Arsenal season preview 2017–18: Fresh challenges await familiar Gunners
In the pre-season, Arsenal visited Australia after a hiatus of 40 years. It was certainly uncharted territory for the Gunners and, in many ways, fairly indicative of the season ahead. For the first time in 21 seasons since Arsene Wenger took over, Arsenal will be sailing in the backwaters of European football a.k.a Europa League. As with any season, there are plenty of questions that need answering.
How will Arsenal cope with the demands of the Europa League? Will they put it on the back-burner to focus on the Premier League? Will they see it as a route back into the Champions League considering the intense level of competition in the league?
All these questions aside and the now-so-familiar jokes about Arsenal’s “Groundhog Day” campaigns, there is a level of intrigue, excitement & trepidation about how Arsenal approach this season.
Formation & Squad
Since moving to a back three at the end of last season, Arsenal’s results have seen an uptick — culminating with yet another FA Cup win at Wembley. Arsene Wenger has steadfastly stuck to the same 3–5–2/3–4–3 shape during pre-season too. While pre-season is generally for experimentation and building fitness levels, it has only been in terms of personnel this year. For instance, Mohammed Elneny has deputised at centre back where his performances have been mixed. Nacho Monreal has shuffled between the left-centre back and left-wingback positions effortlessly.
The same formation was used to optimum effect against Chelsea last Sunday in the Community Shield win where Arsenal appeared defensively secure without sacrificing attacking potency. That said, as this excellent StatsBomb Arsenal preview points out, Arsenal rode their luck at the backend of last season with this new formation and will need to find a way to improve their attacking output & defensive porousness that afflicted them throughout 2016–17.
Even as Arsenal produced a decent performance without their best players, Mesut Ozil & Alexis Sanchez, in the Charity Shield, it is imperative for Arsene Wenger to keep them fit and firing. Their contract rumblings aside, they remain fundamental to Arsenal’s game. The squad despite being hefty and in desperate need of trimming is still one of the best in the league with strength in depth in almost every department.

After chasing a “top-class striker” to fill a Robin-Van-Persie shaped hole for five seasons, Arsene Wenger has finally settled for Alexandre Lacazette, who appears to be approaching the peak of his career(both in terms of age and output). With Olivier Giroud expected to stay and Danny Welbeck finally fit at the start of the season, there is competition for places to pair up with inside-forwards Sanchez and Ozil. Lacazette would be licking his lips at the prospect of monetising the creative output of both the Chilean & the German even as Welbeck attempts to add some much-needed output to his brilliant all-round game. Giroud, on the other hand, may not need much extra motivation in a World Cup year.

Lacazette signs for Arsenal
Defense, although ageing, too looks in a much better shape with three at the back providing some much needed cover necessitated by Arsenal’s marauding midfielders. New acquisition Saed Kolasinic looks like a great buy going by pre-season form and Monreal has the ability to slot easily into both left wing-back & left sided centre back roles. With Rob Holding growing in stature at the rear end of last season, Wenger would expect the young Englishman to take more strides given the lack of young defenders in the squad.
It’s the midfield where Arsenal have thornier issues to deal with. Before the shift to a back three last season, Arsenal’s struggles began with the injury to Santi Cazorla and the Spaniard’s absence continues to afflict the team. In fact, the move to a back three can be considered an attempt by Wenger to wean the team away from the midfielder’s influence. Wenger’s dogged attempt to pursue Thomas Lemar of Monaco is also tied to the fact that Cazorla’s rehabilitation is taking longer than expected.
More pertinently, except for the Xhaka- Ramsey combination, there are no viable alternatives for Arsenal in midfield. Elneny had a good game in the Community Shield but is more of a safe passer with little creative output. Ramsey continues to be dogged by fitness issues as he is set to miss the opening game against Leicester. Jack Wilshere’s Arsenal career seems finished and Francis Coquelin adds little value to the team in this formation.
It is imperative for Arsenal to get in a top-quality midfielder before the close of the transfer window which, in turn, warrants
A trimming of the squad
With the exception of Wojciech Szczęsny, Arsenal have not been able to offload none of their squad players. This is, in part, a by-product of their socialist wage structure adopted during the “austerity” era. The fact that the likes of Mathieu Debuchy, Kieran Gibbs, Carl Jenkinson, Joel Campbell, Lucas Perez & Jack Wilshere are still around is a massive indictment of this policy.
Unless Arsenal get most, or all, of these players off their books they cannot venture into the transfer market. To compound these issues, Arsenal have contract issues to contend with.
Contract sagas
The contracts of Mesut Ozil, Alexis Sanchez & Alex-Oxlade Chamberlain are due to expire next year and as of now there seems to be no resolution in sight. Wenger has recently indicated that both Ozil and Sanchez will see out their contracts. Chamberlain, on the other hand, may leave before the end of August given Wenger’s reluctance to play him in central midfield. If pre-season is anything to go by, Wenger sees him as a back-up right wing back and the best solution may be to part ways.
Keeping aside Ozil & Sanchez, the likes of Ramsey, Giroud, Monreal, Walcott, Welbeck, Gabriel & Cech have their contracts expiring in 2019 with no clue on their futures. So, in 2018, in what is probably Wenger’s final year in his last contract, Arsenal will need to replace two world-class players in Sanchez & Ozil and also have to contend with contract extensions for a vast majority of the squad.
Given the ageing nature of Arsenal’s squad and the Arsenal board’s reluctance to plan for life after Wenger, it seems as if the club is putting all its eggs in this season’s basket.
Changes
Given what transpired last season & Gazildis’ “catalyst for change” comments, there have been some *changes* at Arsenal without Wenger ceding complete control over football matters. As with previous seasons, the club have attempted to improve the structure around Arsenal in an evolutionary manner.

The appointment of Darren Burgess from Port Adelaide of Australian Rules Football is yet another effort to modernise the structure around the club. Of course, Arsenal have been here before. Lest we forget, they won the Community Shield in 2015, had made a couple of early signings and began the season on an optimistic note only to tail-off at the end of the campaign to finish below Leicester.
Even accounting for the addition of Jens Lehmann to the coaching team, Huss Fahmy to “handle contracts”, there remain doubts over whether Wenger is nimble enough to adapt to a Premier League top6 made up of younger, more progressive coaches. This is not to paint Wenger as some dinosaur of sorts. He still remains one of the more progressive football thinkers in the world. But it remains to be seen if his lasseiz-faire approach will still fetch the trophies Arsenal fans crave.
Europa League may provide an ideal opportunity to add some European glory to a club that desperately lacks continental pedigree but there are already signs that a second-string lineup will be fielded- at least in the group stages.
There’s a lot riding on this season for both the club and the manager. For Wenger, this is a chance to leave a lasting legacy on the club for which he has sacrificed so much. For the club which is good at talking a great game, it is time to walk the walk.
