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Arsenal: Top 3 reasons 2019/20 season has been catastrophic
Arsenal have endured their worst season in Premier League history. Here are three reasons why the 2019/20 campaign has been so disastrous.
The 2019/20 season has been an unmitigated disaster for Arsenal. Prior to the start of the season, there was hope that the club could even rival for a top-three position. The summer recruitment was seen as very positive, there was a growing air of hope and expectation for the year ahead, and supporters expected to see the team reclaim qualification for the Champions League and challenge for a trophy. Thus far, they have come nowhere near either.
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So, what went wrong? Well, here are the top three reasons why Arsenal’s 2019/20 campaign has been so calamitous.
3. Hesitation to sack Unai Emery
Arsenal’s head coach to start the season was Unai Emery. He had a mixed first season as Arsene Wenger’s successor, showing terrific progress at periods of the season but ultimately squandering a top-four finish and Europa League final as his team floundered in the closing stages of the campaign. Those troubles were a hint of what was to come, and Emery proved his deficiencies as an elite-level head coach throughout the first period of the 2019/20 season.
But while Emery was serious issue that undermined Arsenal’s progress, — more on this later — the hesitation to move on from him, especially from Head of Football, Raul Sanllehi, when it was quite clear that he was not the right man to lead the club forward only compounded the problems he caused. Arsenal waited until two games after the November international break to finally fire Emery. It was a Friday and the team lost to Eintracht Frankfurt the night before. They then played two days later, Freddie Ljungberg thrown into the impossible role as caretaker.
The club then played 15 games across the next two months. They had a week between matches on just three occasions during that span. Mikel Arteta and Ljungberg had no opportunity to work on new systems and approaches on the training ground. There was no time to talk about tactics and detailed combinations. Arsenal thrust both into the busiest period of the year because they were unwilling to sack Emery sooner. And in the end, it cost them.