Arsenal’s 4 biggest surprises so far this season

What a season it has been so far, not just for Arsenal. We’ve gone from having the Premier League title race being wrapped up, to seeing the Gunners claw their way out of a relegation battle.

And there is still so much left to play for.

Before the season kicked off the realistic targets for this team were a return to European football in some capacity. The Europa Conference League not included, mind you.

Signing the players they did over the summer – a £150m outlay on six new faces – the vision for what Arsenal wanted to achieve in the future was evident. Would that include the Champions League? Near enough everyone thought not.

Arsenal: 4 biggest surprises so far this Premier League season as Mikel Arteta’s side continue chasing a Champions League place

Yet here we are with a top four finish in sight. While it would be overachieving on account of the general consensus pre-season, it would now be a major disappointment were it not to be clinched. Ten more cup finals stand between Arsenal and their last remaining goal this season.

Along the way we’ve been surprised, both positively and negatively.

Arsenal have managed to plunge supporters down to the very depths just as they’ve united the club closer than they’ve been in years. The fans are with the players every step of the way and whatever the table looks like come the end of May, the future is bright.

What were some of those surprises, then? There have been plenty, with four in particular standing out.

The Turnaround in Fortunes

Starting right back at the beginning, any fans who felt the top four was beyond the Gunners’ reach were firmly in that camp just three matches into the season. It was bleak, and perhaps even bleaker than anticipated.

Three games in and the table read three matches played, three defeats, zero goals scored and, crucially, zero points. The worst start to a league season in 67 years was as low as a large contingent of the fanbase had ever sunk. Having ended the previous season strongly with five consecutive wins, these were new depths.

While the top four is still going to require a monumental effort to secure, the fact Arsenal are even in the conversation at all is quite remarkable. Nobody saw this coming. Only the truest believers in Arteta and the team could have foreseen anything of the sort.

It’s been a huge surprise. A most welcome one.

Home form has been key to the surge with the only three defeats at the Emirates coming against Chelsea, Manchester City and Liverpool, while the collective and individual improvements across the team have been joyous to behold.

As it is they have achieved nothing, but the turnaround is one to treasure and one to draw real excitement from. As fans, we want to see more.

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Aaron Ramsdale Silencing His Doubters

£30m on a backup goalkeeper? Sam Johnstone was available for a fraction of the price, and so too was Freddie Woodman. What were Arsenal thinking?

Oh, and don’t forget that he’d suffered three relegations in four seasons and was joining from a Sheffield United side whose style of play involved hoofing the ball as long as possible from a goal kick onto David McGoldrick’s head. All these factors made such little sense.

Not to everyone, though. And blimey, how wrong so many people (guilty!) have been.

Even the goalkeeping experts across the footballing world tried their best to make sense of the deal. Sure, Aaron Ramsdale had the potential to be a starting goalkeeper for Arsenal in the future, but his underlying metrics suggested he wouldn’t even be an upgrade on Bernd Leno…and for £30m?!?!?

What this young man has done since has been outstanding. He’s completely changed how Arsenal set up, added variance to the build-up and demonstrated distribution that drew comparisons to none other than Ederson.

The whole backline communicates with each other, fights for each other and is better organised. Confidence is so crucial in this sport and this is a defensive unit that now trusts each other.

Ramsdale has been a revelation, and even if many could foresee a future for him, precious few, if any, saw him being as brilliant as he has, as soon as he has.

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The January Window + Aubameyang’s Fall From Grace

When Arsenal suffered back-to-back defeats away at Old Trafford and Goodison Park the season’s slightly positive vibes began to fizzle out. The Gunners had found some form and then proceeded to lose two matches that, by all accounts, they gifted to their opponents.

Who would have known that the late miss by Aubameyang on Merseyside would be his final touch in red and white.

The whole situation was unsavoury and above all unwanted, but as soon as the captaincy was stripped from him it was clear that his time at the club was up. His form had been dreadful and he was never truly captain material, but to have gone to the extremes of dropping him and then removing the armband was an outcome nobody expected.

Getting the move to Barcelona was wonderful for him. It’s brilliant that it’s worked out. As fans we loved him and it’s warming to see him playing with a smile on his face again.

Not signing anyone to replace him, and allowing six players to leave the club in the January window without any replacements, was less wonderful for the supporters.

Touch wood, so far it has been only positive. But that can change at any moment, and it remained a huge shock for the club to sanction all of those exits and not at least sign a loan striker to chip in with some goal the team sorely needed.

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Emile Smith Rowe Losing His Place in the Team

Netting his first Premier League goal of the season with a strike against Tottenham that was all the technique and movement that Arteta had wanted of him, Emile Smith Rowe had arrived as the new Arsenal No. 10.

Owning that left side of the attack, he would go on to notch another five goal involvements in his following eight league matches, quickly rising to the top of the Gunners’ top scoring charts and and earning a maiden England senior call up.

Tipped to be the breakout star this season, he was living up to that potential by adding end product and physicality to his game. Just like last season, he was undroppable.

One niggling injury pre-Everton changed that. Gabriel Martinelli came into the team in his stead, and the Brazilian has gone on to start all-but one Premier League game since. Smith Rowe, meanwhile, has started only twice.

Yet even when he was on the bench he still managed to find the back of the net, including a run of three in three substitute appearances, and also scored what proved to be the winning goal against Brentford.

He remains brilliant and ever improving, but earlier in the season if someone had suggested he would lose his place to Martinelli there would have been eyebrows raised. The Brazilian couldn’t get a sniff and Smith Rowe’s perch was one he couldn’t be knocked off.

All of this, of course, is healthy. So healthy. Finally there is fierce competition between players who can both contribute in their own ways, and the future is bright.