Arsenal review: Best game, worst game, best moment, worst moment & targets

With over a quarter of the season down and the unwelcome break from club football upon us, looking back over what has taken place in these last 11 Arsenal matches is next on the agenda.

It’s been a bit of a whirlwind start to the season. A tale of two halves….ish.

Everyone had to endure the horror that was the opening three fixtures of the season. A torrid trio of matches that signaled the end of Arsenal as a Big Six club.

Ha! Not so fast, eh?

Arsenal Premier League review: Best game, worst game, best moment, worst moment, best signing and targets for the season

From the very depths of despair up to the soaring heights of fifth place in the Premier League, even if it has been mentioned numerous times how unfathomable it was to predict such a turnaround after what everyone had seen, it is still quite hard to believe.

Mikel Arteta earned himself a Manager of the Month award – the first Arsenal manager to do so since Arsene Wenger back in October 2015 – and the favourable results have continued to come the Gunners’ way.

Ten matches unbeaten in all competitions, including seven in the top-flight, also includes a spot in the Carabao Cup quarter-finals, something that has been slightly forgotten amid all of the other brilliant ongoings of late.

Sunderland at home is, let’s not beat around the bush, by far the easiest draw Arsenal could have hoped for, and as the Christmas period hots up there may well be a semi-final spot to savour heading into the new year.

With so much to unpack in 11 matches, let’s take a look back on the best and the worst that we’ve seen across this spell, as well as whether or not the pre-season targets might have changed as a result of this unbeaten run.

Worst Game – Manchester City 5-0 Arsenal

It wasn’t going to be anything else, was it? It couldn’t possibly be. If we included all 100 of Arteta’s matches in charge of the club this would still probably feature high up on most peoples’ overall lists for this category.

This was a new low. All of the promise that the end of the previous season showed and the buzz over a record summer spend, while the first two games brought everyone crashing back down to earth, the drubbing at the Etihad felt like the final nail in the coffin.

A coffin that read ‘Arsenal will never be more than a mid-table football club’.

Upon reflection the horrific looking defence, the fact it was the reigning Premier League champions on their patch and Granit Xhaka red cards did no favours, but the manner of defeat and baffling tactical setup Arteta employed – Xhaka on his own in midfield? – showed signs of regression, not progression.

Was this the end of both Arteta and Arsenal as a footballing force? The slide has been ongoing for a number of years but the way the team crumbled in Manchester had an air of sadness about it; that this was the farewell.

Continued on next page…