Originally Posted by WES
analysis of how we stand relative to last year.
League standing
2018 - 6th
2019 - 5th
Total Points
2018 - 63
2019 - 70
Points behind Champions
2018 - 37
2019 - 28
Points behind 4th place
2018 - 12
2019 - 1
Goals for
2018 - 74
2019 - 73
Goals against
2018 - 51
2019 - 51
So a marginal improvement with the annual decline we were seeing under Wenger clearly arrested. Put in the context that it was Emery's first season where he had to - mostly - use Wenger's players, and he was implementing a new system and this strikes me as a very credibly first season return. Consider further that we we re doing much better than this when we were hit with long term defensive injuries which exposed the lack of depth in the squad and it looks even better, I think.
And now we have a European final with a chance to win our first European trophy in 25 years and a return to the Champions League. A couple of defenders and an attacking player and we should be in a good position to press on further next year.
All terribly exciting to see how Unai does, one way or the other.
To be honest, your stats suggest that very little has changed.
Have we improved? Total points suggest a little. Goals scored and conceded suggest not really.
Regardless of whether you are a Wenger in or Wenger out man, the consensus was that we came into the season with a leaky defence. Emery should have patched the leaks a little and made us harder to beat. He hasn't been able to change a thing in that respect. You can blame the players individually, you can blame the team spirit, you can blame the lack of funds etc etc. A decent manager should have been able to make at least a marginal improvement with these players. At the very least, fewer goals conceded. Chelsea and Spurs conceded 39 goals each.
The only thing Wenger leaving last summer was going to tell us was whether the issues at the club were caused by him or the lack of attention/interest/competence of the board. One year on, it seems that we are still trying to figure this out. This summer we should find out a little more.
Looking at the wider picture..... Was Emery our first choice or was he the only person that accepted the job with possible financial (or otherwise) restrictions imposed by the owner/board? Were there any restrictions (we can probably work that out based on prize, sponsorship, tv, gate money and spending of other clubs) or was the money available not spent wisely? Were there other candidates and we they offered the post. If we were under-performing, why wouldn't a top manager see some easy objectives? Did they turn us down and why? What about behind the scenes, Gazidis, Sven etc. How much influenced that have?
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