Emery: The injury excuse coming to an end

One of the reasons proposed for Unai Emery’s inability to establish an identity at Arsenal is injuries. However, with key players at key positions now returning, such an excuse is coming to an end.

From the get-go, one of the key points that Unai Emery was going to be judged on was the success of the tactical and cultural identity that he instilled at Arsenal. In the aftermath of the infamously loose and expressionistic Arsene Wenger, the Gunners were ready for a more defined and well-structured approach. Emery, they believed, was the man to not only provide one but provide a positive one.

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Well, we are now in Emery’s second season as Arsenal head coach, and, if you were to ask most fans what his identity and tactical approach is, they would struggle to provide with any of his even most basic tenets. And that is not because they are unable to recognise them. Rather, they are not there in the first place.

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While Emery has unquestionably enthused the culture at the club, reinjecting a previously listless Emirates with energy and life, when it comes to the nitty-gritty details of being a football coach, not only has he failed to implement a positive, helpful identity; he has not even built one in the first place. It is unclear whether he even has one or whether he has been unable to communicate clearly to his players what he wants them to do. Either way, the result is the same. Arsenal are identity-less, precisely what they did not want to be in the post-Wenger era.

One of the more common defences for Emery is that he has had to deal with a series of crucial injuries at crucial positions that have forced his hand into tactical decisions that he would not have ordinarily made. And there is some sound rational to this line of thinking. Hector Bellerin and Rob Holding both suffering ACL tears, alongside lacking a natural left-back with Nacho Monreal’s age catching up to him, moved Emery into a back-three-based system that he was never completely comfortable with. Add in a lack of wide players, two strikers who had to play every game and a less than convincing central midfield and it was obviously difficult for Emery to stamp his authority on the team.

However, this season, this same excuse does not quite carry the same validity. First and foremost, Arsenal had an excellent summer transfer window. They offloaded many of the players that did not fit Emery’s style and replaced them with ones that did, especially out wide and in central midfield. But more importantly, they are now set to welcome back those previously injured players into the first-team fold.

Holding is now ready and available. If Emery sees fit, he could start in place of either Sokratis or David Luiz after the international break. Given how both have struggled this season, especially the former, if Emery does not change it, questions should be asked. More pertinently, there are now two genuine full-back options on the scene: Bellerin at right-back and Kieran Tierney at left-back, the latter signed in the summer and now fit after a sports hernia operation.

Their return will allow Emery to play with a natural back four, which is what he wants to do, while still providing a greater offensive impact than any of their replacements. They will also be defensively more secure, especially in comparison to Ainsley Maitland-Niles and Sead Kolasinac, and will inject a vital element of athleticism and speed which has been missing from the Arsenal XI.

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Suddenly, then, Emery has every player available for selection. He has rid of those he does not want, he has replenished his squad, and everyone is fit. If he cannot implement an identity in these conditions, he never will. The injury excuse is coming to an end. And at that point, serious questions must be asked.

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