Arsenal 'Expect' Unai Emery to Qualify for Champions League This Season

Arsenal head of football Raul Sanllehi said the club have told manager Unai Emery that he is expected to deliver UEFA Champions League football this season.

Per Football.London's James Benge, Sanllehi said as much at a fan forum on Thursday: "We said to Unai that we just missed out on qualifying for the Champions League last year, but this year with a stronger squad, we expect you to do that."

Arsenal finished fifth in Emery's first campaign in charge, one place higher than they did in Arsene Wenger's final season.

Although the Gunners conceded the same number of goals, 51, and scored one fewer, 73, than they did under Wenger, they collected seven more points.

The team also made it to the UEFA Europa League final, but they missed out on Champions League qualification via that route when they lost 4-1 to London rivals Chelsea.

In the summer, the Gunners recruited Nicolas Pepe—for a club-record £72 million fee—Kieran Tierney, David Luiz, Gabriel Martinelli and Dani Ceballos, the latter on loan from Real Madrid, while William Saliba was bought and loaned straight back to Saint-Etienne for the season.

Arsenal are third in the Premier League after eight games, nine points behind leaders Liverpool.

Following the team's 1-0 win over Bournemouth last Sunday, Arsenal blogger Tim Stillman and football writer James McNicholas questioned Emery's plan for the side:

The Gunners have already shipped 11 goals in the Premier League this season, so they're yet to show any defensive improvement on the last campaign.

They're also yet to win a game in the English top flight by a margin of more than one goal.

Reach PLC football editor Tom Marshall-Bailey is looking on the bright side for Arsenal, though:

It's early days, but the Gunners are where they'll hope to end up while two of their rivals for a top-four spot, Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester United, are down in ninth and 12th, respectively.

Their rivals' struggles represent a good opportunity for Arsenal to secure Champions League football, though it's worth noting they're only four points ahead of Spurs and six up on United.

Such gaps could easily be made up over the course of the season if either team are able to turn things around, so the Gunners cannot afford to ease off.

Arsenal should improve with Hector Bellerin and Kieran Tierney back from injury, while Pepe could have a big impact if he can rediscover the form he showed at Lille last season. The winger has scored once in 10 matches this season, but he notched 23 goals and 12 assists in all competitions in the last campaign.