Ruthless and reinforced, Arsenal’s transition finally steps into post-Arsene Wenger era

A summer steered by Raul Sanllehi and Unai Emery has brought about very real change on and off the pitch at the club

If the already wearying transition out of the Arsene Wenger era told us anything, it was that an emotional and erratic club can always overcompensate. In Unai Emery’s first campaign in charge, Arsenal’s hot-blooded fan base were treated to the extremes of an improbable 22-game undefeated streak and as derelict an end to any Premier League season when three successive defeats left them plummeting outside the top-four. There was a Europa League adventure that dipped its toes in and out of martial law, was as vulnerable as ever to sudden retrogressions, set alight in Spain and ultimately drowned against old foes in Azerbaijan.

So, ironically, after a season featuring all matter of change from boardroom to touchline level, the club found themselves in much the same position. They cantered through the summer transfer window in reliably Spaghetti Western fashion, plugging the least glaring hole with the unexpected club-record signing of Nicolas Pepe for £72m from Lille and completed the astute loan deal for Real Madrid midfielder Dani Ceballos to fill the void left by Aaron Ramsey. Meanwhile, the defence that conceded 18 more goals than Manchester City last season and is now without Laurent Koscielny was neglected until the final few hours before stealing David Luiz from Chelsea for a cut-price £8m and finally clawing a deal for Kieran Tierney over the line.

…But that’s just Arsenal really, isn’t it? That’s the “DNA”. Irresistible promise, forever renewed hope and a cold slap of Shkodran Mustafi to remind of the unavoidable flaws around every corner. Even so, this summer's transfer business, the first steered by Raul Sanllehi and his open address book of connections, has given Arsenal a platform heading into the new season that few imagined was possible.

Ivan Gazidis' clouded legacy is being overwritten away from the pitch and now success hangs in the hands of the manager. In his second season in charge, with a break clause in his contract at its end, the pressure on Emery is not just to achieve a top-four finish but to revive the vein of football that's worn a hangover ever since Arsenal left Highbury. The scrutiny over how the club's new signings are integrated, his endless tinkering of tactics, the ability to grind out results away from home and the frustration of far-flung Europa League visits will be ill-afforded the grace of his first transitional campaign and by no means guarantee his future.

That is the ruthlessness though that Arsenal are trying to reimplement. It began this summer before any major shifts were made in the transfer window when Freddie Ljungberg and Steve Bould reversed roles. The Swede quickly seen as having a far greater ability to manage the transition from U23s to the first-team, while Bould had effectively been sidelined by Emery’s coaching staff throughout the last season.

A stricter approach is being taken to the academy after fears Joe Willock and Eddie Nketiah stagnated during the second half of last season having failed to go on loan. Reiss Nelson has the stage but everything to prove after blowing hot-and-cold at Hoffenheim and incidences of ill-discipline, while this summer's willingness to cash in on Alex Iwobi and to a lesser extent Xavier Amaechi signals a cutting edge that was otherwise amiss. Emile Smith Rowe, the most highly viewed of the club’s prospects, will be sent on loan again this season but a potential swap deal with Dayot Upamecano was touted before RB Leipzig demanded the equivalent value of the player’s £83m release clause be met.

Like at any club, a change of approach has to be seeded at the foundations before spreading upwards. But the shift has also shown how Emery is far more than just the 'head coach' that many modern managers are now ascribed to be. It was his close relationship with Sanllehi which engineered the regrettable loan move for Denis Suarez last season and it was Emery again who pushed the club to sign Ceballos.

Unai Emery must clinch a top-four position this season (Getty)

The highly strung midfielder is gritty, technically gifted and in theory capable of making a quick adaption to the pace of Premier League football and provides a replacement for Ramsey that many assumed was unaffordable. Just like Luiz, it’s a problem solved only in the short-term, but where Emery's own future simply relies on results it's far from a blinded approach.

That's not to say that those above aren't creating a vision regardless of Emery's tenure though. The £25m signing of 22-year-old Tierney, no matter how protracted, comes in a window where the best young full-backs have been sold for at least double that fee. In William Saliba, Arsenal have signed the best young centre-back in Ligue 1 for £30m, even if that came at a cost of having to immediately loan him back to St Etienne. So even if the abrupt departure of Sven Mislintat last February caused commotion behind the scenes, there is already a reassuring view to the horizon under his replacement, Edu, that is healthy and prospering.

Arsenal have broken their transfer record to sign Nicolas Pepe (Getty) (Arsenal FC via Getty Images)

Still being in the early stages of this transformation, there are inevitably the Gazidis mishaps who can't yet be dislodged. An openness to moving on Shkodran Mustafi and Henrikh Mkhitaryan has thus far only seen dark in the night. Mohamed Elneny’s proposed move to West Ham never progressed while Mesut Ozil lives on as the decorative oxymoron in a team being reshaped around relentless work ethic. His haemorrhaging wages have become a burden virtually impossible to unshackle at this stage. But no transition is seamless, old cogs take time to unfasten and these were the stipulations Emery had envisioned and accepted before taking the helm a year ago.

Ironically, in the summer where fans rightly launched the #Wecaredoyou protest over a lack of internal impetus, the greatest wheels of change have kicked into motion. This season promises the same littering of moments as bumpy, thrilling and dispiriting as ever but there is no longer such a looming veil of apprehension and there is no reason nor excuse why Arsenal should not be able to hold their heads higher this May than the grizzled last.