This was Osasuna’s first year back in Spain’s top division and they had an excellent season, finishing inside the top half.
They appeared to have made some good signings last summer while maintaining the nucleus of their promotion winning squad and so it proved. Coach Jagoba Arrasate did a good job of stringing it all together.
The standout player was by far Chimy Avila. The Argentine was excellent in attack and also brought the kind of energy that the fans at El Sadar – Osasuna’s home fortress – loved. He scored nine goals in 20 matches before suffering an ACL injury that ruled him out for the final stretch of the season.
Even without Avila, Osasuna coped during the campaign’s final months. They kept it tight at the back and scored just enough goals. Jose Arnaiz, Marc Cardona, Enric Gallego and Adrian Lopez are nowhere near the level of Avila, but each of them came up big at one moment or another.
Even though some believed that Osasuna might struggle more than most from the closed doors nature of the end of the season, they actually did well post-lockdown and had the seventh best record of all teams after the restart, making this a really good first campaign back up.
Osasuna just need to try to keep this formula and the personnel together for next season as they try for another good league campaign and to maybe go better than their last 16 Copa del Rey exit.
