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Arsenal’s Premier League campaign has brought enormous similarities to previous seasons.

An opening day home defeat soon followed by mid-season revival gave the Gunners supporters much cause for optimism. But a pre-Christmas collapse combined with a traditional Champions League last sixteen draw against Bayern Munich has since occurred, and it’s looking like the same old Arsenal.

Nonetheless, despite the problems that are starting to creep into the fold, the Gunners have scored some pretty spectacular strikes this campaign.

Arsene Wenger’s genius idea of moving Alexis Sanchez to a central striker role added with Theo Walcott’s goalscoring prowess, not to mention Olivier Giroud, Mesut Ozil and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain also chipping in, has helped create some memorable final-third moments this season, and we’re not even at the halfway stage.

So without further ado, here’s our rundown of Arsenal’s five best goals of 2016/17 so far. Which is your favourite? Have we somehow missed out a banger? Let us know in the comments section below!

5. Theo Walcott – Chelsea

Theo Walcott’s strike against Chelsea was about as Arsenal as a goal can get.

Some beautiful neat passing resulted in Walcott literally walking the ball into the net to score Arsenal’s second against their London rivals.

The Gunners would win the game 3-0, but Walcott’s goal was a couple of moments of brilliance from the entire team.

4. Alexis Sanchez – West Ham

Alexis Sanchez has been Arsenal’s Player of the Season and his best goal came during a comprehensive away victory at the London Stadium against West Ham.

Sanchez latched onto a through pass, allowed the ball do the work as he approached goal and stepped-over into a chip, completely fooling Darren Randolph.

However, his goal wouldn’t be the best of the contest….

3. Mesut Ozil – Ludogorets Razgrad

German playmaker Ozil has added more goals to his game this season, having already scored nine in all competitions.

The midfielder’s strike against Ludogrets in the Champions League perfectly summed up his ability to almost ballet-like dance his way around the opposition.

Ozil made the defence look rather foolish as they all ended up on the ground before he slotted into an empty net.

2. Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain – West Ham

Goals, assists and moments of brilliance have witnessed Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain finally come of age this season.

His goal against West Ham was of little consequence to the result but his ability to find space and fire a curling shot into the top corner showcased how deadly the England winger can be when in top form.

1. Granit Xhaka – Hull City

For many years Arsene Wenger has been missing a holding midfielder capable of competing with the physicality of the Premier League.

When he signed Granit Xhaka, he finally got his wish, but little did we know he was capable of scoring goals of this calibre.

Xhaka’s 30-yard strike against Hull added insult to injury for the Tigers, but the goal was a moment of sheer brilliance from the Swiss international.

Former Liverpool defender Jamie Carragher is no stranger to a Twitter wind-up, but it usually involves his Sky colleague and ex-arch rival Gary Neville.

This time, though, the retired centre-back took aim at Gary’s brother Phil Neville and the 39-year-old’s failed spell as David Moyes’s assistant coach at Manchester United.

If you cast your minds back to 2013, you will remember that Moyes was named as Sir Alex Ferguson’s successor, and you will also remember that his spell in charge lasted less than a season.

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The same is said for Neville, who returned to Old Trafford with Moyes in a coaching capacity.

Carragher decided to poke fun at the pair’s failed term, but first he tried to goad Neville by suggesting that Jose Mourinho will not last long as United manager, and that they should have gone for Tottenham Hotspur boss Mauricio Pochettino instead.

It all began when Neville tweeted praise for Spurs’ manager following the team’s 2-0 win over Chelsea on Wednesday night.

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As we’re sure you’re all well aware, Dimitri Payet’s West Ham career appears to be dead in the water.

Slaven Bilic revealed earlier this week that the Frenchman wants to leave the club, and has given some further context in his column for London Evening Standard.

“This situation with Dimitri has been developing for a little while now. Two days ago, he and I had a meeting. I won’t disclose what was said, but I was left in no doubt as to his intentions.

“Yesterday, just before the normal pre-match press conference, I asked Dimitri one more time: ‘Are you standing by what you said a couple of days ago or have you thought more about it?’ He replied that he was standing by his decision, so that was that.”

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It’s a grim situation for West Ham supporters, who have fallen in love with the attacking midfielder since his somewhat modest move from Marseille to east London at the start of 2015/16 – a campaign which saw him earn a nomination for the PFA Player of the Year award before continuing to excel for France at EURO 2016.

“There is no point in saying we won’t miss Dimitri Payet because the fans know — we know — that he is a great player.”

Bilic certainly has a fair point – there’s no doubt Payet is West Ham’s talismanic entity and he is head and shoulders above the rest of the squad in terms of natural talent. To say he’s integral to the team would be an understatement, but the statistics show just how important he is for the Hammers – and just how much they could struggle without him.

[ffc_insert title=”Payet Replacements” name=”Four who could fill the void…” image_ link=”https://www.footballfancast.com/premier-league/west-ham/four-premier-league-replace” link_text=”Click to read more” ]

As you can see from our infographic, Payet has been responsible for more than 35% of West Ham’s chances created in the Premier League this season, whilst providing almost half of their 13 assists. He’s also their most active crosser – something that could have real significance in the coming weeks with Andy Carroll returning from injury – and has completed almost a fifth of all their successful dribbles this term.

Also weighing in with a significant chunk of shots, Payet’s absence will not only remove creativity but also goal threat from West Ham’s starting XI. Bilic, however, believes the show must go on…

“Many times over the years, clubs have lost quality players but gained a team. When a team has a player sent off, somehow that often gives the rest of the players more energy, they dig deeper.ÂI am not so much hoping as expecting this reaction from my team against Crystal Palace tomorrow.”

Can West Ham find a star-studded replacement before the end of the transfer window? Here’s Football FanCast’s four suggestions.

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Southampton released a statement on Thursday confirming the news that a company from China has agreed to buy a stake in the Premier League club.

Lander Sports Development made the announcement to the Shenzhen stock exchange following talks, which Sky Sports report began in November.

China is regularly mentioned in football terms nowadays due to the staggering financial backing of the country’s top-flight league.

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Numerous high-profile players, including Carlos Tevez and Oscar, have been moved to the Far East in the past month.

China’s influence is gradually growing in English football as well, with Premier League outfit West Bromwich Albion being owned by investors from that part of the globe.

Championship clubs Wolverhampton Wanderers, Aston Villa and Birmingham City also have Chinese investors within their hierarchy.

In an open letter from Southampton’s current owner Katharina Liebherr, she described the development as a “partnership” rather than a complete takeover.

“Please understand that I can only make limited comments regarding this process but I can assure you that any steps we do take will be in the best interests of the club. A potential partnership would need to clear multiple approvals and fulfil strict criteria before being confirmed.”

After hearing the news, fans gave their thoughts on Twitter.

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Manchester City striker Gabriel Jesus has provided an update on Instagram about the progress of his recovery from a foot injury.

The 19-year-old lasted just 14 minutes on the pitch before fracturing a metatarsal in City’s 2-0 victory over Bournemouth last Monday.

It has been a disappointing setback in an otherwise impressive start to life as a City player.

Jesus, who joined the club in January after agreeing a £27m move from Palmeiras last summer, scored three goals and provided one assist in four Premier League appearances.

The Brazilian’s form impressed manager Pep Guardiola so much that Jesus was preferred to Sergio Aguero in the starting lineup.

According to the Manchester Evening News, the teenager had surgery at the Quironsalud hospital in Barcelona last week and the operation was overseen by Dr Ramon Cugat.

Despite the blow to his season, Jesus is looking at the positives as he posted an Instagram picture of himself leaving the hospital.

He captioned it with the message: “Now just recover.”

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If this is to be the third coming of Jose Mourinho in English football, he has a pattern to protect. Leading his second different club to a League Cup final, it is clear how the Portuguese coach sees the task of turning a football club into a winning one.

Mourinho’s love of the EFL Cup is both well-documented and actually quite influential. Over the past few seasons, the big clubs have been seemingly intent on winning a competition that has roundly been thought of as a mutated younger cousin of the FA Cup: not much worth winning, and it’s a chance for the small teams to get into Europe.

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Not any more. Mourinho changed that. Since 2005 – Mourinho’s first trophy as Chelsea boss – a club who have won the title in the Premier League era has appeared in the final every season apart from one, when Swansea City beat Bradford in 2013. That’s to say, a club you’d usually expect to play the reserves in English football’s least important competition.

The reasoning for the shift is well covered, too. It’s a trophy early in the season that sets you up for the run-in nicely. With fixtures piling up later in the season – especially for clubs in European competition – it’s a trophy in the bank already, and one that eases the pressure and lessens the disaster of failure later on.

In some ways, you could argue that taking the competition seriously is one of the ways in which Mourinho modernised the Premier League. Those reasonings, based on pressure and success, are part of how the game has changed over the past decade or so. As the money has become greater, so too has the price of failure: managers are sacked quickly if they don’t measure up. Price tags are unsheathed at the slightest provocation. How many times has Manchester United’s expenditure been used as a stick with which to beat the club over the past few years when things have gone badly?

Indeed, this is one of the areas where you can clearly separate the old guard from the new. Whereas Jose Mourinho realised that holding the League Cup aloft could ease his burden later in the season, Arsene Wenger has never won the competition. Not once in his 20 years in England. The only time he’s ever reached the final, in fact, was in 2011 when Birmingham City won with a last minute Obafemi Martins goal. But there’s no doubting that a couple of League Cup victories would have taken a lot of the pressure off Wenger in late February when things started to fall apart. And there he is in the same position again this season, whilst Manchester United – a team who spent most of the start of the season trailing Arsenal in most departments – are still alive in three competitions and still battling for a very respectable finish in the league, too.

It’s funny how United didn’t really hit the ground running this season. They won their first three games and hit hard times. That’s why they sit sixth in the league with no hope of winning it. But, unlike Arsenal, they’ve come into form when it mattered. Had the Gunners started poorly but grown into their season the same way as United have, had they taken the League Cup more seriously, they may have found themselves gaining momentum right now instead of looking like the most depressed club in the land having cracked at this stage of the season once again.

Pressure is a terrible thing, but it can also be channeled. If Manchester United are to win the League Cup, it doesn’t take the pressure off completely. But it will channel the remaining pressure into the right place. Success breeds success, and the feeling of trying to go on and win more trophies sure beats the feeling of trying to win the first one.

That’s why Mourinho sees the trophy as one worth winning, but there is one more consideration.

Ever since Sir Alex Ferguson left the club, the winning mentality has vanished. That’s Mourinho’s biggest task: you can win a trophy without the right predator’s scent, but it’s unlikely you’ll win more than one. If United are to build a side that knows how to win, he needs two things: trophies early on to spark the right team spirit and know-how, but more importantly he needs winners in the team.

The first coming of Mourinho instilled the right attitude into a young and raw side. The second relied on men like John Terry who retained that attitude. The third follows the pattern, but it’s a more direct approach: he bought Zlatan Ibrahimovic.

Of all the qualities the Swede possesses, the fact Mourinho signed a man who would give everything to nick a win an away game at Nantes even though he’s already 30 points clear at the top of the table is by far the most important to United.

So the pattern continues. But if they don’t win at Wembley on Sunday, Mourinho will have to find a new method.

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Job done. Manchester United travelled to Saint-Etienne with a 3-0 lead after last week’s routine victory at Old Trafford knowing that, barring an almighty collapse, their name would be in the pot for the last 16 of the Europa League. It may not be the competition Jose Mourinho wants to be in, but it’s continental football nonetheless, so a 1-0 win in France to secure a 4-0 aggregate victory will have been welcomed by the Portuguese boss, even if Eric Bailly was sent off and goalscorer Henrikh Mkhitaryan injured.

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Alas, there was a big positive for ‘The Special One’, who once again witnessed what Daley Blind can do from left-back. The Dutchman wowed in the first leg of the tie and justified his manager’s decision to keep him in the XI with another fine performance…

Only Paul Pogba had more touches of the ball than Blind’s 73 from a wide role, showing how involved he made himself in the play, with the ex-Ajax’s man’s five interceptions the joint-most of any player on the pitch. On top of that, Blind executed four clearances, won three tackles and even played two key passes, all while averaging 77% pass completion – no mean feat, that.

Mourinho has struggled to settle on an option at left-back all season, switching between Luke Shaw, Marcos Rojo and Matteo Darmian, but Blind may well be the ideal man long-term.

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As reported by The Daily Record, Brendan Rodgers wants transfer windows for managers to avoid the kind of knee-jerk sackings that happen so often in the modern football world.

What’s the story?

Rodgers is no stranger to an unceremonious sacking, having been on the end of one at Liverpool just hours after a 1-1 draw in a Merseyside derby against Everton. Now he’s calling for an end to the chaos that inevitably follows a period of poor results and wants there to be a transfer window for managers as well as players.

As quoted by The Daily Record, he said:

Managers should have a transfer window too. Players have it and it brings some organisation to the chaos and it could be done for managers.I wouldn’t be surprised if, in the future, that’s the case. If we don’t have that you lose the qualities of people. What happened with Claudio Ranieri shows you that there is no loyalty in football and it’s all about money.

The sympathy for Ranieri is understandable given the incredible exploits of Leicester’s Premier League winning season.

Unemployment is not something that Rodgers is likely to have to consider anytime soon given his incredible start to life at Celtic, guiding the club to, what is so far, an unbeaten season and a potential domestic treble of trophies.

Perhaps the introduction of transfer windows for managers would have allowed him the time to turn things around at Liverpool? That question will of course be left unanswered as the Anfield club continue their quest to become title challengers once again under Jurgen Klopp.

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Former Crystal Palace chairman Simon Jordan has raised an interesting point on Twitter by suggesting that managers may not trust Everton midfielder Ross Barkley.The businessman was referring to Gareth Southgate’s decision not to give the 23-year-old one single second of action for England during the recent internationals.Barkley was an unused substitute in the friendly against Germany in Dortmund and in Sunday’s World Cup qualifier against Lithuania, which ended in a 2-0 victory for the Three Lions at Wembley.Many probably predicted that the midfielder would get some game time after an impressive few months at club level, but it was not to be.Barkley himself seemed to let it be known that he was frustrated with the staleness of his international career after ‘liking’ Squawka’s tweet that he has not played a single second in his last seven call-ups.In response to Dominic King’sÂDaily Mail blogÂabout the confusing treatment of Barkley, Jordan suggested that perhaps the footballer cannot be trusted by the man in charge of selecting the team.

Earlier in the season, Barkley struggled to hold down a regular spot in Ronald Koeman’s team at Everton, but he has pretty much been a starter since the turn of the year.

So far in the campaign, the midfielder has scored five goals and created seven assists in 30 appearances in all competitions for the Toffees.

According to reports on Sky Sports, West Ham United have hit a standstill in their contract talks with winger Michail Antonio after he rejected the club’s first offer.

The 27-year-old is said to have asked for a wage that would bring him in line with the top earners in the team, and he believes he should be rewarded for being willing to play in a number of different positions for the team this term, including right-back.

He has become a key player for the Irons this season – scoring nine goals and providing three assists – and is keen to stay at the London Stadium after they helped him get called up to the England squad for the first time.

The board aren’t too worried about the latest development with the former Nottingham Forest man’s current deal not due to run out until 2020, but Hammers supporters are demanding that their board pay Antonio what he wants.

Here is just a selection of the Twitter reaction to the story…