Arsenal of Unai Emery is he now a Premier League candidate? | Football News

Ten consecutive wins for the Gunners after beating Leicester

Arsenal came from behind to beat Leicester 3-1 at the Emirates Stadium on Monday night and register 10 wins in a row in all competitions. Statistics suggest that the Gunners have a chance, but Unai Emery is well ahead of schedule, writes Adam Bate …

Ten victories in a row tell a story. Arsenal is back and who can blame these fans for being excited? The perpetual crisis club of the Premier League was in stasis – some would say it was a civil war – for years. Now, they are emboldened by a renewed sense of purpose. Something is wrong with Arsenal after their best start in half a decade.

The transition to life under Unai Emery would never have been perfect, but she was beautiful. Arsenal seemed vulnerable for a good part of the match against Leicester – especially in a first period during which they had the chance to leave the field level. But the beauty was visible to everyone after the break, while Mesut Ozil and the others were playing their opponents out of the park.

If there is to be a title race this season, the consensus is that Liverpool is the team that will provide Manchester City with a big opponent. Chelsea is undefeated and forced his name into the equation. And yet, Arsenal is also in the game – tied with his London rival and above Tottenham in terms of goal difference. They form the competition team.

Are pretenders to Arsenal? Watch the last half hour against Leicester and no one can argue. Look at the first 30 minutes and this optimism seems misplaced. Kelechi Iheanacho had a chance within two minutes, Rob Holding was lucky not to concede a penalty and Harry Maguire forced a fine save from Bernd Leno. It was before the goal of Hector Bellerin.

Arsenal 's defensive numbers compared to what we should perhaps now call their title rivals serve to mark the pace. The top three in the Premier League standings are also the first three when it comes to limiting the shots of their opponents – in the same order. However, only four teams allowed Arsenal to shoot more shots from their opponents.

Many also had clear chances. Watford had six – only City had more goals this season – but they still lost. "I thought they were also lucky against Everton," said Jamie Carragher. Monday night football. "They've given a good chance, and what they're probably doing is playing their skin in both boxes."

This comment reflects the fact that Arsenal has also surpbaded the underlying figures in an offensive way. While the rest of the top five lead the list of shots, the Gunners are in 10th position. Half of the teams in the Premier League had more chances net. The key to their success has been their remarkable conversion rate to the goal.

Remove the blocked shots and penalties and Arsenal converted 23.7% of his efforts to the goal. It's better than any other team in the league by far. "That's the reason why Arsenal are winning games," Carragher said. "Can this continue throughout the season? I would be pretty skeptical because they are pretty high numbers."

The conversion rate of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang since his arrival at Arsenal is over 40% and he scored for his two shots against Leicester. The rate of Alexandre Lacazette is not far behind. "What they do is out of scale," added Carragher. "It will diminish and end up affecting the results because you can not keep scoring goals at this pace."

History suggests that is the case of these people and this team. No other team is converting 20% ​​of their chances this season. No other team has converted 20% of their chances last season either. Arsenal will not do that on a full campaign. But they will not need to do this to delight their fans – the Emery revolution is well ahead of its schedule.

It's a team that has not qualified for the Champions League in the past two seasons and who has also lost Alexis Sanchez and other key players. Arsenal 's chances are rather better now and Emery deserves immense credit for not only guiding the club in this new era, but also for winning victories along the way. He repairs Arsenal on the fly.

"There is still a lot of work to be done," said Alan Smith, former Arsenal hero. Sky sports before the match. "When we think that a director has been here for 22 years and that culture is rooted, it takes a long time to change that and insert it into the picture of Unai Emery." Is a slow but sure thing and if you can win games along the way all the better. "

Emery himself says it best. "When we lost the first two games against Manchester City and Chelsea, we were calm," he said after defeating Fulham. "When we win now, I think we have to adopt the same mentality, we are gradually climbing up the rankings, which gives us a better position for our goal, and we need to continue to improve."

Arsenal has his perfect 10 – his best winning streak in more than a decade. And although the performances have been far from perfect, they have also been promising. Good in both boxes? The fans will be satisfied with that. Unlikelyly, the Emery team is only two points from the top of the table. Win at Crystal Palace on Sunday and they will go over Manchester City. Arsenal fans are enjoying their team again.