Anyone reading comments from Arsenal fans on social media or listening to the pundits on TV could not have missed all the criticism aimed at Unai Emery and some of his players, especially when we lost three games on the bounce recently.
But all the criticism has not deterred Emery from declaring his happiness at the progress the team has made in his first season in charge.
Specifically asked if he was happy with the team’s progress this season Emery said.
“Yes I am. Our progress I think – when we started the season we lost against Man City and Chelsea and we worked for this process, little by little and at the end of the season now we are with this possibility”
“I think when we started we would have been happy to have today these two opportunities in the Premier League and Europa League to reach our target”
I make him right to a certain extent, the problem is that we would have already qualified for the Champions League if we would have won those three winnable games against Crystal Palace, Wolves and Leicester City.
And it is from that standpoint that the criticism has grown. Emery is right when he states at the beginning of the season we would have been happy with where we are today but that was from a position of finishing sixth last season with just 63 points but once we went on our winning run and put ourselves into third position the ambitions of the fans changed and rightfully so.
So in conclusion, Emery is right and he is wrong, he is right based on expectations at the beginning of the season but wrong based on expectations when we were sitting third with Champions League qualification firmly in our own hands.