[6] Further, Petr Čech, Héctor Bellerín, Mohamed Elneny, Mesut Özil, Granit Xhaka and Ainsley Maitland-Niles all received new squad numbers, with the latter two also extending their contracts with the club.

[citation needed] After completing a clearout of backroom staff to coincide with their new club-model following the retirement of long-term manager Arsène Wenger, Spaniard Unai Emery was appointed as the club's new head coach.

Cardiff equalised again from a Danny Ward header, but Alexandre Lacazette ensured the victory with a thumping shot to give Arsenal another three points.

UEFA decided before the match that it was to be moved from Poltava to Kyiv due to martial law in Ukraine,[35] and Arsenal ran out 3–0 winners, with goals from Smith Rowe, Ramsey (from the penalty spot) and Joe Willock.

This game also marked the debuts of Zech Medley, Charlie Gilmour, and Bukayo Saka, all from the substitute's bench, and confirmed that Arsenal would progress as group winners.

In what was a dull match, Rob Holding and Aaron Ramsey both suffered injuries, the former tearing his anterior cruciate ligament, thus ruling him out for the rest of the season.

Despite Ashley Barnes scoring to cut the deficit for Burnley, Alex Iwobi insured that Arsenal would walk away with all 3 points in stoppage time.

[48] However, the Gunners responded in their next match, a 2–0 victory against rivals Chelsea at Emirates Stadium courtesy of Alexandre Lacazette and Laurent Koscielny goals took Arsenal within 3 points of the opponent.

[49] Despite the victory, the Gunners took a massive blow, as Hector Bellerín tore his anterior cruciate ligament, ruling him out for the rest of the season.

[54] After more than two months away from Europe, the Gunners were back in Europa League action via a trip to Barysaw to face Belarusian minnows BATE Borisov.

However, a lacklustre display ensued, and Stanislaw Drahuns header on the stroke of half time, coupled with Alexandre Lacazette's late red card, saw BATE record a famous 1–0 win and an advantage to take to North London.

The Arsenal faithful then witnessed yet another Emirates Stadium win, with midfield masterclasses from Mkhitaryan and returning Mesut Özil setting up a 5–1 dismantling of Bournemouth.

Both Özil and Mkhitaryan scored, with the latter setting up goals from Laurent Koscielny and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, whilst Lacazette was on the scoresheet for the third successive league match, bending home a wonderful free-kick with 12 minutes to play.

Delays in the construction of Spurs new stadium meant the match was to be staged at Wembley, and the Gunners made a flying start, with Aaron Ramsey scoring for the fourth time at the national ground to put the visitors ahead on 16 minutes.

A staggering double-save from Bernd Leno retained Arsenal's clean sheet before Tottenham were awarded a penalty mired in offside controversy in the 74th minute.

Things worsened in midweek as, despite going ahead after three minutes from Alex Iwobi, the Gunners fell to another road defeat as Stade Rennais earned a convincing 3–1 win in the Europa League round of 16 first leg.

Trailing 3–1 from the first leg, Arsenal made the perfect start, with Aubameyang poking home Ramsey's cross after just five minutes to put them ahead.

Arsenal needed to bounce back, and had no better opportunity to do so than in the first-leg of their Europa League quarter-final tie, against one of the favourites, Italian giants SSC Napoli.

Aaron Ramsey had put the Gunners ahead early, before Lucas Torreira's effort on 25 minutes deflected in off Kalidou Koulibaly to settle the match.

The majority of the games action occurred inside the first eleven minutes, with Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang opening the scoring on ten minutes with one of the strangest goals of the season, with the lethal marksman managing to nip ahead of goalkeeper Ben Foster, and the Watford man hacked his clearance straight at Aubameyang as the ball rolled into the net.

They failed to respond in their next encounter, a trip to Wolverhampton Wanderers, and a first half blitz from the high-flying Pack seeing them take a 3–0 advantage into the break after goals from Ruben Neves, Conor Coady and Diogo Jota.

Sokratis Papastathopolous then scored his first league goal from the Gunners with ten minutes to play, but it wasn't enough as Wolves sealed a superb 3–1 win.

With an hour played, Youri Tielemans headed the Foxes in front, before a late brace from the Gunners' arch-nemesis Jamie Vardy wrapped up a 3–0 triumph for Brendan Rodgers Leicester and leave Arsenal's top-four hopes in serious jeopardy.

However, Europe once again proved the saviour of Arsenal, as a brace from Alexandre Lacazette laid the scaffolds for an impressive 3–1 comeback victory over Valencia in the first leg of the Europa League semi-final at the Emirates Stadium.

However, it was the visitors who took the lead in North London, with Mouctar Diakhaby finishing off a clever Valencia set-piece move with a firm header, before Alexandre Lacazette slammed home Aubameyangs square ball to level it.

With the top four realistically out of reach, the Gunners travelled to Spain to contest what was arguably their most vital match of the season so far away to Valencia in the Europa League semi-final second leg.

However, the hosts found them behind again after Aubameyang poked home Maitland-Niles' low cross, before the Gunners' top scorer completed his first-ever Arsenal hat-trick, powering Henrikh Mkhitaryans through-ball, as Arsenal secured a famous 4–2 win, subsequently swaggering into the UEFA Europa League final for the first time since its 2009 rebrand, hammering Valencia 7–3 on aggregate.

Later in the day, it was confirmed that Chelsea had beaten Eintracht Frankfurt on penalties after a 2–2 aggregate draw, meaning that all four finalists in Europe that season were from England, the first time this had happened from any country in history.

However, the build-up was mired in controversy, with the undersized Baku airports permitting just 4000 fans of each London side, not to mention the 6628 mile round-trip, but the worst was in regard to Henrikh Mkhitaryans.

One of the Gunners' better players in 2019, the fractioned relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan ensued in warnings from the Azerbaijani sports government, advising the midfielder not to travel.