David Seaman Says Arsenal Are 'Still Arsene Wenger's' Team

Arsenal are still Arsene Wenger's team, and successor Unai Emery needs to be judged on how he performs in subsequent transfer windows, according to David Seaman.

The Gunners legend, who won a pair of league and FA Cup doubles, doesn't think Emery has made the team his own yet. Longtime England international goalkeeper Seaman thinks qualifying for next season's UEFA Champions League should be the Spaniard's main target during his first season in north London.

Seaman said Emery "still needs a couple of transfer windows to really put his stamp on that team—a lot of this side is still Arsene Wenger's," per Goal's Nick Howson.

"Getting back into the top four would be a great season," according to Seaman, who admitted "it's going to be tough."

Xavier Laine/Getty Images

Seaman thinks Manchester City will eventually retain the Premier League title, with Liverpool the closest challengers. He also believes the Gunners will be left competing with Tottenham Hotspur, Chelsea and Manchester United for one of the other two spots in the top four.

Arsenal were once a fixture in the Champions League under Wenger until the run ended with a fifth-placed finish in 2017. Wenger's last season ended with the Gunners sixth in England's top flight and facing a second straight season in the UEFA Europa League.

Despite Wenger's lacklustre final campaign, it's easy to see how Emery has benefited from what the Frenchman left behind.

Some would argue Emery is already an improvement on Wenger, a view buoyed by a sequence of 22 matches unbeaten in all competitions. However, said run has been built on the plethora of attacking talent he inherited from his predecessor.

Emery is likely especially thankful Wenger signed prolific strikers Alexandre Lacazette and Pierre-Emerik Aubameyang. They have combined for 20 goals in all competitions on Emery's watch, with Aubameyang responsible for 12 of them.

The success of this duo owes a lot to the ample creative talents of Mesut Ozil, Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Aaron Ramsey, holdovers of Wenger's preference for stocking midfield with forward-thinking flair.

Shaun Botterill/Getty Images

Emery has also benefited from Wenger's habit of promoting and developing youngsters. Two academy products brought through on Wenger's watch, right-back Hector Bellerin and attacking midfielder Alex Iwobi, have been key contributors for Emery.

Yet for all the good things he inherited, there's no doubt Emery is imprinting his own ideas at Arsenal. He has the Gunners playing a quicker, more direct game going forward, an approach built from pressing relentlessly and higher up the pitch.

Pressing wasn't a Wenger trademark, but Emery is making it central to everything the Gunners do.

He's also had success with new signings, specifically midfield enforcer Lucas Torreira:

The Uruguay international has been the catalyst for the greater energy and intensity off the ball Emery has demanded from his players. His impact could be just the start of Emery reshaping his squad.

Ramsey has already been told he can leave next summer, while the languid and mercurial Ozil hasn't always appeared ideally suited to Emery's press-based game.

Those issues suggest more new faces are likely to join Torreira, centre-back Sokratis Papastathopoulos, right-back Stephan Lichtsteiner, goalkeeper Bernd Leno and playmaker Matteo Guendouzi.

While Emery could make Arsenal his own in the timeframe Seaman laid out, the latter's expectations for this season may need to be revised. Another former Wenger player, Emmanuel Petit, thinks silverware should be the priority for big clubs.

Martin Rose/Getty Images

Petit who won the double as a holding midfielder with Seaman in 1998, told Goal's Kevin Palmer Wenger was wrong to equate finishing fourth with winning a trophy.

Emery has already steered Arsenal to the last eight of the Carabao Cup and qualification as group winners for the round of 32 in the Europa League. His pedigree as a cup winner is a good omen for a Gunners squad still some way off competing for the league title.

Sevilla won the Europa League three years running with Emery at the helm, while he won both the Coupe de France and Coupe de la Ligue in each of his two seasons with Paris Saint-Germain.

Wenger won the FA Cup in three of his final four years in charge. If Emery delivers a trophy in his first season, he'll have gone a long way to officially transitioning Arsenal from one era to another.