About a year ago, this summer, Gunners fans worldwide were shaken by the retirement of long-serving Arsene Wenger. Prince Harry attempted to fill the gap with Russian Leonid Slutskiy, but his adventure was shortlived. At this point, in January, the fear was that Arsenal would forever be a team fighting to win a top 4 spot, but never living up to their title credentials. But in came Vincenzo Montella.
6 months later, Jack Wilshere lifted the trophy that declared Arsenal champions of Europe, the first English team to win it since 2012.
Arsenal fans everywhere were extatic. And on that high, Prince Harry decided to go for broke.
He asked Ginger Spice herself, Geri Halliwell for her hand in marriage, and after a short engagement, married her in Las Vegas!
As their honeymoon was over, Harry declared that he would buy the most fabulous present ever for her, and thus, enter Lionel Messi!
In the jawdropping deal of the decade, Prince Harry emptied the crowns coffers, to give Messi a whopping £800K/week wage to wear the red Arsenal strip. Harry had decided that this time, Arsenal would go for quality over quantity, and shipped out a massive 16 players that were sold or sent on loan. This covered more than Messi's transfer fee, but the coffers were opened again to bring in another new Arsenal star in Bayern wing-back / midfielder David Alaba!
Despite selling powerhouse striker Romelu Lukaku, as well as talented centreback Callum Chambers to title rivals Man Utd, Arsenal fans were overjoyed to finally see the club really splash the cash.
But in the end, all that matters are the results, and it remains to be seen whether Montella can create a squad from these individual stars. So far, however, it does look very promising for the Arsenal faithful.
August:
Arsenal 3 - 2 Wolfsburg (European Super Cup)
First game of the season, first trophy! A fantastic Sanchez display, where he netted a hat-trick, was enough to win us the first title this year.
Arsenal 3 - 1 Watford (BPL)
A solid start to the season. Sanchez scoring again, and joined by Aboubakar and Oxlade-Chamberlain on the scoresheet.
QPR 0 - 1 Arsenal (BPL)
A tough away game to our London rivals that have become a team fighting for Europe. Aboubakar saved the day with a late goal, after a terrific MoM performance from young german Niklas Sule in central defence. A strong start, but still no sign of Messi!
September:
Arsenal 3 - 0 Man City (BPL)
Ah, there he is! Scoring 2 and assisting a third, Messi introduces himself properly to the Arsenal fans. We utterly dominated City, and restricted them to 2 attempts in total. A very good sign in what has normally been our weakest point, the big games.
Arsenal 1 - 1 West Brom (BPL)
Now, how do we go from crushing City, to drawing at home to WBA. No disrespect to the Baggies, who played an excellent game. Our old soldier Cazorla made us regret trading him to Liverpool back in the day, as he secured a strong away point.
Arsenal 5 - 0 Ajax (Champions League)
We kick off our title defence in style at the Emirates. Braces from Sterling and Aboubakar as well as a Messi goal made this a total demolishion of the former Champions League winners. Perfect 10's for both Messi and Sterling are a rare sight, hopefully a sign of things to come!
Sunderland 0 - 2 Arsenal (BPL)
We keep another clean sheet as we grab 3 poins from a difficult away game. Messi and Ramsey scored the goals, but Özil ran the show and was by far the best player on the pitch.
Arsenal 2 - 0 Southampton (Capitol One Cup)
Another solid display, and another goalscoring performance from Aboubakar. He netted a brace, but it was the young German Rudolph who was the player of the game. He is a very promising young player at only 18, and may well have his breakthrough this season.
Everton 1 - 3 Arsenal (BPL)
3 brilliant points away at Goodison. Even if Everton have had a bit of a rollercoster ride in recent years, it is never easy to go to Goodison Park and bring home all 3 poins. We produced a disciplined display as Ramsey, Sterling and Marquinhos scored the goals.
Conclusion:
Unbeaten in all games, including pre-season fixtures, and a classy start to the Champions League. So far, so good for the Arsenal, but there is still a long way to go before we can start dreaming of challenging for the title. Next month sees us travel to White Hart Lane for the first derby of the season. This will be the first of many challenges ahead, hopefully we can stand tall also at the end of October.