Premier League: Low expectations from Unai Emery's Arsenal won't absolve them of underachievement

It’s been a year of firsts for Arsenal Football Club:

- The first new ‘manager’ in 22 years; - The first time a transfer record was broken twice in a season, on strikers; - The first time in two decades that Arsenal finished sixth in the Premier League;

…and so on.

Now, head coach Unai Emery is set to take charge of his first competitive fixture — following pre-season games against Boreham Wood, Crawley Town, Brentford, Atletico Madrid, Paris St-Germain, Chelsea and Lazio — on Sunday against reigning Premier League champions (and Community Shield winners) Manchester City. The list of players brought in after Arsene Wenger hung up his puffy Arsenal coat has been covered previously , so we won’t revisit it but to state that the priority appears to have been on strengthening the defence qualities of a team known for major frailties in that area.

Unfortunately, with under a week to go until proper football begins, Arsenal appear little better off on that front than they were at the end of last season. Let’s take a look at how the three sections of the team shape up ahead of the season opener against City:

The defence rests again?

The signings of Stephan Lichtsteiner and Papastathopoulos Sokratis were intended to bring a sense of leadership and experience to a callow backline — the situation of which was exacerbated by the retirement of Per Mertesacker, long-term injury suffered by Laurent Koscielny and the erratic error-prone ways of Shkodran Mustafi. Over the course of the pre-season period, came some more bad news.

The largely hit-or-miss Sead Kolasinac is out for eight to 10 weeks after picking up an injury against Chelsea, Sokratis — somewhat unsurprisingly, given his overall poor performances in his final season at Borussia Dortmund — looks rusty and will need some time to acclimate to the rough-and-tumble world of Premier League football, and the bizarre decision to send Calum Chambers (one of the better performers in pre-season) out on loan to Fulham is utterly confounding. After all, this is a player who has already been on loan at Middlesbrough. He returned a much more accomplished player and appears set to be a regular. Konstantinos Mavropanos, a youngster with heaps of potential, would’ve been a far better bet to send out on loan.

Uruguayan Lucas Torreira in defensive midfield will certainly go some way in shielding the defenders, but he can’t do it all himself. Unless the club dive in for a panic buy — a practice we imagined Emery’s Arsenal had outgrown — to address some of the concerns at the back, we’re looking at a return to the ways of not-so-good ol’ Gunners. And a return to last season’s inability to close out games. As it stands, we’re looking at a calamity at the back.

Midfield is where matches will be won

The departures of Jack Wilshere and Santi Cazorla — although the latter hadn’t played since November 2016, have undoubtedly altered the dynamics of the Arsenal midfield. The responsibility of managing that critical region, where defence can be swiftly turned into attack and marauding attacks can be stopped dead in their tracks, now lies on the shoulders of Mohamed Elneny, Granit Xhaka, new signings Torreira and Matteo Guendouzi,… and one Aaron Ramsey.

The Welsh midfielder, who began his career at the Emirates a decade ago, has entered the final year of his contract and the signs aren’t great. He appears no closer to ‘signing da ting’ than Alexis Sanchez was at the same time last year. To his credit, the captain-in-waiting (or one of them, if Emery’s five-captain theory is anything to go by) has performed well in pre-season games and made all the right noises in public. However, his deal will need to be wrapped up quickly because he is a critical cog in the Arsenal midfield.

Between Arsenal’s shaky defensive and all-out attacking segments, the midfield will hold the key to translating stale possession into useful chances, blunting the efforts of opposition attacks and maintaining pressure in order to maximise the chance of scoring goals. It goes without saying that Ramsey (a fit one) holds the key to achieving fewer losses — if not more wins.

Getting the attacking combo right

As noted previously , Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Mesut Ozil, Alexandre Lacazette and Henrikh Mkhitaryan in a single lineup might look attractive on the team sheet, but leaves the team woefully imbalanced in practice. To ensure that things click on the offensive front — unarguably, the strongest suit Emery has been dealt, the head coach will have to find his best attacking combination quickly. With Alex Iwobi and young talents like Eddie Nketiah (not to mention the marginalised Lucas Perez) also in the mix, it is critical to find the formation and combo that works best for the team.

It is somewhat clear that while Aubameyang on the wing and Lacazette down the middle can be lethal on the attack, the players themselves and the rest of the team as well are best served with one of the two at the tip of the attack and the other on the bench. Being able to give both these strikers enough minutes while keeping Arsenal competitive will be the biggest challenge for Emery. Elsewhere, finding the best roles for Mkhitaryan, Iwobi and Ozil to play in order to facilitate the frontmen’s endeavours and quickly will add to the potency of the frontmen… and contribute greatly to a successful season.

What will a successful season look like?

In order to answer this question, a look at the lay of the land is instructive. The head coach comes in with a track record that includes guiding PSG to a domestic treble and winning three consecutive Europa League titles with Sevilla. That the man knows how to win requires no reiteration. He enters a team where, for better or worse, power was centralised in one pair of hands for over a decade after David Dein left the fold. The Arsenal of today have a chief executive, head of football relations, head of negotiations and a head coach. There are new players in the fray and the new head coach has also brought in new tactics and new strategies.

Within that environment, it would be highly optimistic or deluded to expect everything to fall into place instantly and for the team to win titles this season. This might sound extremely peculiar for a club that have been derided season after season for a failure to win the Premier League or Champions League — apparently, the FA Cup doesn’t count as silverware when the Gunners win it — but this, then, is the new normal. Expectations for Arsenal under Emery are likely to be tempered primarily because it’s all very new to everyone. Further, the club doesn’t have the sort of mentality that leads to managers or head coaches being sacked after a string of poor results, and so, Emery is likely to get a longer leash to settle in and get the players playing to their potential.

With that in mind, a successful season will require expectations to be kept in perspective — sans the _Arsenal Fan TV-_style invective and rhetoric. The YouTube channel’s caricatures of humans are entitled to their rancour, but the saner observers of the club will need to see things as they are: A club that’s been run a certain way for a couple decades quickly attempting to adapt. As such, while any silverware will be welcome, the key will be to see how Emery sets the wheels in motion to ensure that Arsenal are rubbing shoulders with the cream of Europe swiftly.

To expect any more will be premature at this stage. A top four finish will actually be a fantastic result for the Gunners and any silverware will be the cherry on the cake. That said, low expectations will not absolve the club of poor results. After all, this club is one with the history, vintage and legacy to expect the best season after season. Emery would do well to remember that.