5 Games from 2015/16 Season Arsenal Wish They Could Have Again

It looks as if Arsenal will look back on the 2015/16 season with plenty of regrets. With the likes of Manchester City, Manchester United, Chelsea and Liverpool all failing to mount serious title challenges, the Gunners ought to have seized the Premier League for themselves. Instead, they currently trail rivals Tottenham and surprise front-runners Leicester City.

In this piece, we look back at five matches from the campaign that Arsenal fans must wish their team could play again. These are the games that did the most damage to their hopes of silverware—be it because of the result, injuries sustained during the match or both.

Go to the next slide to see the first of Arsenal’s five most unforgivable results.

Arsenal 1-1 Tottenham, Premier League, November 8

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One of the most troubling things about the 2015/16 season for Arsenal fans is that it could end with the Gunners trailing local rivals Tottenham. The last time Spurs finished above the Gunners was in 1995. It’s a proud record and one that it would be very painful to lose.

Perhaps the situation would not be so grave if Arsenal had managed to beat Spurs in either of their two league meetings this season. Both were draws, meaning the Gunners missed out on the chance to gain four potential points on their neighbours.

At White Hart Lane, they did rather well to snatch a 2-2 draw with only 10 men. However, Arsenal will feel they ought to have fared better in the home game. The 1-1 certainly suited Spurs better.

Had Arsenal won, it would have put a dent in Tottenham’s confidence after a strong start to the season and given the Gunners a much-needed shot of momentum ahead of a difficult November fixture list.

If Spurs end up finishing ahead of Arsenal for the first time in more than two decades, Arsene Wenger will surely look back at this match ruefully.

West Brom 2-1 Arsenal, Premier League, November 21

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Immediately after the match with Spurs, Arsenal travelled to West Brom. If the travelling fans were hoping to bounce back with a positive result, they must have been sorely disappointed.

Despite taking the lead through Olivier Giroud, they lost the match 2-1 thanks to a volley from James Morrison and an own goal from skipper Mikel Arteta.

Infuriatingly for Arsenal, Santi Cazorla could have levelled things up from the penalty spot, but he slipped at the crucial moment. That summed up a dark day for the Gunners.

One of the key reasons that Arsenal would want to replay this game is that it was very costly in terms of injuries. Arteta's own goal was followed up by an injury to the Spaniard that illustrated how brittle his body has become.

The Spaniard was only on the field after replacing Arsenal’s first-choice holding midfielder, Francis Coquelin, in the 14th minute.

Coquelin’s knee problem would keep him sidelined for several months and severely disrupt the balance of the Arsenal midfield. In his absence, Arsene Wenger tried and failed to form a functional partnership out of Aaron Ramsey and Mathieu Flamini, leading to a string of other disappointing results. Had Coquelin emerged from the Hawthorns unscathed, Arsenal’s winter might have been rather different.

Norwich 1-1 Arsenal, Premier League, November 29

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While this was a fixture where Arsenal felt they should definitely have been able to take all three points, this was also a match that was costly on the injury front.

During the course of the game, Laurent Koscielny and Alexis Sanchez were both substituted with injury problems. The Chilean would not be seen again until several weeks into 2016, and while he benefited from a period of rest over the winter Arsenal certainly missed his direct approach.

One man who stayed on the field for the entire game was Santi Cazorla. However, it was later revealed that the Spaniard had sustained a knee ligament injury during the course of the match. He has not been seen since.

Losing Cazorla was a huge blow to Arsenal. Throughout most of 2015, his partnership with Francis Coquelin was critical to the success of Arsene Wenger’s team. Having spent much of his career deployed as an advanced playmaker, Cazorla had found a new lease of life as a deep-lying distributor.

Without either Coquelin or Cazorla to call upon, Arsenal’s midfield became a mess. Not until Mohamed Elneny broke into the side in March was some semblance of balance restored to the centre of the park.

Southampton 4-0 Arsenal, Premier League, December 26

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Arsenal’s worst performance of the Premier League campaign arguably came on Boxing Day at St. Mary’s Stadium.

The Gunners had the chance to go top and deliver a welcome belated Christmas present to their fans. However, instead the fans had to endure the grim spectacle of seeing their team thrashed 4-0. This was their heaviest loss in the league since the 6-0 defeat to Chelsea in March 2014.>

This result had a significant psychological impact on this Arsenal team. It was a major dent to their credibility and confidence. Suddenly, a team that had looked relatively defensively secure had its vulnerabilities exposed.

In the short term, Arsenal responded to this defeat relatively well. However, it sowed seeds of defensive uncertainty that would plague them over the coming months. For example, it was just a few weeks later that the Gunners shipped three goals away from home in a draw with Liverpool.

Arsenal 1-2 Watford, FA Cup, March 13

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When it comes to the cup competitions, Arsenal won’t have too many regrets about the Champions League. The truth is that they never had a team capable of challenging to win that trophy. As for the Capital One Cup, Arsene Wenger has made it clear for some time that particular tournament is not a priority to him.

However, Arsenal do have a great affinity with the FA Cup. Having won English football’s most historic trophy in each of the last two seasons, Wenger’s men had a superb chance to make it a hat-trick in 2015/16.

That all went awry with the quarter-final cup defeat at home to Watford. Had Arsenal progressed there, they would have been two wins from a trophy. Instead, they’re now looking at a season without silverware.

In 2013/14 and 2014/15, Arsenal's cup triumph covered a multitude of other sins. This season, their failure feels significantly more pronounced.