The first year after Arsène Wenger it seemed to be especially tough for Arsenal, as it has been during the last decade under the French manager, apart from the trophies collected at the FA Cup. On the contrary, the season has started much better than many of the supporters might have predicted during the summer.

Firstly, Arsenal didn't sign any player to raise up considerably the expectations of their fans, such as happened in 2013 and 2014, when Ozil and then Alexis Sánchez were the stars who supposed to give the Londoners the necessary spark to compete again for the biggest competitions.

However, in recent years, Arsenal have only looked capable of fighting for the Premier League during a short period in 2016, when eventually Leicester surprised everybody to get accomplish the feat. Nowadays, the heir of Arsène Wenger is building up a stronger team than in previous seasons.

Unai Emery to revive Arsenal

After the two first defeats of the season, the Londoners have won the next eight games played, and they are standing on the fifth position in the Premier League and with the same amount of points than Tottenham Hotspur.

Although the squad looks weaker than other powerful forces in England, such as Manchester City, Chelsea or Liverpool, Unai Emery is giving more consistency to a team who had suffered many failures since they started to sell irreplaceable players such as Vieira, Henry or Ashley Cole.

And despite that is just the beginning of the season, the pair formed by Aubameyang and Lacazzete is looking sharper than ever before, Ozil is recovering after a horrendous World Cup, and Leno appears to be consolidating as the future goalkeeper of the team.

The alternative route to the Champions League

Even though Arsenal look capable of competing for finishing among the top four in the Premier League, it seems interesting which will be their situation in the last months of the season.

Indeed, last year they were to play in the semifinals of the Europa League at the same time that their hopes to reach the fourth position in the domestic league were fading down. In doing so, they clearly prioritized the double game against Atletico Madrid, and perhaps they did their best performance of the season in the first leg.

Unfortunately for the Gunners, the goal scored lately by Griezmann was decisive, and Arsène Wenger finished his long journey trophyless in his last season. Nowadays and with a coach who has won three times the Europa League, they might end their adventure filled with happiness.