Why Arsenal’s problems on and off the pitch will not be solved by Unai Emery’s departure alone

It took one of its lowest ebbs for the atmosphere at Arsenal to finally feel united again

The most telling factor wasn’t how Arsenal left Carrow Road, wide-eyed and breathless, clutching onto a point they hardly deserved. It was how they arrived. For the first time in a long time, Arsenal genuinely felt like a club united. In fact, the atmosphere leading into Freddie Ljungberg’s first game in charge was practically celebratory.

Perhaps that was the saddest indictment of Arsenal's current situation. Not that the club is still stretching its worst streak of form since 1992; that it watched on silent and cold-bloodedly as Unai Emery put the final bricks to his own morgue last Thursday, or the satisfaction the squad took from seeing the back of their estranged manager. But that it required such a recipe of turmoil to reach the point where an air of positivity finally returned.

So Arsenal arrived at Norwich, the players chirpier, stepping into the new era they’d spent the last weeks sulking to create. The fans louder, internal debate put to one side, galvanised by a friendly face in their dugout. The ghost of hope transformed into renewed spirit... for 20 minutes at least. Then Teemu Puki turned Arsenal’s housebound defence, waltzed forwards unchallenged and thrashed a shot into the far corner. Snap back into reality then, where the walls are still crumbling down around Shkodran Mustafi’s feet.

During the bitter end to Emery’s tenure, it was easy to magnetise towards the scapegoat. His constant tinkering unsettled, his cautious tactics strangled imagination, and after 18 months his vision remained no more defined than a finger painting. Compounded by an inability to handle power struggles with senior players and the sabotaging factors strolled the training ground like a match and tank of gasoline.

Despite Arsenal’s best intentions to avoid a flimsy transition out of Arsene Wenger’s reign, Emery became the sacrificial lamb for a club struggling to adjust to the present. For now, he will be remembered as the necessary stopgap between eras. In time, his tenure will be reduced to little more than a footnote in history. That was the risk he always knew he was taking.

But with those shackles broken, Arsenal were supposed to be set free against Norwich. Instead, the wheels came off too. After an initial burst of intent, Mustafi and Luiz regurgitated their Laurel and Hardy routine, the team began pointing fingers and flailing arms at one another, and only Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang's individual brilliance rescued them from another defeat.

Emery’s broken English and awkward "good evening" had always been a cruel point of humour amongst Arsenal’s supporters. An uncomfortable place filler for a lack of natural warmth or familiarity - the symbol of a man who remained firmly an outsider. Yet with Ljungberg in charge, a club legend who could scarcely be closer to Arsenal's heartbeat, there was little to their display which was any more coherent. Ljungberg may only have been interim head coach for 48 hours come kick-off, but his players had the chance to prove something to the public and their former manager. Instead, for much of the second half, they lay down their weapons.

They will of course be short on confidence, perhaps even riddled with self-doubt. The sense of animosity at Arsenal seems to outweigh the vast majority of other clubs. The years of underachievement during Wenger’s decline breeding a toxic culture that’s long outlasted his departure. But then, when the club stumbled, he always had an addictive charm and ideology – that much-vaunted ‘Arsenal DNA’ - which provided a cushion against unmet expectations. At present, it’s uncertain whether that ‘DNA’ still exists. And without it, there’s increasingly little for fans to fall back on. So as the club’s plight is played out against a backdrop of volatility and empty seats, it’s clear there are far more factors which require refitting than simply the manager’s shoes. From a cultural as well as a playing perspective, Arsenal has to show it’s prepared to change.

Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang rescued Arsenal again (Getty)

First, it will begin in the boardroom. When months of pondering Wenger’s replacement were discarded for the sudden U-turn that saw Emery chosen over Mikel Arteta, the decision was taken in hope of preventing this exact type of tailspin. Now the club has come full-circle, faced by an identical dilemma, choosing between a ‘safer’ candidate and one who might better inspire. That choice will obviously be pivotal and, as things stand, it’s hard to envisage Ljungberg offering the club a Solskjaer-esque get-out clause.

Ultimately, though, it’s the dressing room which is most in need of an overhaul. Arsenal’s players were willingly complicit in Emery’s downfall and barely bothered to make secret of it. Ozil waged a full-scale PR campaign, senior players repeatedly liked social media posts calling for his sacking, and there was little attempt to shield jokes made at the manager’s expense even from those in the youth teams. Now Emery’s gone, those same players who took his legs must stand tall on their own.

​There is a certain irony to how Arsenal have arrived at the one situation they sought to avoid, stumbling drunkenly down the same path as Manchester United post-Sir Alex Ferguson. In hindsight, perhaps it was always unavoidable after such a seismic change. After all, when there’s no light leading the club towards a new dawn, fans can’t help but feel trapped by the old. For 20 short minutes under Ljungberg, they experienced what it could be. But it's the actions taken over the coming weeks and months which will define whether happiness is confined to follow the club’s darkest moments.