Arsenal away from the Champions League for four seasons, after the Wenger era to return to the Champions League has always been the team's annual goal, this season manager Arteta to the youth team to restart, the season resolutely abandoned the captain Aubameyang, a big gamble, in fact, is a win, to the end, the Champions League qualification is still slipping in their own hands, not the end of the world, only shows that arsenal still has a major weakness to overcome.
Wenger has coached Arsenal for 22 seasons since 1996, winning three Premier League titles and seven FA Cup titles, finishing runner-up in the 2006 Champions League final against Barcelona. He successfully transformed the Gunners and made a smooth transition from Highbury to Emirates Stadium. But the last time the Premier League won was in 2004, when it was unbeaten in the whole season.
"Professor" left in the summer of 2018, taking over Emery's fifth place in the Premier League in the first season, reaching the final of the Europa League to Chelsea, and was dismissed in the middle of the following season, in December 2019 by former captain Arteta. That season, Arsenal fell to eighth place in the league, a new low since the 1994/95 season. The team has been weak for a long time, and last season Arteta led the team to take eighth again. At the beginning of this season, after three consecutive defeats, it has fallen to the bottom of the list, thinking that another season will repeat the same mistakes, and after several trials, it has simply cut down and retrained with young players as the backbone, but the willow is gradually seeing the dawn. Abandoning main scorer Aubameyang in mid-season became a turning point in the season.
Deprecating aubameyang's pros and cons
Aubameyang has been the arsenal's main scorer since January 2018, bringing a steady stream of goals every season and being appointed captain. In September 2020, he renewed his contract with the team for three years, and his form immediately slipped badly, scoring a lot of goals, scoring only 10 goals in 29 Premier League appearances, which is a big setback in his level. Obameryang's performance continued to be sluggish this season, until a disciplinary incident last December, when Arteta did not hesitate to "refrigerate" him.
Aubameyang reportedly asked the team to visit France due to his mother's illness. Arsenal approved the trip, only asking him to return to London that night to attend training the following morning. Aubameyang's failure to return to the team within the time set by the team, coupled with local COVID-19 restrictions, caused him to miss training, which made the Arsenal coaching staff very angry. This is not the first time Aubameyang has violated the ban, and he has repeatedly failed to discipline before, the most serious of which was the failure to report to the team within the time specified before the game. Repeatedly, Arteta stripped him of his captainship and expelled him from the squad.
At that time, Aubameyang was about to play with Gabon in the African Cup of Nations, and he thought that after his return, Arteta would be fine. The team followed suit on the cold bench and was sent to Barcelona for free in the winter transfer window in February this year.
The vitality returned, but it lost points on the middle and lower teams
An efficient shooter who played for the team 163 times and scored 92 goals, is also a big guy in the dressing room, the team's number one star, and ended up in such a messy end, people were caught off guard. Arsenal did not pause, without Aubameyang, Arteta reused the front four youngsters Bukayo Saka, Smith Rowe, Gabriel Martinelli and Nketia to return to the top four in the Premier League with 7-6 wins between February and March. A dynamic and energetic squad is enough to make up for the loss of Aubameyang.
The squad of youngsters has always been less stable in the game, unexpectedly losing three consecutive defeats at Crystal Palace, Brighton and Southampton. Even against Manchester United, West Ham United and Leeds United, North London Derby was swallowed up by Tottenham Hotspur, followed by Newcastle United's three points, and the four-point advantage once had in the 35th round was wiped out, and Spurs also reversed the first two points. The Champions League qualification for the next season, which once seemed to be coming soon, was given to the old enemy.
It is not wrong to speed up the blood exchange, do not fall into the misunderstanding of thinking
Former Aston Villa star Gabriel Abonlajo has criticized Arteta for letting Aubameyang off the squad was a mistake, "If Arsenal fail to finish in the top four, I think the problem is that Arteta mistakenly let Aubameyang go. He had expected a month ago that the young players in Arsenal's squad would not score at the crucial moment, and Nicolas Pepe on the bench was not strong enough to help his teammates, "I think Arsenal will regret it. After Arsenal lost 2-0 to Newcastle United, the British Daily Mail wrote an article criticizing Arsenal for becoming a "toothless tiger" after letting Aubameyang go. Seeing Aubameyang in Barcelona, scoring 11 goals in 16 La Liga games, is an easy inference, but it doesn't mean it's correct.
Aubameyang has played in the Premier League 14 times this season and has scored just four goals. His performances on and off the pitch were similar to those in dortmund's last season. Even if he keeps people, his heart is long gone, and he is 32 years old, and it is time for the team to prepare for succession. After he left the team, a group of young people were obviously more united and marched towards the goal, and the overall progress of the team was obvious. Although the performance was not stable enough, especially for the Newcastle United battle, it was really not good, and it was also an important learning process. Another master will be Alexander Lacazette at the end of the season, with rumors that Arsenal will sign Manchester City striker Jesus next season and interested in Everton striker Lewin, both of whom are young pawnbrokers, with Bukayo Saka, Smith Rowe, Gabriel Martinelli and Martin Erdegaard in the mid-line, which is envisioned.
The high-priced "parallel goods" Nicholas Pepe have become a burden on the team, and the introduction of Fuan Jianyang, Ramsdale, Ben White, and Martin Erdegaard, who officially bought out from Real Madrid, has all performed well this season. Arteta's squad is rarely in the wrong place, and if this summer is once again savvy to spend to strengthen their strength, the process of attacking Champions League qualification in the coming season may be a little easier.
It is not wrong to abandon Aubameyang in the middle of the season, early blood changes allow the youngsters to gain more practical experience as soon as possible, the team is in a period of reorganization, if you can win the Champions League is the "icing on the cake", as some Arsenal fans said, playing a year europa League first to open the eyes of young players, not a bad thing.
According to "The Athletic" statistics, Arsenal is the lowest average age of the 20 teams in the Premier League this season, only 25.2 years old, and second Brentford, a full year away. Between the youngster and the star, there is a high wall that is difficult to cross. Arsenal's first class of young people must face and overcome, how to maintain a good performance every week, to maintain a high morale in the face of weak teams to grab points, is arteta and the players must complete before the next season.