Last summer, Arsenal underwent a major change. Arsene Wenger departed the club after having been in charge of the team for 22 years. Wenger bowed out as an English Premier League managerial legend after having led the Gunners to three top-flight titles. This included the historical 2003-04 title, whereby the Gunners won the League without having lost a game. To date, they remain the only side which has achieved such a fate.
Following Wenger’s decision to step down, he was replaced by former PSG and Sevilla boss Unai Emery. When the 46-year-old was appointed as Gunner’s manager, many were skeptical, as he had failed to transform former club PSG into Champions League contenders, despite having had a massive transfer budget to work with.
However, in his defence, he did lead Sevilla to three successive Europa League titles and also achieved Ligue 1 success last season with PSG.
For PSG, winning the French top-flight is considered a mere formality. The club opted to let go off Emery as he had failed on his mandate to make them Champions League contenders.
The Gunners have so far showed promising signs since the arrival of Emery and are playing a much better brand of football than they did during the last two years of Wenger’s reign.
After several games played in the League so far this season, they have won 5 and are currently on a five-match winning streak. The two defeats came against Manchester City and Chelsea and can be excused. The Gunners are a side which is in transition and as such, they cannot be realistically expected to win the League this season. A top-four finish would be a major achievement.
They can also aim to win the Europa League this season to provide them with some much needed confidence ahead of the future.
The Gunners 2-0 win against Watford last weekend was particularly impressive. The Hornets are not an easy side to break down and they did succeeded in terms of restricting Emery’s attack to few opportunities.
They managed to take advantage of them and recorded the three points. Another big area which has shown improvement at Arsenal this season is the defence and set-piece defending. During the game against Watford, the Hornets tried to utilize Troy Deeney and Andre Gray to take advantage of set-piece opportunities but the Gunners defence did well to thwart their threat.
Next up for Arsenal is a game against Fulham on Sunday, this is a must watch event, as Arsenal can aim to record their sixth successive victory during this match. The Cottagers have not started the League in ideal fashion, having won just one out of their several games played thus far. You can watch soccer live, starting with Arsenal-Fulham, on Ronaldo7.
They are also coming off a 3-0 thrashing at the hands of Everton last weekend, while the Gunners will be entering the game on the back of a win, so it is Emery’s charges who will have the upper hand in terms of confidence.
However, if one thing is certain, it is that you cannot ever underestimate any of the sides which play in the EPL. Fulham will be playing at home and will naturally fancy their chances of gaining something from the game.
