Arsenal's current situation a replica of last season's woes with Wenger
Recent happenings at Arsenal make you wonder why Arsene Wenger left the club. Arsenal are facing similar problems and it doesn't look like they will find solutions to it very soon. They still have not learned to convince their key players to extend their contracts, the mental weakness in their game is very evident and their shoddy defending exploits still continues.
How can a huge club like Arsenal not be able to find antidotes to well-documented deficiencies in their game for so long? Majority of Arsenal fans are not disappointed in Emery's performance thus far because they knew the job was challenging when he took it, but they are not happy with some of his decisions in the last few games and they have cost Arsenal in the process.
The Spaniard undoubtedly has brilliant tactical nous but he has made a lot of not so brilliant moves lately. It is a fact that Arsenal are short in terms of quality and injuries have rendered the team unstable but there are questions being asked at the moment about Unai Emery's selections and formations.
Why is Emery not playing his best players when he should? What is his best formation? What is Arsenal's best starting XI?
It is confusing watching Arsenal lately and a typical example is the game against West Ham United. Emery went for a back three and two strikers. That left Arsenal with only two central midfielders in Granit Xhaka and Mateo Guendouzi who were outnumbered by the Hammers' three-man midfield.
What was really questionable is why Arsenal lined up with their best player Lucas Torreira on the bench. It was clear that Arsenal lacked creative spark and the introduction of Aaron Ramsey and Torreira proved to solve that problem. So why didn't Emery start with his best available players?
The 22-game unbeaten run shifted the focus away from real issues. Arsenal always started poorly in each of the 22 games. Emery needed second halves to rescue something and now that teams have learned that they are much stronger in the second half, Arsenal are struggling.
The jury is once more out on Arsenal’s mismanagement, mental fortitude and ambitions. Nothing good is going to come to Arsenal if they don’t spend money. The manager clearly would need the money just as his compatriot, Pep Guardiola did with Manchester City last season and his colleague Jurgen Klopp has done at Liverpool to transform his side.
They cannot rely on this quality of players to challenge for the bigger trophies or even qualify for the top four. Speaking on the subject of quality, Jamie Redknapp said, "I just don't think they're good enough, my honest opinion."
"I think you can change, play whatever system you want, I'm not sure this Arsenal squad is good enough to get anywhere near the top four right now when I look at it."
Arsenal need to spend money to augment the squad and as to whether the manager would be assisted on that front, still remains a mystery. It was the same situation under Wenger which begs the question, why did Wenger leave in the first place?