CAN UNAI EMERY FINALLY FIX THE ARSENAL DEFENCE?

Arsenal’s defence has been a particularly durable fly in the Emirates ointment over the last decade.

It’s an issue Unai Emery inherited from Arsene Wenger, and expecting the incoming Spaniard to turn the Gunners into a miserly defensive unit in his first season would have been unreasonable. But there was no real sign of improvement either.

As the season wore on, Emery realised he needed to field three centre-halves out of necessity. Laurent Koscielny will turn 34 in September and his Achilles tendon is shot. He remains Arsenal’s best defender, his refusal to travel to the US all the more problematic.

Sokratis Papastathopoulos has proved a decent, but not transformative addition. Nacho Monreal is 33 and showing signs of ageing.

Shkodran Mustafi, meanwhile, has earned himself a reputation as the Wile E. Coyote of the Gunners’ rearguard. His tendency to accidentally run off a cliff edge or stand underneath a falling anvil has cost the Londoners on too many occasions. The decreasing athleticism of Koscielny and Monreal, awkwardly augmented by Mustafi’s clumsiness, meant Emery required extra protection in defence.

If the backline lacks basic athleticism and, in some cases, basic common sense, sitting Granit Xhaka just in front of them does little to solve either problem. Arsenal need to upgrade on the personnel available to them in defensive areas, but they also need to upgrade their athletic profile so players can recover into space. The absence of Juventus-bound Aaron Ramsey in midfield exacerbates this issue, as does the presence of Mesut Ozil.

Lucas Torreira was a good start in this respect, but he tired significantly in the second half of the season. Frankly speaking, Arsenal need better, younger, more elastic players in defensive positions. In attack, the Gunners remain unbalanced, but at least they are talented (to varying degrees). In Alexandre Lacazette and Pierre-emerick Aubameyang, they’ve got a pair of strikers capable of propelling a misfiring team.

If Ozil can play to even 50 per cent of his ability, then he remains a potential match-winner, even if the Arsenal and Ozil love story has reached ‘acrimonious divorce’ territory. The team doesn’t have this sort of talent in defensive areas to cover their sins. They have conceded 51 goals in each of the previous two league seasons, and that number has to trend downwards as a matter of urgency.