2018 is finally at an end and what a year it was.

Let’s recap some of the standouts from a calendar year most of us are glad to see the back of….

A

AWAY days

One away league win in the whole of the 17/18 season meant thousands of Arsenal fans spent a large part of 2018 travelling long distances just to be miserable.

Although the first half of the 18/19 season brought improvement in this area under Unai Emery, I’m writing this after we’ve just been tonked 5-1 at Anfield in a display that had all the hallmarks of a late-era Arsene Wenger team.

Everything changes, yet everything stays the same.

Trips away from home, by their very nature, should be tougher than games at home, but a club of Arsenal’s stature should not be struggling so regularly when they leave the safe confines of Ashburton Grove. This seems like a football fundamental all involved in the game should understand, yet we seem to run into problems on the road with alarming regularity, many of which could be addressed ahead of time.

Teams at the bottom of the table can go to places like Anfield and not ship a bucketful of goals. Arsenal can’t and that is a damming indictment of the rot that has been allowed to set in at the club. We still seem surprised that teams might fight a little bit harder in front of their own fans.

Under Wenger last season Arsenal were sixth in the away league, playing 19, winning just four while losing 11. Of course three of those wins came in 2017.

Under Emery, things are marginally better. We’ve already won four league games away from home but we’ve also conceded 21 goals compared to 31 in the whole of last season away.

Admittedly, we’re also scoring a lot more too which helps. We’ve netted 22 away from home under Emery in the league. We only managed 20 in the whole of last season.

For now, we file ‘away days’ under the category of ‘more shit to sort out’.

B

Nicklas BENDTNER

Former Arsenal forward, Nicklas Bendtner, was sentenced to 50 days imprisonment after he was found guilty of assaulting a taxi driver.

Back in September, Nicklas Bendtner was arrested for assaulting a taxi driver that left the man needing surgery to correct a broken jaw.

The incident took place at 2.41am on September 9 as Bendtner and his girlfriend, Philine Roepstorff, left the Lusso nightclub. The fare that caused Bendtner to get so angry was £4.80.

He was also ordered to pay the taxi driver £1,330 in compensation.

At the time, the taxi driver’s employer, Dantaxi, issued a statement that said, “I can confirm that there has been a serious assault on one of our drivers tonight. 

“The assault has been reported to the police and we can confirm the assailant is Nicklas Bendtner.”

“The driver is currently on the operating table with a broken jaw.”

This is not the first time Bendtner has found himself in trouble, as you know. It isn’t even the first time he’s been in trouble for something involving a taxi driver.

Back in 2014, he was involved in an alleged incident when he reportedly threatened a taxi driver before unbuttoning his trousers and rubbing his genitals over the driver’s car.

The Dane, who turns 31 in January and longed to be the best striker in the world, has 10 goals and five assists in 34 appearances in 2018.

He now plays for Rosenborg with his market value just below £1m.

C

Santi CAZORLA

Santi Cazorla started a competitive football match for the first time in 668 days as Villarreal lost 2-1 in their La Liga opener at home to Real Sociedad.

Most expected the tiny Spaniard’s days of playing at the top level to be behind him after his horrific ordeal following Achilles’ surgery. Yet, there we were, 668 days after his last competitive game for Arsenal against Ludogorets in the Champions League.

Cazorla started the game and played 73 minutes before being replaced by Manuel Trigueros.

That he was able to return to play one minute or make one pass feels like something of a miracle.

D

DEFENCE

We’ve managed to bring a new head coach, a load of new coaches and players yet we still see the same sort of catastrophic defending that can be described in no other way but ‘slapstick’.

Quite where we are with trying to implement something more cohesive in our back line is proving difficult to judge given the personnel currently on display. Certainly, earlier in the season we saw improvements from Bellerin and Holding, and despite remaining unconvincing in his own end, Kolasinac’s recent form at wing back is light years from what we saw in September. It remains too early to say whether this is improved coaching or natural development in younger players, but what is clear is that our older defenders have not benefitted in the same way.

Koscielny has, inevitably, looked rusty as hell since his early return from 7 months out, and Nacho has been decent when fully fit, though this is becoming less frequent, so the jury must remain out on their short-medium term future. Either way, expecting either to play three times a week at this stage is a little unrealistic. Accordingly, neither are likely to be around by the time Arsenal are in a position to challenge for major honours again and we need to start looking at long-term replacements sooner as opposed to later.

Elsewhere, Sokratis has proved largely as expected. A proactive, aggressive defender with a decent turn of pace and a strong character, but one unlikely to nail down a long-term place as first choice when all parties are fully fit. Given the fee paid, we can have no real complaints, and with the injuries we’ve had, things would be a lot uglier without him.

Much the same can be said about Leno when measuring him against expectations.

The German’s greater comfort with the ball at his feet and his superior agility give him a partial edge over Petr Cech, though he has much to do to match the older man’s positioning and strength on crosses.

Certainly, the errors that have been part of Leno’s game in recent seasons have exhibited themselves of late, and while he represents the future rather more than Cech, he feels at this stage a ‘between’ keeper rather than continuing the Arsenal tradition of excellent number ones. That said, at this stage, he’s good enough for where we are, and there is no doubt that his comfort with the ball at his feet matches Emery’s vision rather more. Perhaps the improvements in goalkeeping coaching at the club can iron out some of those errors.

From this point on, however, things start going a bit pear-shaped when talking about the defence.

Despite adding some very welcome and overdue shit-housery, it’s easy to see why Juventus let Lichtsteiner go despite being a warrior for them. He’s still competent going forward against lower division or Europa League opponents, but despite a pleasingly old-school attitude, he looks shot against the pace and movement of any good attacking Premier League sides. In terms of mentality, he’s brought much of what we want, but it’s hard to see his stay in North London extending beyond a one-year cameo. He is this team’s Mikeal Silvestre.

Mustafi has remained a source of frustration, due to his complete lack of consistency. At times, we have seen the player Arsene Wenger must have hoped he was spending £30m+ on, but all too often he has Gus Caesar moments in the middle of otherwise good performances. And, of course, occasionally he has had a bad day from start to finish. We’ll know more about everyone by the summer, but early signs suggest that Mustafi remains as immune to the efforts of Emery’s coaching staff as he was to Wenger’s. Unless he suddenly starts taking unexpected leaps forwards between now and May, the club has to look at other options as part of its long-term planning.

Remarkably, Carl Jenkinson remains part of the conversation, but bar the odd vaguely encouraging Europa League appearance, it’s clear that this life-long Gooner’s Arsenal career is over as soon as mutual contractual commitments conclude.

Lastly, we have on-loan Calum Chambers. Following a promising pre-season and positive comments from Unai Emery, he was surprisingly sent to Fulham, where he was caught up in the malaise of The Cottagers defensive chaos, and looked out of his depth at the lower level.

Recent weeks, however, have seen him transformed into a holding midfielder, where his impact on the team has been much more positive. Quite what this means for his Arsenal future remains uncertain, but he looks no nearer a starting berth in North London at this point in time.

The absolute peak Arsenal defensive moment of the year came in the most important match when, in the dying seconds of an incredible game against Atletico Madrid that Arsenal looked set to win, while also keeping a cleansheet against all the odds, Laurent Koscielny kicked the ball into his own face, David Ospina stepped out of Antoine Griezmann’s way and Shkodran Mustafi fell over just as you thought he was about to save the day.

Griezmann’s celebratory jig gets an honourary mention as the most annoying goal celebration against us of the year.

[read the rest of this Arsenal in-depth review here]

E

Unai EMERY

Unai Emery arrived at the club when many of us were led to believe Mikael Arteta would be coming instead. To say we were relieved was an understatement.

Emery arrived with a point to prove after his time in France despite numerous trophies. Arsenal and the Spaniard seemed like a natural fit at the time and little has happened since to change that opinion. Emery knows his role at the club – head coach, not manager – and is willing to take instruction from above.

When he speaks in press conferences he says a lot of words but rarely anything of substance and if one thing can be missed from Arsene Wenger’s time at the club, it is his often informative and intelligent pressers. With time, perhaps this will change with Emery but I don’t hold out much hope it will develop beyond the media-trained blandness we’re getting currently.

On the pitch, it is still too early to make any sort of definitive judgement on his methods. Sure, we’re conceding more than under Wenger and creating fewer chances, but Emery has had to contend with a serious of defensive injuries while also doing without Mesut Ozil – chief chance maker – for a lot of the season.

What Emeryball will be beyond high-intensity pressing is not yet clear and he will need a number of windows to stamp his own mark on the squad and remove the players who don’t fit with what he wants to do.

This season was always going to be a free hit for Emery. As long as he didn’t put us in danger of a bottom-half finish, he was always going to get the time and space to make changes.

He’s only been at the club for half a year and has over two decades of Wenger to fight against.

At this point, the best I can say about Emery is that there isn’t much to say.

[read an in-depth Emery review here]

F

FAREWELLS

2018 saw Arsenal say goodbye to a f**kton of people.

Arsene Wenger, Ivan Gazidis, Boro Primorac, Gerry Peyton, Tony Colbert, Colin Lewin, Jens Lehmann, Dick Law, Steve Rowley, Steve Gatting, Carl Laraman, Paul Johnson, Alexis Sanchez, Lucas Perez, Chuba Akpom, Santi Cazorla, Jack Wilshere, Joel Campbell, Olivier Giroud and Theo Walcott all left Arsenal in 2018.

G

Ivan GAZIDIS

Ivan Gazidis departed for Milan after taking his sweet time to make up his mind, but what did he actually achieve in his 10 years at Arsenal?

Over on the Milan Reddit, their fans believed Gooners were upset at losing Gazidis to them, but that isn’t anywhere close to the truth. Most Arsenal fans couldn’t give a stuff about Gazidis, who has largely underwhelmed for 90% of his time at the club.

As last season wound to a close and Arsene Wenger was finally forced to call time on his role as manager at Arsenal, it seemed as if Gazidis was about to step up and show us why he had been trying to wrestle power away from the Frenchman for the best part of a decade.

In truth, as Gazidis left and Stan Kroenke replaced him with Raul Sanllehi and Vinai Venkatesham (Head of Football and Managing Director respectively) we look back at the South African’s time at the club and wonder what on earth we paid him millions for every year.

He will mostly be remembered for the club’s ‘audacious stunt’ in 2013 that delivered a new kit.

Gazidis, however, was integral to the club landing Mesut Ozil even though folklore will tell you it was all down to Wenger and his established relationship with the player. Gazidis had been meeting with Real Madrid that summer to try and sign Angel di Maria. Madrid wouldn’t sell him so Gazidis returned home only to receive a shock call about Mesut Ozil’s availability.

“He is a contemplator, a deep thinker, who will calmly consider each decision from every conceivable angle,” the Guardian’s David Hynter wrote of Gazidis and we saw this clearly as he took his time to make up his mind about the Milan move. He deliberated for months, and Arsenal just let him.

It was this thoroughness and caution, however, that resulted in the club opting for Unai Emery instead of Mikel Arteta who would have been a massive risk.

So what else did he do in his time at the club?

Well, Arsenal negotiated a new deal with Emirates for shirt and stadium sponsorship, landed a sleeve sponsor and improved their commercial department under his watch, but many will question why we are still so far behind the likes of Manchester United and Manchester City when it comes to commercial revenue.

When Gazidis arrived at the club Arsenal were some £51m behind United’s revenue. That figure now stands at £154m as of the 16-17 figures released.

Arsenal will also move from Puma to Adidas, but the Puma deal, large as it was at the time it was signed, was quickly outdone by United and Chelsea. Their kits have also been largely disappointing.

Gazidis was also integral to Arsenal landing Andrei Arshavin, as Jon Smith detailed in his excellent book, ‘The Deal: Inside the World of a Super-Agent‘. It was Gazidis who ultimately allowed the £15m deal to go through, even though the agent agreed to pay £1.2m more than Arsenal wanted, hoping the club would pay him back.

It must also be remembered that Gazidis was the man at the helm as Arsenal slipped out of the top four for the first time in two decades despite promising us that after the stadium move we would be competing with the likes of Bayern Munich. He still received a £919k bonus despite this failure.

“No club has a perfect record every year under this scrutiny but Arsenal has probably been, of the big clubs certainly, the most consistently over-performing team over time,” Gazidis said at the 2017 AGM, giving a clear view of how he regards his time at the club.

“That is, despite the criticism we get and the emotion here in the room, and despite some very loud subjective narratives and a great deal of inaccurate information … in fact, on an objective basis, we perform very well and have over a long period of time.”

There are no doubt plenty of things that Gazidis has done behind the scenes that we are not aware of or that I’ve forgotten. But the truth is, no matter what he has done, the impression is he hasn’t done much and that’s what will live on long after he’s gone.

H

Peter HILL-Wood

Former Arsenal chairman Peter Hill-Wood passed away in December at the age of 82. His family connections with Arsenal went back generations and while he was often to be found annoying fans at the AGM, there was no doubting his love and affection for the club or the impact he had on the game.

Chairman when we brought Arsene Wenger to the club, he was at the helm for the move to the Emirates and between 1982 and his retirement, due to health reasons, in 2013 he saw Arsenal win five league titles, two league cups, eight FA Cups, eight Community Shields, and a UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup.

The club said in a statement: “Peter and his family’s influence on the club cannot be understated, but at this most difficult time for his family and friends, it is Peter the man who we remember with great fondness.

“Our thoughts are with his wife Sally and his children Sarah, Julian and Charles.”

I

Invincibles

In the sort of comments that just encourages idiots to keep on being idiots, Unai Emery has said that Liverpool can go through the entire season without losing a league match because ‘they are doing it at the moment’. Enough of their players and pundits already think this without us getting involved.

I don’t want to be a dick about our new head coach but this nonsense has to stop.

There is a reason that sides go through a league season unbeaten once every 100 years – it’s really f***ing hard.

Do you remember when Arsene Wenger dared suggest it was possible and he was mocked mercilessly?

Yet every season since we’ve had to listen to pundits wax lyrical about unbeaten sides as if we should now expect it as the norm rather than the incredibly rare feat that it was.

Liverpool, of course, have not lost a game in the league yet and that is indeed impressive. I’m not here to slag off Liverpool, just to ask that we bring a little perspective to things.

Is it possible that Liverpool will finish the season without losing a game? Absolutely. All things are possible.

Is it likely? Probable? No, no it’s not. It is possible in the literal sense of that word, like Leicester winning the league or Arsenal going 49 games undefeated in the league.

“They can do that because they are doing it at the moment,” said Unai Emery when asked if Liverpool could match Arsene Wenger’s Invincibles.

“We played against Liverpool three years ago with Sevilla in the final of the Europa League and I look then, at this progress, in this process and they are a very good example.

“I am also looking, with the coaches also, at how we are now and with the difference in the table before those years and with us and with other teams.

“The progression with Liverpool is clear. Three years ago, they were out of the Champions League through the Premier League and through the Europa League, because they lost against us [at Sevilla].

“This progress is also one example for us, now, in our moment. But we need to be very, very demanding of ourselves to do this step quickly in our way. But we need also time, and sometimes the patience is very important for us.”

Everybody could do with remembering how extremely rare an unbeaten season is to achieve and start showing a bit more respect to Arsenal’s Invincibles.

J

JOE Montemurro

Arriving as a relative unknown, Montemurro guided the women’s team to a Conti Cup final win over Manchester City and generally steadied a wobbling ship. Since then, he has excelled, taking the women to the top of the Super League with a free-scoring team that nets for fun.

Even if Arsenal don’t manage to cling on to win the title as injuries to key players bite, they seem set to finally return to Champions League football.

K

Stan KROENKE

Arsenal fans may not like Stan Kroenke who finally took sole control of Arsenal in 2018, but it seems we haven’t even had a small taste of the anger he’s capable of inducing, a rage so visceral some people would rather be Spurs fans…

The Amsterdam Tavern stands next to a vacant lot in St. Louis, but for the city’s football supporters, it’s the place to be.

Its black and red ‘Dam exterior, reminiscent of Manchester United, opens up to a world of football as you are greeted by shirts from around the globe. It is here that St Louis’ Arsenal fans come to watch matches, even if that means being here before breakfast for English lunchtime kick-offs.

Fans of all clubs watch their matches here but a noticeable trend is developing – more Spurs fans are emerging.

The reasoning is simple and has nothing to do with a personal preference for Tottenham over Arsenal. It’s all to do with the city’s hatred for the Arsenal owner, Stan Kroenke.

The people in St Louis don’t care that the value of the Rams has doubled since Kroenke moved them to LA any more than Arsenal fans would care about the value of the club if he moved Arsenal to Athens, a comparable distance between the Rams former home and their new one. For Rams fans, Kroenke is enemy number one and if that means actively supporting the rivals of any of his teams, that’s what they are going to do.

It’s hard to blame them.

They watched Kroenke hold St Louis to ransom before upending the team, moving it over 1,800 miles away to a tax-payer funded stadium that removed the cheapest seats to fit in more corporate boxes. The poorest people, who are helping to pay for his mega stadium through their taxes that could go to schools or transport or healthcare, are priced out of attending games at the new complex.

It’s unlikely that Kroenke will move Arsenal now that he owns all of it. That sort of thing just doesn’t happen in England. Besides, where better than London to be, at least pre-Brexit? But the way he does business, the power he is willing to wield over local councils to extract public funding that is desperately needed elsewhere, should serve as a warning not just to Arsenal fans but to the whole of football in England – this is where we are heading. This is the American sports ownership model and it is firmly embedded in the Premier League now. It’s not just Kroenke who has form in this area, Manchester United’s owners, the Glazers, wrote the playbook on how to extract public money for private profit. There are five American owners in the Premier League now.

Arsenal funded the building of the Emirates through sponsorship deals and loans. Unlike Tottenham, they did not try to take any public money. It’s likely that the stadium will be expanded and upgraded at some point in the not-too-distant future and while the previous shareholders had the foresight to protect the club from being loaded with buy-out debt the way Manchester United was so shackled, I’m not sure they would have anticipated this sort of business practice.

By exacting money from local councils, billionaire sports owners are loading a lot of the risk of stadium development on to the government while they privatise the profits for themselves. Government intervention is desperately needed to stop this sort of thing becoming a regular feature of football in England but it’s hard to see that happening, especially with a Tory government that has allegedly shown itself willing to turn a blind eye to up to 14 murders on UK soil to stay sweet with Russia and its Oligarchs.

“I detest how Stan Kroenke is affecting my life,” says an Amsterdam Tavern regular, identified only as ‘Mike’ in James’s Montague’s excellent ‘The Billionaire’s Club’. “Not only with Arsenal but with the Rams in so many ways.

“I hate the lack of control we have over things in the face of this billionaire. There’s loads of Tottenham fans now. Sure, there were a lot of Americans who played for Spurs. That’s is one reason. But the other if you are a St Louisan…well, you’re not going to pick the one with Kroenke. You’ll pick his mortal enemy.”

Louisan Mike has supported Arsenal for 20 years and was speaking in 2015, three years before Stan Kroenke took full control of the club. But he warned this was coming. “It is something a lot of Britons are not familiar with. When the Glazers took over [Manchester United], there was a lot of shock that private stock owners were getting enriched. And that is just America. That is going to be the new future for English football; a lot of private enrichment.

“At least the slave-owning emirates and the mob-tied Russian billionaires spend money on their club to get results,” he joked. “The man ripping apart the fabric of America with Wal-Mart is doing nothing for the team.”

Ah yes. Wal-Mart. The family business of Stan’s wife that he is involved with that took out life insurance policies on its employees where they were the sole beneficiary. This is called ‘Dead Peasants’ Insurance’, a practice they stopped in 2000 because it was ‘costing them money’ according to Florida State University radio but not before they were sued for millions. Here are another 10 reasons Walmart is the worst company in America.

“Despite the Walton family’s apparent championing of small government policies,” Montague writes, “Wal-Mart has famously become a huge recipient of government subsidies, dubbed by critics as ‘Corporate Welfare’: by paying rock-bottom wages to its 1.4 million staff, the state effectively has to subsidise them with food stamps, housing, and other benefits.

“A 2014 report by the political advocacy group Americans for Tax Fairness placed that figure at a staggering $6.2 billion. Wal-Mart’s employment practices became a campaign issue during the 2016 American presidential election primaries, and that perhaps explains why Kroenke backed Clinton [against Trump].”

Many Arsenal fans are mourning the loss of the club as an entity that was answerable to them, but the truth is that day came and went a long time ago. Stan Kroenke entered Arsenal’s universe seven years ago and this was always his endgame. As it tends to, greed won out over sentimentality for the Arsenal board who were meant to be custodians of the club. It turns out they were only human.

As Montague and Mike both point out, there are no good guys anymore. “It is either an emirate or a dodgy Russian former Soviet-enriched billionaire.

“Which way do you want to be ethically compromised?”

Welcome to modern football, Arsenal. We’ve been waiting on you.

L

Freddie LJUNGBERG

Freddie Ljungberg returned to Arsenal as coach of the u23s after a brief spell as Assistant Manager at VfL Wolfsburg.

Arsenal announced the return of the fan favourite as head coach of the youth team. He previously coached the u15s, then worked as an assistant for the u19s, before leaving to take over as assistant manager at Wolfsburg in 2017.

Unfortunately, manager Andries Jonker only lasted six months at the club, and when Wolfsburg sacked him, Ljungberg had to leave too. Their loss is Arsenal’s gain though.

“I’m delighted to be returning to the club,” the 41-year-old told the Arsenal website. “Arsenal has always been a special place for me and I’m really excited at this opportunity to work with our under-23 team.

“I look forward to working with the talented young players we have at the club. I know many of them well and will work hard to help them continue developing and become the best players and people they can be.”

Thanks to the time-frame of his coaching progression, Ljungberg was right to point out he already had a connection to the current u23 squad. Many of those making the step up this year will have also played with the u15s a few years ago, when Freddie was in charge.

As an obvious consequence of Ljungberg’s appointment, previous u23 head coach Steve Gatting and his assistant Carl Laraman were no longer in a job. They were already under investigation after complaints of bullying from some players anyway, during which Arsenal suspended both of them.

M

Sven MISLINTAT

Although Sven Mislintat was appointed towards the end of 2017 it was in 2018 when he really made his mark.

Helping to bring in Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Henrikh Mkhitaryan and 20-year-old prospect Konstantinos Mavropanos, Sven Mislintat made a strong start to his new role this January.

According to the Telegraph, the new January signings were an immediate sign of Mislintat’s ‘impact and influence’. It makes sense since he was key to bringing them both to Dortmund in the first place.

The Gunners are finally doing something they haven’t managed to do in years: sign some of Dortmund’s best players.

Mkhitaryan eventually wound up here via Manchester United, while the Aubameyang arrived shortly after Mislintat.

Before that Arsenal had been linked with Mats Hummels, Marco Reus, Robert Lewandowski and Mario Gotze countless times but you have to go back to 2006 for the last time Arsenal signed a player directly from Dortmund.

Tomas Rosicky arrived amid much excitement. He cost a tiny £9m back then. Before then, Jens Lehmann arrived for £3m in 2003 and brought his brand of craziness with him- £12m in total. Only two Arsenal players have gone the other way.

Guy Demel, a right-back who would end up at West Ham, 14 years after his sale from Arsenal, is one of them. Guillaume Warmuz, who didn’t make a single appearance for the club, is the other.

Mislintat ended a 12-year absence of business being done with Dortmund, and it took him barely 12 weeks after his November appointment.

N

Eddie NKETIAH

Up-front, despite the endlessly changing formations, the personnel situation is a simple one. When the manager feels our defence and midfield can have control of an opponent Lacazette and Aubameyang start, with the latter either genuinely or nominally out wide, or with the two rotating between central or wider roles. When we pack the midfield or the backline it reverts to one up front, usually the Gabonese due to his extra goal threat, despite his minimal involvement in play.

In terms of their output as a pair of striking options we can have no complaints.

The difficulty lies in having Auba and Ozil in the same team.

In an attacking sense they complement each other pretty well, but both are ultra-specialists who do very little outside of those specialisms. When the remaining nine players can keep a modicum of control and solidity, this can work like a dream. Against tougher opponents, however, this combination can leave us lightweight and exposed. It is a balancing act the manager has to juggle, and it doesn’t yet feel the balance is right…but there is still half a season left before any big decisions need to be made.

A nice counter-balance to this in terms of work-rate is Danny Welbeck, but it looks like as well as his season, his Arsenal career may be over. The sometimes ungainly Englishman could have been a great signing for the club, but three freak unrelated serious injuries in five years is a lot to battle against. A terrible shame for a popular, hardworking and genuinely useful player, but as we know, top-flight football is seldom fair.

So, much of the remaining striking burden may fall on the shoulders of Eddie Nketiah. Unlucky not to have scored in his cameos to date, and equally unlucky to have three sub appearances in a row prevented by injured team-mates, he still remains our only option up top beyond the big two, so we will undoubtedly learn a lot more about him between now and the summer.

A good few months could kick-start his professional career and save the club a lot of money with investment needed elsewhere.

O

Mesut OZIL

Less than a year ago we all wondered if Mesut Ozil would still be an Arsenal player in 2018.

After being made the club’s highest ever paid player, the men who sanctioned Ozil’s latest contract are gone from the club and the German keeps vanishing.

Unai Emery has been as frank as he seems capable of being when he said he expects Ozil to work harder. We can read nothing into Emery making Ozil one of his five captains because he did the same with Aaron Ramsey whom we all know is set for a summer exit.

Arsenal need to cut their wage bill – that’s why they are letting Ramsey go. Any new deal for the Welshman would come with a hefty increase on his weekly salary while a large signing-on bonus is also required. The club can’t afford it.

Can they, then, afford to pay Ozil £350,000-per-week for the next 133 weeks?

Of course, questions need to be asked about why the club would sanction the deal in the first place if they were not prepared to commit to it for its duration or if they knew they couldn’t afford it.

Desperation seems the obvious answer given the state of the club at the time, the unrest amongst fans and the fact that Alexis Sanchez was off to Manchester United.

They could afford to lose Ozil last January less than they could afford his wages it seems. Arsene Wenger’s last hurrah in his attempts to turn things around and get the fans back on side.

Moving Ozil up to the £300kpw bracket has reduced the number of clubs now able to pay his wages to around five (Manchester United, Manchester City, Real Madrid, Barcelona, PSG). From that list perhaps only one or two would consider signing him at that price (United and PSG).

In short, if Arsenal weren’t intending on keeping him, they’ve made it very difficult to get rid.

But who do you ask these questions of?

Arsene Wenger and Ivan Gazidis are gone and you’ll have to go some way to convince me Stan Kroenke could pick the midfielder out of a lineup. Kroenke and the board, paralysed by Wenger’s reputation for so long, trusted the Frenchman’s opinion. Wenger wanted to re-sign him, and, along with Gazidis, they all signed off on the deal.

78 days later Arsene Wenger announced he was leaving.

As much as I love the German, it does feel as if something has to give and it looks like it could be his place in the squad.

If Arsenal can find a willing buyer, that is.

P

Gerry PEYTON

Wojciech Szczesny and Lukasz Fabianski revealed some particularly embarrassing stories about former Arsenal goalkeeping coach Garry Peyton, in a joint appearance on a Polish show this week.

The two ex-Arsenal goalkeepers spoke to Polish outlet Przeglad Sportowy this week about a number of topics, including their time spent in North London. When asked about Peyton, the pair didn’t have many positive words to say (translated by this Reddit user):

Interviewer: With Gerry (Garry Peyton) was it a typical English locker room?

Fabianski and Szczesny: No, not really.

Szczesny: Let me give you an example of a thing where you’ll laugh at first, but then you’re like ‘I’m playing for Arsenal, is this for real?’. Before the match with Chelsea, I hear: ‘Watch out. When Hazard takes his penalties, he will shoot at the opposite side of where you will dive.’ That’s funny, but then you’re like ‘Did he really just say that?’

Fabianski: Mentioning penalty analysis, he (Gerry) used to say: ‘Listen, he shoots that side or that side, but best go with your feeling.’ So, he shoots here and there, but do whatever you want, more or less.

Szczesny: One time we had a GK debriefing out of nowhere…

Fabianski: …and it was a video debriefing, we have never done video before.

Szczesny: We’re going not knowing what it will be about, right? And it’s a 4-5 minute video of goals that I let past me, but could have done better.

Fabianski: It’s only Szczesny goals though…

Fabianski and Szczesny: They were only Szczesny’s mistakes, but there was us and Vito (Vito Mannone) and Emi (Emiliano Martinez) watching, maybe?

Szczesny: So, we’re watching, but we don’t know what is going on. It’s just showing errors, he (Peyton) is not explaining anything. So the video ends and Gerry says: ‘See, you’re not perfect’. And that was it. We’re all looking at each other like ‘oh’.

Although the show was clearly a bit of light-hearted banter, rather than a serious discussion, it emphasises just how poor the goalkeeping coaching was at Arsenal before this summer. If the coaching was generally positive, Szczesny and Fabianski would say so, rather than just highlighting the worst moments.

This is no surprise either. For a while now there have been rumours about the way Arsenal goalkeepers felt about Peyton’s coaching, this just confirms those stories.

Thankfully, Unai Emery brought a new coach with him in Javi Garcia, and Sal Bibbo also joined the club in July 2017 after Szczesny’s departure. Hopefully, the pair will do a much better job with Bernd Leno than the former coaches did with Fabianski, Szczesny and the rest.

Q

Quality

This was rarely on show in 2018, perhaps most notably only against Leicester and Spurs under Emery in the latter half of the year.

As tends to be the way with Arsenal of recent years, they perform better when the pressure is off. Hopefully, the work Unai Emery and his team are doing behind the scenes will go some way to addressing issues of mental fragility while Sven Mislintat and co will find players to address the serious lack of quality in a number of positions.

R

RWANDA

There was a lot of talk about Arsenal’s sleeve sponsorship deal with Rwanda yet the moral outrage from some journalists that greeted news of the arrangement has been conspicuously lacking in relation to deals with the likes of Emirates, Etihad, or Roman Abramovich.

Not long after announced their Rwanda deal, the United Arab Emirate’s leading human rights activist, Ahmed Mansoor, was jailed for 10 years for his ‘social media activity’.

Mansoor’s ‘crime’ was to use his social media accounts to publish ‘false information’ and ‘spread hatred and sectarianism’. In addition, he was also fined Dh1 million (approx. £204,000) for insulting the ‘status and prestige of the UAE and its symbols’, including its leaders.

The reality, however, is that Mansoor, who had, prior to his arrest, faced ‘repeated intimidation, harassment, physical assault, and death threats from the UAE authorities or their supporters,’ according to Amnesty International, merely expressed support for a fellow activist.

Osama al-Najjar was still being held by authorities despite completing his three-year sentence for tweeting about human rights abuses.

“Ahmed Mansoor is one of the few openly critical voices in the UAE, and his persecution is another nail in the coffin for human rights activism in the country,” said Lynn Maalouf, Amnesty International’s Middle East Research Director.

“The decision to lock up Ahmed Mansoor for the next 10 years for simply sharing his opinion on social media is what causes the real damage to the UAE’s reputation and so-called ‘social harmony’, not Ahmed Mansoor’s peaceful activism.

“Ahmed is a prisoner of conscience who has been targeted, tried and sentenced for using Facebook and Twitter to share his thoughts. He should never have been charged in the first place and now he must be released immediately.”

Joe Odell of the International Campaign for Freedom in the UAE told Daily Cannon, “This outrageous sentence is just the latest episode in the UAE’s continued clampdown on freedom of speech and expression. It is yet another clear indication that the regime who owns the Emirates brand have no regard for human rights – and a clear disdain for anyone who seeks to defend them.

“In reality, all that Ahmed Mansoor is guilty of is speaking up for the rights of the oppressed people throughout the region. It is about time that Arsenal FC Kick out the Emirates and say no to the UAE’s sport-washing.”

So what’s all this got to do with Arsenal?

“Emirates Airline is a company that is wholly owned by the government of Dubai,” Odell added.

“In recent years, the human rights situation in the UAE has deteriorated considerably with practices such as arbitrary detention, torture and enforced disappearances becoming increasingly commonplace.

“Despite this, many in the UK continue to associate the UAE with luxury holidays and sporting events rather than human rights violations.

“In some respects, such deals enable the UAE authorities to ‘launder their reputation’ through cultural institutions in the UK such as Arsenal Football Club.”

When you think Rwanda, you likely also think ‘genocide’. That’s what made it so easy to criticise that deal despite the complexities of the situation there.

It is a country that has serious issues when it comes to democracy, free speech and poverty, amongst other things, but on the other hand, they are taking massive strides towards alleviating that poverty and are dragging women’s rights a few inches out of the middle ages.

In the UAE, they are doing none of that, yet because we think of the country as a utopia we all aspire to afford, mouths are kept shut.

It is a country that forbids criticism of its government, government officials, police and royal families and, in 2012, enacted a law to ensure online criticism was also punished.

It is illegal to be queer.

Women must receive permission from a male guardian to marry and it is illegal for them to marry non-Muslims.

They punish those accused of adultery by flogging, but only the unmarried ones. Married adulterers are stoned to death.

80 lashes for alcohol consumption. 100 lashes for pre-marital sex. Theft, drunk driving, kissing in public…lash, lash, lash.

They even have actual laws to dictate what sort of clothes you can wear.

You know this, right?

I think we all do, but on some level choose to ignore it.

While I knew most of the laws listed above, I don’t think I’d ever read them all together, and certainly not within the framework of our current political climate.

I’d been thinking, as I watched the Handmaid’s Tale, that it wouldn’t take much to get us from here to there. A little more Trump and the DUP and who knows what sort of dystopia we could find ourselves in.

But the Handmaid’s Tale is not the future. It is already here, now, playing out in the United Arab Emirates while we support our football team running around with their names emblazoned on our shirts.

William Gibson once said that “the future is already here, it just isn’t evenly distributed.”

Arsenal being sponsored by ‘Fly Gilead’ might seem like an absurd notion, but is it really much different than ‘Fly Emirates’ given how they treat women and ‘gender traitors’?

S

Raul SANLLEHI

Arsene Wenger hadn’t been gone five minutes when Arsenal promoted Raul Sanllehi to the director of football role so hated by the Frenchman.

Sanllehi took up his new role at Arsenal at the start of February and his recruitment was one of a number of moves the club made to prepare for life after Arsene Wenger.

While the club originally stated that he was not a director of football (his official title was Head of Football Relations), his role was certainly played down while Wenger was still at the club.

Sanllehi spent 14 years working with Barcelona before being tempted to move to London and he explained how it was a ‘no-brainer’.

“[I’m] extremely excited about this new project in my life” Sanllehi said. “[I’m] very happy to be at the club, one of the top clubs in Europe. A club that everyone looks at. It was a no-brainier to join and very thankful for the opportunity. Someone asked me, ‘Why did I join Arsenal?’ I said, ‘Who wouldn’t!’

“When Ivan (Gazidis) explained the ideas he has got for the club and the people he wants to bring in, it was impossible to turn it down.

“Talked a lot about the great people that Arsenal have who dedicate their lives to the club and there is so much love.”

It’s not clear what type of people Ivan Gazidis wanted to bring in and now we will probably never know. Hopefully, he gave Sanllehi the list before he left.

T

TOTTENHAM

What’s just like winning 10-0 in the Nou Camp? If you’re Spurs, it’s drawing 1-1 with Barcelona’s B team.

That’s what the Daily Mail tried to tell us after a desperate Tottenham, staring down the barrel of impending Champions League ignominy, went to Spain and played a bunch of Barca kids. They needed a result to ensure qualification and the best they could manage was a draw against the weakest Barca team the world has seen in 10 years.

There’s a weird thing that happens with some parts of the media when it comes to Tottenham. Despite having not won a trophy in a decade (or a trophy that matters since the 90s) and making a total dog’s dinner of their stadium move, they are still treated as if they are an elite team that does more than ‘put the pressure on’ the eventual title winners once every quarter of a century.

What has this got to do with Arsenal? Well, I was wondering, if the papers (and Mauricio Pochettino) insist that Tottenham are in the title race, doesn’t that mean Arsenal are too?

Let’s be clear up front, no, it doesn’t. Neither team is in a title race that will be fought out between Manchester City and Liverpool unless something unexpected happens.

But how can Spurs, who were recently humiliated by Arsenal and sit just a few places ahead of their north London rivals be spoken about in such different terms to the Gunners?

During Arsenal’s worst period in the last two decades, they still managed to pick up more trophies than Spurs have managed in living memory. It doesn’t make any sense. This is the best Spurs have been in 30 years and they still have absolutely nothing to show for it.

But yeah, let’s talk about their title chances.

There is little to choose from between the two sides at present and yes, that statement does make me feel mildly sick. The points that separate them in the league mean little but what we are witnessing is a Tottenham side at the top of their crest while Arsenal start their slow climb back up.

This is as good as Tottenham can get. If they were going to win actual things, they’d have done it by now. When they eventually move into their stadium things will get harder for them, not easier. Just ask Arsenal fans about their club and how everything was put on hold for 10 years while they settled in and repaid their debt.

The way Spurs have dealt with their own stadium build should leave their fans very worried indeed. They haven’t even been able to get it built on schedule (or without major mistakes), what makes anyone think their plans for paying it off will run smoothly?

Already unable to match the wages of the top clubs, Spurs will have to start selling stars for two reasons. Firstly, they will need the cash to pay of a stadium that now looks set to cost close to £1bn, more than double its estimate. Secondly, they have players who will only wait so long before swanning off to clubs that will triple their wages.

People will tell you that what the papers say doesn’t matter but that’s a lie. We all want to see our sides represented in glowing terms across the national media for our non-Arsenal-supporting pals. Bragging rights come with the ability to wave double-page spreads hailing your heroes. See! It’s not just us that think they’re brilliant, the press think so too!

When it comes to dealing with both sides of north London it often seems like double standards are in place but as I write that sentence I wonder if we shouldn’t just let it go.

It is, after all, the only double of any sort that Tottenham are likely to get near any time soon.

U

Unlucky

They say you make your own luck but there’s no denying that Arsenal have been more than a little unfortunate throughout 2018, perhaps no-one moreso than Danny Welbeck who managed to end his Arsenal career by jumping to head a ball.

Then there was Laurent Koscielny’s achilles that went snap ruling him out for seven months and the world cup.

Some of it is bad luck, but some, like the double deflections off a defender’s face and into the back of the net speaks more about panic in the ranks.

Still, look at the game against Liverpool on Saturday when we were denied a penalty that was as much of a shout as the two Liverpool were awarded.

That’s luck, and it isn’t good.

V

VICTORY through harmony

Arsenal’s motto has seemed something of an ironic joke over the past few seasons but for a while after Arsene Wenger announced he was leaving we all seem relatively united.

Will it last?

Hardly, it’s already showing signs of cracking as some mouthbreathers call for #EmeryOut with no sense of sarcasm.

W

Arsene WENGER

It’s hard to let go when you still care.

It’s hard to say ‘no more’ when you remember all the good times that you shared, all the dreams you built together and all the memories you crafted over time.

It’s hard to watch someone you love ruin themselves without being able to see what they are doing.

And it’s hard to say goodbye, even when you know it’s for the best for all involved.

No more will he lead a team out at the stadium he helped build.

No more will we see him standing in his white shirt and red tie, hands on hips in the glorious May sunshine with the home crowd singing his name behind him.

We moved on to the next game and then his last and then he was gone with no second chances, no unlikely reunion when both parties have worked out their own personal issues.

This was final.

This was done.

This was the end.

It was a strange place to be.

For most of us Arsene Wenger is a man we’ve never met, never mind formed any sort of personal relationship with, yet over the past two decades, that’s exactly what he has cultivated with every single one of us. A personal relationship.

What he means to me is not what he means to you and how he came into my life is not the same as how he entered yours. However you found yourself with Arsene Wenger in your life, he was there, every day for the past 22 years.

He was reliable and dignified. He reminded us of higher goals in football, of human goals, and saw no reason that both beautiful football and a beautiful, tender approach to life could not be combined.

Sure, he wasn’t perfect, but who is? Who can live with someone for 22 years and not find themselves irritated by some of their habits?

But whatever we feel now, he always had the same goal as us – the best for Arsenal.

So we sat around thinking about the man we all know so well but don’t know at all.

We thought about what life would be like without him and how we would cope with the change.

When relationships come to an end, it is rarely something done in love. But this was. It could be no other way.

We will watch him at another club and hope he succeeds. We will wish him happiness in everything he does, even if he is able to do things he could never do with us.

We’ll feel pangs of regret and ‘what if’ but, ultimately, we will watch him freed from the pressure and able to enjoy life once again and we will smile as we do the same

Thank you, Arsene.

Thank you.

X

Granit XHAKA

A midfielder under Arsene Wenger who was divisive, at best, has shown himself integral to Unai Emery’s engine room. It has been no surprise that Arsenal have struggled when he has been moved into the defence to cope with our injury crisis and the poor results suffered recently owe as much to Xhaka’s improved form in the middle as they do to our shortage at the back.

Y

Younger players

This year we saw a number of youngsters come to the fore while others continued to make in-roads with the first team.

Alex Iwobi’s profile, as a young, physically strong, home-grown ball carrier, is a good fit for both this squad and Unai Emery’s tactical preferences, but there are entirely reasonable questions about whether he can cut it at this level.

A very promising early season run in the team ran out of steam as Arsenal struggled for both a clear tactical identity and with injuries that have upset team balance. He seldom hides as a player and remains an intriguing prospect, but it’s hard to say Arsenal shouldn’t expect more from a regular player in his position. Long-term, his position as a squad member seems assured and the manager seems to like him, but he’s not ready to take ownership of a position at the club, and won’t be until both his decision making and positioning improve.

Ainsley Maitland-Niles’ athleticism is clearly appreciated by the manager, but following his fluke opening day injury, he has yet to line up in his best position. That said, his flexibility will undoubtedly get him more games than if he were reliant on unseating the Torreira-Xhaka axis.

Emile Smith Rowe’s rapid development continued until his recent minor injury, but for all his huge potential, he is still physically a fair way off Premier League ready. Uncertainty and injuries elsewhere may provide more opportunities for Joe Willock who has been impressive in cup cameos and has been on the bench in recent games (I wonder how Chris feels having left his brother at his boyhood club when he’s not got much of a look in at Benfica and Arsenal are desperate for wingers).

The other name worth a mention is, of course, Reiss Nelson, whose brilliant start at Hoffenheim has come back to earth. As a hybrid winger/creative inside-forward, he’s an Emery style player in a squad with precious little depth on the wing.

Another bright spot has undoubtedly been Matteo Guendouzi, the largely unheard of off-season punt. While nominally occupying the same position, his role remains far less defined than that of Torreira or Xhaka. He offers neither the ability to break up play of the former nor the game control of the latter, but at this stage is an intriguing multifunction midfielder with a fine passing range, good energy and strong competitive streak. He has clearly shown himself far more ready to contribute than could have been anticipated but has the potential to yet bring much more to the table in the future.

Z

ZOMBIES

The apocolyspe may not have arrived but there is no denying that Arsenal, at times, played like complete zombies this year.

Not only that, watching them resulted in the disorientating feeling that your brain was dribbling out of your ear.