Season Preview: Can Arsenal bounce back to earn Champions League return?

Previous season 

After a disappointing campaign that saw Arsenal fail to end the season in the top-4 for the first time in 20 years, manager Arsene Wenger will be keen to land a Champions League finish. Sunday’s Community Shield win over Chelsea certainly raised expectations, but they’ll need to up the ante to defeat Leicester on Friday evening. Arsenal ended the season strongly following a change to a three-man defence in mid-April and they can be expected to use a similar setup for the coming campaign.  

The Gunners have won only one of their last seven league matches on the opening weekend of the season, however, so they must hit the ground running in Friday’s welcome of the Foxes. Victory would set them up nicely for what could be a hugely important season. 

Transfer summary 

Retaining the services of Alexis Sanchez, Mesut Ozil and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain will now be of the utmost importance for Arsene Wenger this window. Only Ozil has given any indication that he is prepared to pen a new deal at the Emirates Stadium, though the other two have been linked with a move away this summer. The arrivals of Alexandre Lacazette and Sead Kolasinac are two fine captures for Arsenal and if they can keep the aforementioned trio, and add long-term target Thomas Lemar to the ranks, they’ll have had a very good window indeed. 

One to watch – Granit Xhaka 

Granit Xhaka came in for criticism for an underwhelming start to life in England following his big money arrival from Gladbach, but ended the season strongly once Wenger switched to a 3-4-2-1 formation in April. He earned the WhoScored man of the match award in Sunday’s Community Shield encounter having provided the assist for Kolasinac’s header in the latter stages of the fixture. The 24-year-old should now start to repay the faith shown in him on the back of his move to the Emirates 12 months ago. 

Predicted finish – 6th 

They’ve made some good signings, but keeping Alexis will prove crucial for Arsenal this summer. Manchester City and PSG are sniffing around the Chilean and his future could provide an unnecessary distraction for the Gunners in the opening weeks of the season. A second successive finish outside of the top four is not out of the equation.