For yet another year Arsenal’s season was marked by constant rumours and attacks on coach Arsene Wenger, who remained in charged despite the pressure and celebrated his 20th year at the club. However, Arsenal failed for the first time in 19 years to finish in the top four and next season will be the first one without the Gunners in the Champions League.
The gaffer splashed a lot of cash in the summer on just two signings, with both Perez and Xhaka not seen as good as the money paid for them. Especially in 2016 this was hurting Wenger’s popularity because Perez was constantly plagued by injuries, while Xhaka’s early displays were a controversial mix.
Still the great form of Walcott, Sanchez and Ozil saw Arsenal winning six games in a row in early autumn and going unbeaten in twelve consecutive rounds until mid-December. It was the goals of Sanchez and Walcott and the assists of Ozil that were pushing the team forward in this period but when the busy festive period came the Gunners showed signs of decline.
Back-to-back defeats vs. Man City and Everton just before Christmas and two more consecutive losses against Watford and Chelsea early in 2017 put pressure on Wenger and the fans turned aggressively against him in early February after a humiliating exit of the Champions League in a 2:10 aggregate trashing vs. Bayern Munchen. By that time Walcott’s form had dropped dramatically and he didn’t start many games in 2017, with Iwobi also losing his starting position due to poor form.
Arsenal continued to experience serious problems on the road in March and April and they lost four of their five away matches in this period, which proved to be the main reason why in the end they finished a point behind the top four. Sanchez remained the only solid contributor throughout the entire campaign, with Ozil’s form also dropped in the spring.
At least there was trophy for Wenger in his 20th season in charge as the Gunners gathered themselves and in the FA Cup final at Wembley they deservedly beat champions Chelsea 2:1 to win their record 13th cup.
