Forgive the tardiness for the post, folks. Life, in fact, is lifing a bit too hard at the moment. Nevertheless, it’s time for our favorite activity: reflecting on our beloved Arsenal as the season has
passed the half way point. After 21 matches in the Premier League, 6 Champions League ties, and three successful Carabao Cup fixtures, the Gunners enter the back end of the season in the mix for several trophies as they sit atop the Premier League and Champions League tables. Can it possibly, finally, mercifully be their time after two decades of title futility? Can they at last break their European drought? Only time will tell, but so far, it’s shaping up nicely for Mikel Arteta’s men.
Join us below as we give our takes on the season, including player of the season, match of the season, and signing of the season so far. Feel free to share your takes in the comments below!
Happy New Year, and up the Arsenal!
Tony
Season Grade: A
It hasn’t been as pretty or as smooth as we would have liked at times, but you simply cannot argue with the results. Top of the Premier League, top of the Champions League table, and into the semifinals of the Carabao Cup is exactly where you want to be as a top club. There isn’t a single fan that wouldn’t be over the moon if you had told them this is where Arsenal would be when the season began.
A lot of people have focused entirely too much on the December “wobble” and recent unconvincing showings, but the Gunners keep finding ways to get it done in the face of injuries and a packed fixture list. Last season, like too many others before it, the season had begun to unravel by this stage. Mikel Arteta and Andrea Berta did an immense job in the summer at adding elite depth players to overcome what feels like an evergreen injury problem at the Emirates, and that has led to a record of 30 wins, 4 draws, and 2 losses across ALL competitions. I don’t care who you are; that’s impressive.
It’s hard to give it an A+. The Gunners have missed a few opportunities to maximize their gap at the top. A few signings have not made the difference we would have hoped. In total, though, it has been great season so far. Could it be better? Sure. You could pick nits all day, but when you are the team to beat, there isn’t much room to complain.
Player of the Season (so far): Gabriel
Our number 6 isn’t just the King of Brazil, he is far and away the most important player at Arsenal right now. He was running away with the PL Player of the Season award before his injury, and he hasn’t skipped a beat since his return. Arsenal’s defense has gone to another level, and he is very much a huge reason for it. You only need to look at the performances in his absence to see his influence. He is the emotional heartbeat of the team, and if they are to finally raise the title at the end of the season, it will largely be thanks to his impact.
Performance of the Season (so far): Arsenal 3-1 Bayern Munich
It doesn’t get much better than pasting one of the best sides in Europe at home to go clear at the top of the Champions League league table. It was a quintessential “unstoppable force vs immovable object” match, with Arsenal’s immovable defense winning out against Europe’s most in-form attack at the time they met. The Gunners exorcised some demons by beating their perpetual CL nemesis in commanding fashion to place a death grip on the top spot and make their intentions known to the rest of Europe.
Signing of the Season (so far): Martin Zubimendi
Shocking, right? After a drawn out courtship, the Gunners secured one of the world’s most sought-after CDMs in a summer transfer coup on par with the signing of Declan Rice two seasons ago. Like Rice, he has been worth every penny since signing. He slotted into the side seamlessly and immediately showed just how influential a world-class 6 he truly is. He doesn’t pop off the screen when you watch, but he is almost always right where you need him to be, dissolving opposition pressure and providing exceptional levels of calmness and confidence.
Aaron
Season Grade: A
What other grade could you possibly give to the team that is six points clear atop the Premier League table and in first in the Champions League with a perfect record? The first half of the season has been a resounding success for Arsenal. The Gunners are exactly where they want and need to be to start 2026. This could be a special few months for the club.
Six weeks into the season, it was clear (to me) that Arsenal were the best team in Europe. And I don’t think it was particularly close, either. The Gunners came back towards the pack as the injuries started to pile up but were still excellent. Even when their form “dipped” they still managed results. Now, as guys have started to come back from injury, they’re smashing teams again. The attack seems to be finding a groove, and the defense, which maintained a high standard, should be back to “are they the best defense ever” levels shortly (hopefully).
Like Tony, I held back from giving the A+ mark. It’s not because I don’t think the team earned it — they did. But as we’ve painfully learned over the last three seasons, it’s how you start AND how you finish the season. It’s still all to do for Arsenal. Even though the top grade is appropriate for the first half of the season, it just feels wrong with so much still to come.
Player of the Season (so far): Declan Rice
You could easily give this award to Gabriel, as Tony did. I’m thrilled the Brazilian CB is finally getting the admiration he has deserved for two or three seasons now. But Declan Rice does it all. He’s the straw that stirs the drink. His ability to cover the entire pitch, making significant contributions on both attack and transition defense, enables much of what Arsenal do.
Declan Rice has yanked the “arguably the best player in the world that nobody really appreciates as such” crown from Rodri. That’s the level he’s playing at right now. He’s matched his Premier League goal total from last season in half the time and is just two assists short. He’s the box-to-box midfielder on a side that, for a time, was eyeing the best defense in the history of the Premier League on goals conceded.
You needn’t look further than the Aston Villa win at the Emirates to see Rice’s importance to the Gunners. Without him in the lineup, Amadou Onana ran rampant through the middle. Onana is a good player (and I’d wager probably not an Aston Villa one for much longer), but he’s not the match-dictating star he looked to be without Declan Rice matching him in the middle. I’d bet Declan Rice would not only have neutralized that threat but he also would have swung the first half control in that match firmly into Arsenal’s hands.
He runs matches for Arsenal. He ruins them for opponents.
Performance of the Season (so far): Arsenal 4 – Aston Villa 1
The irony of Arsenal’s performance of the season coming without their player of the season is not lost on me. In fact, the 4-1 demolition of Aston Villa is all the more impressive for coming with Declan Rice sidelined. I’d also point out that it came without Riccardo Calafiori, the preferred left back this season, and without Kai Havertz, Arsenal’s starting striker who has played less than 60 minutes this season.
Sidenote: Havertz’s season-long absence has very much flown under the radar. He’s a great player and working him back into the lineup could significantly improve Arsenal. The same can be said for Gabriel Jesus. He’s much further removed from being a great player, but the early returns on his…return are encouraging.
Aston Villa were the form team in the Premier League coming into their trip to the Emirates. They’d beaten Arsenal earlier in the month on a last minute winner at Villa Park. Everyone was talking about them as title-contenders. The Gunners absolutely smashed them. Villa created 0.6 xG through 90 minutes. Their big chances and only goal came in the dying embers of the match with the points firmly secured by the 4-0 scoreline at the time. It was
Signing of the Season (so far): Piero Hincapie
The signing of the season is actually Martin Zubimendi, but I wanted to get a bit of variation. And Hincapie deserves his flowers. He suffered the customary “just got to Arsenal” injury that slowed his integration into the side before being pressed into service by the also-customary “bevy of injuries at the same position.” He’s played LCB and LB admirably well and done so with a rotating cast of characters across the backline. Who knows if Arsenal would have been able to weather the defensive injuries as well if he’d not been at the club to play both left-sided positions at a high level.
Hincapie could sharpen his play on the ball a bit. He also seems to noticeably slow down around the 75th-80th minute, which is probably down to the demands of the Premier League and those specifically placed on defenders in Mikel Arteta’s system. He’ll get there. In the last few games, I’ve noticed him getting more comfortable on the attacking end of the pitch. It feels as if he’s overlapping and getting forward more aggressively.
Kudos to all the Arsenal defenders, really. Their ability to keep playing at a high level despite all the disruption across the defense is seriously impressive. At one point, the Gunners had deployed eight different combinations of defenders in eight consecutive matches. They hardly missed a beat.
