The best and worst of Arsenal’s 2018/2019 season

With all but the Europa League Cup final left to be played, its time for a retrospective look back at the year that was. From Unai Emery’s first season in charge to the limp ending to the domestic season we polled our writing staff and asked them to give us their best and worst moments of Arsenal’s 2018/2019 season.

Drew Thompson (@FMLehrer)

Best Moment:

Making the Europa League final. If you were to ask any Arsenal fan if they would accept fifth place and an appearance in a European cup final in Unai Emery’s first season, they would have bitten your hand off. We have had our issues this season, and there are indeed questions about if we have progressed on the pitch. What is clear, is that we have bettered last season in terms of continental performance. As we look up at most of our rivals once more, it may all be worth it if we lift a major piece of silverware in Baku later this month.

Worst Moment:

Ramsey’s contract being rescinded. Yes, it’s going to suck if that lot down the road win the Champions League. It is going to suck a lot, but unfortunately, it is out of our control. What was under our control was the future of Aaron Ramsey. With so many questions surrounding so many players in the first-team, one of the only players who did not give us a moment of pause was him. Loyal to the point of a fault, completely committed to the club, a player who felt at home. One of us. We must now figure out how to not only replace a player who was unquestionably our best midfielder, but a player who genuinely deserved the armband more than anyone.

Michael Price (@YouAreMyArsenal)

Best Moment:

2 December 2018, was a particularly good day for Arsenal and for Unai Emery. After seeing Tottenham take a 2-1 half time lead, it seemed that everything Emery did to adjust in the second half. Seemed right, the subs worked the tactical adjustments worked and Arsenal would go on to win 4-2 with as dominant a half of football we’d seen in quite some time. It gave me real hope that Emery, a coach, I admittedly wasn’t a fan of getting the job, would be able to bring about the substantial change – on the pitch – this team needed. It also had me hoping that all my preconceived notions about him were wrong. However, that was the last bit of good we’d see for a while as things turned decidedly pear-shaped the following week and went on for some time. Still, it was a good win and all of our players looked good on the day and well . . . it was Tottenham.

Worst Moment:

Pick any match in the wake of beating Manchester United 2-0 at the Emirates. The whole run-in to close the season was one of most poorly managed runs we’ve seen at Arsenal. Nothing worked. The set ups weren’t effective, the players were equally ineffective and the coach didn’t seem to have it in him to understand how to beat lesser teams on the road – especially in reverse ties. If I’ve been disappointed in Emery in anything its the fact that as a coach who came with a supposed tactical pedigree, his preparation for reverse ties seemed lacking. For all the talk of preparation, Arsenal closed out the league looking quite unprepared. It’s a damning indictment and something that will need rectifying by the time next season gets started.

Josh O’Brien (@JoshJohnOBrien1)

Best Moment:
If we have had anything to shout about this season, it’s our form against the top six. Wins at home against Chelsea, Manchester United and of course Tottenham. The latter being the pick of the bunch, with 90 minutes that contained just about everything Hollywood script writers would want from a game. Fights, red cards, penalties and goals galore, in a season full of highs and lows – few moments have produced sheer ecstasy like watching Lacazette’s deflected effort trickle beyond Lloris courtesy of Eric Dier’s shin. Our number nine’s veins-showing, eyes bulging celebration followed by Lichsteiner’s comical stumble en route to join in on the celebrations proved to be one of the more iconic images of our season.

Worst Moment:
There were a few nominations for this title, honourable mentions must go to the four-day period in which we shipped six goals to Wolves and Leicester respectively. But the rather humiliating 3-2 home defeat to Crystal Palace has to take the credit for the lowest point of the campaign. After equalising via a trademark Ozil bounce finish, we were then behind soon after thanks to a trademark Mustafi error, but no one on the day could have come off the pitch with their head held high. Though at the full time whistle there was still plenty to play for in terms of Champions League qualification, this felt like the day our top four hopes died.

Lorihanna Shushkova (@LorihannaSh)

Best moment:
If we talk about a concrete moment I would join Michael and say the 4-2 win over Tottenham. Everything in this game was magical. We hadn’t experienced so strong and positive emotion in a long time, although this game taught us there are yet a lot of issues in our performance. But what I think is more important is the overall mental improvement – that’s my best moment. The whole team is in a better place when it comes to mindset. The players seem to be friends and have fun on the pitch which in my opinion is Emery’s best achievement so far.

Worst moment:
Repeating the same mistakes. As a performance analyst, I have noticed some negative patterns early on in the season and nothing has changed in order to fix these issues. I would say the 1-3 defeat against Wolves really got me. Not that Wolves didn’t deserve it, but the worst moment was to see that they use the exact same strategy as in November (and actually most of their season) and Emery and the team couldn’t react properly and outplay them. These little details turn out to be so crucial.

Luke Millar (@Skywlkrr_)

Best moment:

It’s hard to overlook games like the aforementioned 4-2 win over Spurs where Lucas Torreira really announced himself to the fans, the 2-0 win over Chelsea that Auba and Laca showed so much fight and desire for the team or even the 4-2 second leg win over Valencia that has so importantly sent us to the Europa League final and given us a real chance of a successful season but my best moment of the season for instant impact at the time of the game was the 2-0 home win over Manchester United – this is my best moment because even though it wasn’t to be at the end that was the game that I felt was the major decider for the top four and after a great performance but frustrating draw vs Spurs I really felt that if he could beat United in that game we’d have gotten top four.

Worst moment: 

I think the worst has to be the 3-0 away loss vs Leicester. We had just lost to Crystal Palace and Wolves in pretty spineless showings and it was this game that was the moment that it really hit me that not only did we not deserve top four but that it has all bit slipped away from us. When Maitland-Niles received this second yellow card in the first half I barely even reacted, it was just all too predictable. We then preceded to be outplayed for the entirety of the 90 minutes. I think our form had led me to a place where it was easier just to accept and get on with it than to get angry. Although I saw End Game and bought a massive pretzel later on so it wasn’t the worst day ever.

Nate Smith (@nws13)

Best Moment:

Wins against Chelsea and Manchester United have to be high on the list, but nothing can quite top the comeback 4-2 victory at the Emirates over Tottenham. Heading into the half down 2-1, the fans had not yet lost faith despite some trademark lapses of concentration in the first 45 minutes that allowed Spurs to gain the early advantage. “Second half FC” had only just seen its 22 match unbeaten run ended, and the crowd was full of belief as the teams returned to the pitch. What followed was one of the most passionate performances we have ever seen from this group of players, and by the final whistle, there was genuine belief in the fanbase once again.

Worst Moment:

December had started on such a high with the win over Spurs, but by the middle of the month, that optimism took a major blow with a 3-2 loss to Southampton. While there were uglier losses still to come, we may just look back on this match as the moment where the honeymoon period of Unai Emery’s tenure at the club officially ended. With defensive mistakes,  an impotent attack and dropped points against a team that should have been easily handled, it represented a clear look ahead to the struggles of the second half of the season. There would still be positive results to come following that match, but there would be no recovery of the feel-good factor and unified belief that fans and players had carried through the beginning of December.