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.