Arsenal’s Transfer Business Has Been Built Around Their Newly Formed Identity

Arsenal were 52 seconds into life after Thierry Henry when the first discernible signs of panic showed themselves. It was the simplest ball, slipped by Gael Clichy back to his goalkeeper Jens Lehmann, but which the German promptly tripped over, presenting a straightforward tap-in for Fulham debutant David Healy.

As Healy wheeled away in surprise, Arsenal simply scratched their heads, and the distress flares screeched high above the Emirates into the N5 sky.

Of course, Lehmann’s fumble had nothing directly to do with Henry’s departure, and neither did a repeat performance seven days later at Blackburn, when he dropped a David Dunn shot through his hands to gift the home side a draw in a game Arsenal had dominated.

These were the first difficult days following the end of a dynasty, though, and every movement the club made on and off the pitch was coming under massive, un-relenting scrutiny.

LUCA BRUNO/Associated Press Thierry Henry and Jens Lehmann left Arsenal within 12 months of each other

Lehmann’s position in the team didn’t survive the season. After Blackburn he started only four more Premier League games in 2007/08 and a few weeks after the season’s end he was quietly released, to no discernible fanfare or ceremony, just disappearing stoically from the scene.

Days later the Brazilian Gilberto Silva followed, still only 31 but allowed to join Greek side Panathinaikos for a song at £1 million. Suddenly one looked around the Arsenal team and saw, good players certainly, but no longer a great side; little, if anything, had survived from 2004’s title win. By 2008 the dismantling of Arsenal looked to be complete.

This is 2016, though, and there have been changes since the last of the Invincibles hopped on the last tube out of Holloway Road and rode off into the sunset.

There is cause for optimism here again, in spite of the reservations still held, understandably, by swaths of fans. Per Transfermarkt, £96 million has been spent in this transfer window and the squad is stronger, deeper and equipped to go toe-to-toe with the Premier League’s heaviest spenders, despite making a shaky start off the back of a tricky schedule.

The problem with assessing the current Arsenal side is that the narrative tends to race away from the reality. Recent history weighs heavy on Gunners fans, but the selling-club mentality that once stalked them is in the past. Interpretations are what have been slow to catch up.

After Patrick Vieira left the club in the summer of 2005, the drop-off was instant. By the end of that season Arsenal had completed a 35-point turnaround at the top of the Premier League table—from 11 points ahead in 2004 to 24 behind in 2006—and the Gunners entered a brief crisis period.

The team suffered psychologically from the loss of …

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