England beat Croatia 4-2 last night in their opening World Cup fixture. The second half was certainly better than the first when defensively England looked all at sea. Suddenly, goals scored from corners are a good thing which is laughable. Declan Rice, despite being substituted, said after the game that he’s fine. Time will tell I guess.
Anyway, back to review of our time at The Emirates which today is 2020/21 & 2021/22.
I’m not going to be a hypocrite. I was against the appointment of Mikel Arteta from day one because of his lack of experience and just because he once played for us, my opinion wasn’t about to change. Of course, winning the FA Cup after just a few months in the job was brilliant for fans but was he the man to take us back to the top? I didn’t think so…
2020/21
Mikel Arteta’s first full season as Arsenal’s head coach/manager. Edu had returned to the club as technical director, welcomed by Raul Sanllehi but just a month later, the latter left the club. Thank goodness.
The transfer window saw the arrival of Thomas Partey, Gabriel and Willian on permanent deals. Dani Cebellos rejoined on a season long loan while both Pablo Mari and Cedric Soares, who’d joined on loan in January, had their deals made permanent. Alex Runarsson joined too. William Saliba went back out on loan. Martin Odegaard joined us on loan in January.
Other players went out on loan too, a few who were never be seen in an Arsenal kit again in Kolasinac, Guendouzi and Torreira. I can’t stand the player now but I was dreadfully disappointed to see Martinez sold to Aston Villa. Sokratis, Mustafi and Ozil were let go for free. No tears shed there.
The season started late this year because of the impact COVID had on the previous campaign but for Arsenal, it began with a Community Shield trophy thanks to winning a penalty shootout against Liverpool at Wembley. It was downhill from there, just as it was for Aubameyang’s Arsenal career after signing a new contract in September. We lost too many games as the weeks and months passed by and against clubs who we really should have been doing better against. Everton, Leicester City, Totts, Burnley, Wolves, Southampton, Crystal Palace, Leeds and West Ham took points off us throughout the season. A season in which we only managed to win 13 Premier League games.
Southampton knocked us out of the FA Cup in the fourth round while Man City knocked us out of the League Cup at the quarter-final stage. As for the Europa League, a semi-final defeat at the hands of Villarreal ended any hope of winning that.
We ended the season in 8th place meaning we would go into the next campaign without European football.
2021/22
It’s tempting to skip this season as it wasn’t brilliant but then we’d had worse. Much worse. The transfer window was a busy one again with Martin Odegaard making his loan deal permanent, Ben White, Aaron Ramsdale, Takehiro Tomiyasu, Sambi Lokonga, Auston Trusty (January) and Nuno Tavares all moving to the club.
Disappointingly, William Saliba went out on loan yet again but he was still just 20 years old. Joe Willock was sold to Newcastle Utd. Willian, Luiz, Chambers, Kolasinac and Aubameyang left for free, the latter after clearly cheesing Mikel Arteta off.
Our opening three games were dreadful. What with players testing positive for COVID and others injured, an under strength side lost at Brentford. A 2-0 defeat against Chelsea at The Emirates followed before Man City thumped us 5-0 at The Etihad. Talk of relegation was already doing the rounds. Ridiculous as that might sound. A mini unbeaten run of eight matches saw us climb the table but then we’ve suffered another hefty defeat, this time at Anfield. The season saw us lose 13 matches again and against clubs who we really should have been good enough to beat.
We ended the campaign in 5th place. The FA Cup hope was ended in the third round by Nottingham Forest whilst the League Cup run lasted until the semi-final when Liverpool sent us packing.
Catch up in the comments.