Two years after Arsene Wenger’s final season with Arsenal, let’s take a look back at the manager’s final campaign, starting with August to October.

August 2017

Going into August, Arsenal fans were starting to feel a little more optimistic about the state of the club, especially compared to the start of the summer and odds were looking good with bong118 bong88 that they would have a good season.

Arsene Wenger had signed Alexandre Lacazette and Sead Kolašinac, two players in great form with their former clubs, playing positions where Arsenal needed reinforcements. Alexis Sanchez and Mesut Özil’s contract disputes were still ongoing, but neither had left just yet. The same was true for Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Jack Wilshere.

The only real negative in the transfer business by August was that the club let Wojciech Szczesny leave for Juventus. Many supporters wanted the Polish international to return after his strong loan spell with AS Roma. Wenger’s contract extension also divided fans over the break.

Community Shield

Onto the football, and thanks to Arsenal’s FA Cup final victory over Chelsea, they had a date at Wembley for the Community Shield with Chelsea – the defending Premier League champions. Much of pre-season so far had been about building fitness, but now there was some silverware on the line.

Wenger therefore picked the strongest team available to him. Nonetheless, key players like Mesut Özil, Alexis Sanchez and Aaron Ramsey were still out for various reasons. Lacazette started up front, a sign of things to come in the league, but the manager left Kolašinac out of the starting eleven.

It wasn’t long before the Bosnian had to enter the fray, however, replacing the injured Per Mertesacker. Lacazette went close to a goal, but Victor Moses gave Chelsea the lead right after half-time.

Arsenal pressed for an equaliser, and the referee sent off Pedro after a foul on Mohamed Elneny. From the resulting free-kick, Kolašinac turned home an equaliser, sparking celebrations in the red end of Wembley.

Reiss Nelson was introduced in the final minutes for his competitive debut, but it ended 1-1, and went to penalties. The FA decided to try out an ABBA penalty format in the fixture, meaning after Chelsea’s Gary Cahill had converted their first, Arsenal then took two in a row (which both players scored), before Chelsea took two of their own (which both players missed).

That left Wenger’s side with two penalties to go 4-1 up and win the match. Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Olivier Giroud both converted to do so. The players celebrated another win at Wembley, but those celebrations couldn’t last long. Arsenal had a Premier League match just days later.

Return of the league action

The eyes of the world were on Arsenal and Leicester City, and particularly on Alexandre Lacazette. The French striker had joined for a large fee in the same summer that Romelu Lukaku and Alvaro Morata signed for rival clubs, so the pressure was on Arsenal to prove they had picked the right player.

Fortunately, Lacazette only took a minute to open his Premier League account, but the lead didn’t last long. In less than half an hour, Leicester took the lead through Shinji Okazaki and Jamie Vardy. Danny Welbeck equalised before half-time, but Vardy scored again after the break for 3-2.

Arsenal threw on Aaron Ramsey, Olivier Giroud and Theo Walcott to try and claw the game back, and in the final 10 minutes it paid dividends, with Ramsey and Giroud scoring to complete a late comeback win.

It was a hard-fought victory, but the Gunners had plenty of tougher tests ahead, and unfortunately those didn’t go so well.

Stoke away has always proven a difficult place for Arsenal to go, and this time was no different. Jesé Rodríguez marked his debut appearance for the Potters with a goal, to give the home side the lead. After that the assistant referee incorrectly ruled out Lacazette’s equaliser.

It ended 1-0, and Arsenal could hardly complain, as they were wasteful in front of goal.

Then things got even worse.

Lacazette was dropped to the bench for Arsenal’s trip to Anfield, and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain was shoehorned into the team at the expense of Sead Kolašinac. He proceeded to put in an incredibly poor performance, along with pretty much everyone else in the side, as Liverpool ran riot, winning the match 4-0.

The less said about that match the better, as it was truly one of the worst team performances in recent years.

Final summer transfer business

After the Liverpool match, Oxlade-Chamberlain was promptly sold to Arsenal’s opponents, which made fans question why he’d been started in the first place.

Gabriel Paulista and Kieran Gibbs also left the club in August, for Valencia and West Brom respectively.

All summer, the media reported that Lucas Perez would complete a permanent transfer back to Deportivo La Coruna, but he ended up only moving on loan. Four other senior players followed suit, Carl Jenkinson (Birmingham City), Cohen Bramall (Birmingham City), Joel Campbell (Real Betis) and Emi Martinez (Getafe).

Many thought Alexis Sanchez would also complete a move, to Manchester City on deadline day. A deal almost went through, but Arsenal wanted to secure the signature of Thomas Lemar first. When they weren’t able to do so, both transfers fell apart, forcing the Chilean to stay.

September 2017

By September, Arsenal sat 16th in the table, with more league losses than wins and growing fan discontent.

With the transfer window closed, it was up to the team to put all the speculation and business (or lack thereof) behind them. First, Arsenal had to go back to the Emirates and try and forget the 4-0 defeat a couple of weeks earlier. Bournemouth visited the stadium on 9th September, and Wenger’s side couldn’t afford to make it one win from four in the league.

Alexis Sánchez wasn’t fit to start the match, so Danny Welbeck joined Alexandre Lacazette and Mesut Özil in the front three. The Arsenal fans were upset by the selection, as they were impatiently waiting for Alexis, Lacazette and Özil to play together for the first time.

Fortunately, Welbeck ended up putting in one of his best performances in an Arsenal shirt. He opened the scoring with a header in the sixth minute, before setting up Alexandre Lacazette for the Frenchman’s second goal in two games at the Emirates.

He then scored another clinical finish with his weaker foot to make it 3-0, and with that the game ended and Arsenal rose up the table to 11th.

Europa League

Then it was onto the Europa League for the first time. The Gunners had played in the UEFA Cup in the past, but never in the new rebranded version. Their first opponents were FC Köln at the Emirates.

Wenger ended up picking a mixed side, with some from the academy and others from the first team. Players like Maitland-Niles joined Héctor Bellerín, Nacho Monreal and Alexis Sánchez in the line up. Jack Wilshere made a return to the bench after coming back from loan and finally shaking off his injury.

The match didn’t kick-off when scheduled, due to some fan trouble. The away allocation had easily sold out, and fans from Cologne tried to find other ways to get tickets.

Buying from friends, turning up on the day and buying from touts, even setting up red memberships to purchase tickets on the Gunners’ website; 20,000 Köln fans turned up in London on the day hoping to attend the match.

Some supporters reportedly charged the gates, and the whole stadium went into lock-down. The match was postponed by an hour, and there were fears it could be cancelled entirely. In the end, thousands got into the home end, in addition to the thousands already in the away section, and UEFA let the game go ahead anyway.

Köln took the lead thanks to a looping long-range effort over stranded keeper David Ospina, but the Gunners fought back with goals from Sead Kolašinac, Alexis Sánchez and Héctor Bellerín to win 3-1. A bizarre day for those in attendance, but ultimately a successful one for Arsenal.

Back to domestic action

Later that week, it was back to the Premier League away to last-year’s champions Chelsea. Both Mesut Özil and Alexis Sanchez started on the bench for the match, meaning Danny Welbeck and Alex Iwobi had to take their place.

The pair really stepped up, and ended up being the stars of the show along with Aaron Ramsey. Ramsey hit the post with the best chance of the match, but both defences stood firm and it ended 0-0.

Alexis returned to the team the following Wednesday, in the League Cup. The club drew Doncaster Rovers at home, and rotated heavily. Jack Wilshere was the biggest beneficiary, finally playing 90 minutes for the first team.

Meanwhile, academy product Reiss Nelson made his first ever start at senior level. Reiss was with the u23s at the start of the season, and had six goals in five matches playing wide-forward.

It took Arsenal a while to get going, and it was only a fantastic long-ball from Alexis Sanchez that saw Theo Walcott through to score his first goal of the season. When Chambers came off at half-time, Joshua Dasilva made his senior debut, and Joe Willock replaced Reiss Nelson late on for his. It ended 1-0.

Next up in the league was West Bromwich Albion. Lacazette scored twice to become the only player in the Premier League era to score in each of their first three home appearances for Arsenal.

At the back, Mustafi almost gave away a penalty when he brought down Jay Rodriguez in the box. Arsenal also had another lucky escape when Nacho Monreal cleared a shot off the line at 1-0. Clearly there were defensive concerns for the side, despite the eventual clean sheet.

Arsenal won the match 2-0, and made it four wins from five in all competitions for September.

First Europa League away trip

To round out the month there was a trip to Belarus back in the Europa League, as the team faced BATE Borisov away from home.

Wenger made a couple of changes to the eleven that had faced Doncaster. Alexis Sanchez didn’t travel with the side, and Jack Wilshere moved further up the pitch to take his place. Joe Willock was brought into central midfield for his first senior start, and Shkodran Mustafi replaced the still-injured Calum Chambers at centre-back.

On the bench, Arsène decided not to bring any senior players. Matt Macey joined Josh Dasilva, Chuba Akpom and Eddie Nketiah.

More surprising still, Marcus McGuane, Charlie Gilmour and Vlad Dragomir, who had all played on the Monday with the u23s, also made the trip to Belarus. Charlie Gilmour had appeared for his u23 debut that week, so he’d travelled from the u18s to the first-team in the space of a few days.

This match was more about one of the older Arsenal academy products, Jack Wilshere.  Borisov couldn’t live with him, and after nine minutes he assisted Theo Walcott for 1-0. Walcott doubled the Gunners’ advantage 22 minutes in, before Rob Holding made it 3-0 three minutes later, turning in from a corner.

Arsenal then conceded one, but early in the second half Olivier Giroud made sure of the win from the penalty spot. It was the 100th goal for Arsenal that Giroud had been waiting for.

Borisov then pulled another one back, but with 10 minutes to go and the scoreline still at 4-2, the game was clearly over. Wenger took the opportunity to introduce more players for their Arsenal debuts. First Marcus McGuane, then Eddie Nketiah got their first ever senior minutes. More on those two later.

October 2017

October saw Arsenal try to build on their positive results from September. It was the first month they were involved in all three competitions: the Premier League, Europa League and Carabao Cup, which gave Arsene Wenger an opportunity to stretch the squad slightly and see what our fringe players could do.

As well as building on positive results, they got a chance to build up fan moral, which had been at an all-time low since the beginning of the campaign. Apart from a blip at the beginning when they lost away to Watford, the foundations were in place for the Gunners to continue to improve during a difficult November.

Arsenal kicked off October with a clash against Brighton and Hove Albion on the first day of the month.

Laurent Koscielny missed the home game after his persistent Achilles problem flared up but fortunately they had Nacho Monreal, a.k.a. Mr. Reliable, at the back. Not only was the Spaniard one of Arsenal best players all over the pitch, he scored the Gunners’ first goal in the 16th minute. A brilliant shot from the edge of the area.

Alex Iwobi, left unmarked in the area, netted a stunning second – his first of the season – and helped Arsenal to their 2-0 win. In turn, Wenger’s men rose to fifth in the Premier League.

The Gunners had a total of 25 shots, 11 of which were on target, and Alexis Sanchez was named Man of the Match.

Fans were tentatively positive but not willing to get their hopes up after the crushing despair of August. September was a start but we all knew that somewhere the team really had to kick things up a notch and October was the time to do it.

‘Cojones’

Unfortunately, this positive feeling wouldn’t exactly last for long.

On October 14, after the interlull which saw us lose Shkodran Mustafi to a hamstring injury, the club trudged up the road to Watford for a chilly 5:30pm kick-off.

It all started so well. Per Mertesacker found the back of the net with a mighty header just before half-time and celebrated like a mad man. However, after going 1-0 ahead, Arsenal did what they so often do. They took their foot off the gas. They suddenly became sloppy, misplacing passes and stars who were meant to be game-changers disappeared.

All it took was penalty – a blatant dive from Richarlison fired home by Troy Deeney, who had only been on the pitch eight minutes – to put the ball firmly in the Hornets’ court as they continued to confidently press Arsenal back.

Sure enough, despite waking up towards the end, Tom Cleverly slotted home a loose ball in the final minute, giving Watford the lead.

Arsenal were back down to sixth in the Premier League table and fans were once again left embarrassed and disappointed.

Arsenal’s lacklustre display was put on blast by penalty-scorer Deeney post-match when the striker accused Wenger’s team of not having any ‘cajones’.

The ballsy comments were applauded by pundits at first who argued that surely we want players to be honest, while others later pointed out that it was more than a tad unprofessional.

More Europa League action

Five days later, with Deeney’s comments fresh in everyone’s minds, Arsenal traveled to Rajko Mitic Stadium in Serbia to face Red Star Belgrade.

The atmosphere was oppressive and I imagine it was incredibly intimidating for the young starting XI Wenger fielded. However, they didn’t show it.

Like most of Arsenal’s Europa League matches, their away clash against Red Star wasn’t in the least bit exciting. In fact, it was a bit boring. However, Jack Wilshere made his second start in the competition and looked sharp, just as he did against BATE Borisov.

Just as it looked as if the Gunners were never going to find the back of the net, Giroud broke the deadlock in the 85th minute.

Some fantastic Wenger-ball build-up play from Theo Walcott, Wilshere and Giroud himself allowed the Frenchman to pull off a stunning overhead kick into the top corner of the net.

Three points away from home in a hostile atmosphere, despite the display itself being a bit of a snooze-fest, was a brilliant result and kept Wenger’s men at the top of their group table.

Looking back, this was a huge win and one the fans should probably have appreciated more. Despite drawing at home to the Serbian side and losing away to FC Cologne in November, they still managed to earn automatic qualification to the next round and finish top of the group.

If they hadn’t got that three points, the job would have been considerably harder down the line.

Away success at last!

Fortunately, after the Watford loss, Arsenal’s league form picked up considerably with a 5-2 win against Everton at Goodison Park on 22 October.

Ronald Koeman’s head was on the chopping block and there was a distinct feeling that if he lost against Wenger’s men, he was gone.

There was a feeling of unease from Arsenal’s point of view as well. The 2-1 defeat away to the Toffees last term seemed to be the banana skin, which caused us to spiral downwards and out of the top four.

However, despite Wayne Rooney putting his side 1-0 ahead within 12 minutes with his 15th career goal against the Gunners, Nacho Monreal brought the score level before half-time and after that there was no going back.

Idrissa Gueye was shown a second yellow card in the 68th minute after a heavy challenge on Granit Xhaka. And with Everton down to 10 men, the floodgates opened.

Ozil, Lacazette, Ramsey and Alexis all found the back of the net and despite Oumar Niasse scoring in the 93rd minute, Wenger’ men had well and truly chewed out the Toffees with 30 shots – 14 of which were on target.

It was a fantastic feeling from a fan’s perspective because the team were yet to pick up three points on the road in the Premier League and it felt like a good foundation to build upon. There were still some poor moments against Everton and they had to be improved upon but it was a start. Arsenal were fifth in the table and we’d actually managed a convincing victory away from the fortress that the Emirates had become.

The next day, Ronald Koeman was sacked as Everton manager after winning just two of their nine league games. It was a shame because I don’t think many Gooners dislike the Toffees or Koeman, so it didn’t really feel good to be the nail in the 54-year-old’s coffin.

It also demonstrated the footballing mortality of most managers compared to Arsene Wenger. Although Everton were admittedly doing appallingly, Koeman had proven in the past that he was capable of turning things around. He came in during the 2016/17 season and helped the Toffees finish seventh.

It reminded us how the owners of football clubs have become cut-throat. With the money at stake nowadays perhaps you can understand why.

League Cup action

On 24 October, Arsenal took part in their second League Cup match. Predictably, much like the Europa League clashes, Wenger fielded a young side with some experience thrown in.

Frustratingly, however, also like the Europa League, it was a snooze-fest until the final 10 minutes.

The Canaries went 1-0 ahead through Josh Murphy in the 34th minute after the 22-year-old was played through. Matt Macey came racing out of the goal a bit too early, allowing the midfielder to slot the ball home and give the traveling fans something to cheer about. It had been coming and, to be honest, the visitors could have killed the came off in the first half.

After the break, the Young Guns offered very little and the home crowd was getting tetchy. Not necessarily at the result but at the lackluster performance these men who were supposed to be fighting for spots in the first team were putting in.

Although the team had a bunch of reserves out there, including Reiss Nelson, they also had a fair amount of experience.

Olivier Giroud, Mohamed Elneny and Mathieu Debuchy were all in the starting line-up and while they might not care about the Carabao Cup, you should at least be able to count on them to put in a professional performance against lower league opposition.

In the 85th minute, Wenger brought on a young striker by the name of Eddie Nketiah. We’d not seen him feature for the first team yet and although several Gooners were excited to see the teenager take the stage, not many genuinely thought he would make a huge impact on a match Arsenal looked more or less dead-set on losing.

In fact, most of us were already squinting to see the silver lining: fewer fixtures, I guess! Mickey Mouse Cup!

With his first touch of the match from a corner, Eddie scored the equaliser from close-range and the Emirates erupted.

The youngster’s late goal forced the Carabao Cup clash to extra time. Eddie had completely flipped the game on its head and his instinctive goal had given the Gunners something to play for. It was as if he’d jogged onto the pitch and given them all a shot of caffeine. Now, Arsenal were finally attacking and the momentum was with the home team.

11 more minutes was all it took for Eddie to net a second and despite Norwich giving it a good go, their tired legs combined with the energy they’d spent in the first half prevented them from bringing the scoreline to 2-2 before the end of extra time. Although, controversially, they had a penalty shout waved away.

It was a lucky escape and disappointing that Wenger had to bring on a teenager to save the day against a lower league side. However, the match was won, Arsenal were through to the next round, where they would face West Ham, and the fans were on a high.

Eddie went into the record books as the first player to score for us who was born after Arsene Wenger took over as manager and the next day, his name was the one on everybody’s lips.

Back in the Premier League

Arsenal rounded off October with another Premier League win at the Emirates. This time, against Swansea City, who they don’t have the most impressive record against.

Just as they had done against Everton and Norwich, they went a goal behind in the first half. It was Sam Clucas in the 22nd minute for the Swans.

However, at the beginning of the second half, Sead Kolasinac and Aaron Ramsey both found the back of the net. The pair linked up beautifully, with Sead assisting Rambo’s goal and eventually winning Man of the Match.

The game ended 2-1 and although it wasn’t easy, Arsenal deserved the three points at the final whistle.

October ended with a feeling of cautious optimism among the fans. The team had shown they could string some decent results together and find the back of the net. However, it was a concern that they often had to go 1-0 behind in order to do so.

They’d also shown how vulnerable they were against Watford and the B-team weren’t looking entirely convincing. However, it hadn’t been a disaster and the atmosphere wasn’t half as toxic as it had been two months prior.

A difficult November was around the corner with Manchester City, a North London Derby, Burnley and Huddersfield all to face in the Premier League, as well as two more Europa League group stages matches against Red Star and FC Cologne. It wasn’t going to be easy but the ingredients were there.

Check back tomorrow for Wenger’s final season: 2017/18 review – November to January