To be honest, the relationship looked broken in Baku.



At the botched Europa League final five months ago, as the joint-prize of silverware and a golden ticket back into the Champions League evaporated, emotions were understandably overloaded and overstretched. The distress all over the pitch prompted so many questions; would Arsenal’s most valuable assets, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Alexandre Lacazette want to stick around or would they try to find a club playing in the elite competition? Could a tearful Lucas Torreira hack it much longer? And what now, with so much experience leaving in the form of Aaron Ramsey, Petr Cech, Danny Welbeck and (not that they knew it then) Laurent Koscielny?



The thorniest question of all, of course, centred on Mesut Ozil. What do Arsenal do about their faded standard-bearer? How can this complicated relationship go on? What kind of drain is there on a club when the connections between influential people don’t work...