Saying Unai Emery has endured a bit of an up and down freshman season with Arsenal would be an understatement. The Gunners dropped their first two matches of the Premier League campaign and then proceeded to go on a 22-match unbeaten run in all competitions. The rollercoaster ride did not, however, end there.
Despite falling to fifth in the league table, collecting just one win in their last six matches domestically, Arsenal find themselves in the Europa League final. As inconsistent as they have been lately in the Premier League, Emery’s side has convincingly beaten both Napoli and Valencia to get to Baku.
The Europa League final, against Chelsea of all teams, will be the first European final that Arsenal have played in since 2006. As a head coach/manager, Emery has previously won this competition three consecutive times with Sevilla. This experience has clearly helped the Gunners get to where they are at. Star striker, and Arsenal Player of the Year, Alexander Lacazette reiterated this statement following the club’s 7-3 aggregate demolishing of Valencia on Thursday.
“That’s why the club got the coach,” claimed the Frenchman. “To go to the next step and he did because we go into the final in his first season. I hope it is going to be great final and we will prepare for this.”
“We’re really happy, really proud,” Lacazette went on to say. “We know in the Premier League we’ve played really badly in the last month so we knew it was a great opportunity to hope to go to the Champions League.”
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“But it is as well about a trophy. The club needs to win trophies and the players as well. We knew in this stadium it was going to be hard because there is a big atmosphere and they were gong to push us.”
While the domestic campaign has not exactly been stellar, Arsenal have improved on an overwhelmingly disappointing 2017/18 season. The Gunners currently have more points and have spent more time in the top four than the previous season.
Gooners will not be happy that their club failed to get back into the top four, but the team is much closer than they were a year ago. In fact, if Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang converts the late penalty against bitter rivals Tottenham Hotspur in March, the two clubs would be tied for fourth heading into the final match of the season. It’s that close.
No, Emery is not a perfect coach, as he needs to implement a defined strategy going into the 2019/2020 campaign, but it is difficult to give a head coach just one season to completely fix all of a club’s problems. And Arsenal do have some issues both behind the scenes and with the squad. Keeping in mind that Emery is just a head coach and does not have a full say at the club, it may take some time to fully get the players that he needs to take the team even further up the Premier League table.
