Arsenal Tula were targeting a season of tranquility and none of the dramatic play-off battle against relegation at the end of the previous season as they signed up Miodrah Bozovic as their new manager in the summer. He made some pretty impressive new additions to the squad and Arsenal had the look of a fluent, forward-playing side from the opening weeks, cutting away with the negative tactics and the limited attacking playing from before. They actually had a rough start and lost three of the opening four games. Yet, this was actually a period of the team finding itself out and before too long the Yellow and Red began to show some really quality. Indeed, they earned some fine wins in September and October to climb into mid-table and now had a settled look, with a solid starting 11.
Goran Causic was having a very good start after joining in the summer, playing as an attacking midfielder, while Igor Gorbatenko established himself as a mainstay in the centre of the pitch too. The full-backs were brave and going forward constantly while Luka Djordjevic looked like a seasoned striker with pedigree despite his young age. This promising combination lead Arsenal to a famous win away at Zenit in October and further good results followed, beating Krasnodar and CSKA Moscow at home as well. The one slight disappointment was the poorer performances against middling and lower-level sides but generally Arsenal were looking good as they went for a long winter break, just behind the top five in the table. The team maintained a strong run of form in the spring, aided by the impressive signing of Artem Dzyuba on loan, and got some narrow home wins to ensure that they will have absolutely no worries about relegation.
Indeed, they focused on getting the final Europa League slot in the final weeks of the season but were just about edged by Ufa for the sixth place at the end, having endured an absolutely rout at the hands of CSKA Moscow in the penultimate game of the season. That somewhat soured what has been a fairly impressive season for the Tula side and Bozovic certainly proved that he is the man to keep Arsenal moving forward next season.
