The Arsenal in the Summer series looks at what has happened to the club during the summer months year on year. Over 60 seasons have been covered in this series, and there is a full index here.
It is extraordinary how Arsenal’s summers have changed and evolved over time and I do hope you find the series interesting. In the next few posts we’ll be bringing the series up to 2018.
So here is the summer of 2015. The league season had finished with this table…
| Pos | Team | P | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Chelsea | 38 | 26 | 9 | 3 | 73 | 32 | 41 | 87 |
| 2 | Manchester City | 38 | 24 | 7 | 7 | 83 | 38 | 45 | 79 |
| 3 | Arsenal | 38 | 22 | 9 | 7 | 71 | 36 | 35 | 75 |
| 4 | Manchester United | 38 | 20 | 10 | 8 | 62 | 37 | 25 | 70 |
| 5 | Tottenham Hotspur | 38 | 19 | 7 | 12 | 58 | 53 | 5 | 64 |
| 6 | Liverpool | 38 | 18 | 8 | 12 | 52 | 48 | 4 | 62 |
And here are the events that took us through the summer.
10 June 2015: Josh Vickers’ released by Arsenal. Two months later he signed for Swansea City. He was released by Swansea at the end of the 2016–17 season and then joined Lincoln City on a two year deal.
24 June 2015: Arsenal bought Vlad Dragomir from Poli Timișoara. He did not make it at Arsenal and in 2018/19 he was playing for Perugia.
29 June 2015: After much expectation, Arsenal purchased Petr Cech from Chelsea for around £10m. It was reported that the Chelsea manager Mourinho was particularly unhappy about the sale. Cech returned to Chelsea as a coach in 2019.
30 June 2015: The loans of a number of young Arsenal players expired, including Wellington Silva, Carl Jenkinson, Austin Lipman, Jon Toral, Ryo, Josh Vickers, Lukas Podolski, Yaya Sanogo, Joel Campbell, Semi Ajayi, Chuba Akpom and Jack Jebb
2 July 2015: Ainsley Maitland-Niles loaned to Ipswich for the forthcoming season. He played 30 times for the club but was reportedly dropped after his mother made what was called an “X rated” phone call to the club. However by 2018 he was a full blown first team member.
14 July 2015: Carl Jenkinson was loaned to West Ham for the season. He played 20 times having played 32 matches in the previous season before an injury forced him back to Arsenal for repairs.
15 July 2015: Singapore XI 0 Arsenal 4 (Akpom 3, Wilshere). This was the start of only the second unbeaten pre-season in Arsenal’s modern history. The first was in 2005, although in the early 20th Arsenal had several unbeaten end of season tours.
17 July 2015: Yaya Sanogo loaned to Ajax. After only three games he moved on in February 2016 to the youth team before moving to Charlton on loan where he started to get a decent number of games.
18 July 2015: Arsenal beat Everton 3-1 in the final of the Asia Trophy with Walcott, Cazorla and Ozil scoring. It was the second of five consecutive wins pre-season.
25 July 2015: Arsenal beat Lyon 6-0 in the Emirates Cup with goals from Giroud, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Iwobi, Ramsey, Ozil and Cazorla.
26 July 2015: Arsenal beat Wolfsburg 1-0 with a goal by Walcott. It was the first time in the club’s entire history that it won every one of its pre-season friendlies, but there was still one game to go… The match against Wolfsburg also marked the return of former Arsenal striker Nicklas Bendtner, who played for Wolfsburg.
29 July 2015: Following Diaby’s release on 10 June 2015, he signed for Marseille on this day. After continuing injury problems in the first half of the season, he made his return on 18 March 2016, coming on as a substitute in Marseille’s 5–2 home defeat to Rennes. On 3 April 2016, he started in a league match against Bastia, his first league start in over three years.
29 July 2015: Wojciech Szczęsny loaned to Roma for one year playing 31 league games for the club in the course of the 2015/16 season.
30 July 2015: Jon Toral loaned to Birmingham City for the season. He played 36 games, scored 8 goals, and won awards for Goal of the Season award, Players’ and Supporters’ Player of the Season awards.
31 July 2015: Daniel Crowley loaned to Barnsley until October during which time he played 11 league games for the club.
31 July 2015: Isaac Hayden loaned to Hull City for the season. He played 18 league games and scored one goa
2 August 2015: Arsenal won the Charity/Community Shield for the 14th time by beating Chelsea 1-0, with a goal from Alex Oxlade Chamberlain. Thus Arsenal not only won all their friendly games but also this competitive game as well.
4 August 2015: Chuba Akpom loaned to Hull City for the season. He played 35 times and scored three goals to help Hull to a play off place, having come fourth in the league.
7 August 2015: Serge Gnabry was loaned to WBA but bizarrely only made one start for them with the manager the eccentric Tony Pulis complaining the player was not fit. Eventually Arsenal withdrew him from the club. He later signed for Bayern Munich.
11 August 2015: Goalkeeper Emiliano Martínez loaned to Wolverhampton Wanderers for the season. He played 13 league games for the club in this, his fourth loan.
12 August 2015: Following goalkeeper Josh Vickers’ release on 10 June 2015, he signed for Swansea City.
15 August 2015: Nic Bendtner signed for Wolfsburg having been released by Arsenal earlier in the summer. He had made 169 appearances and scored 47 goals across nine years..
20 August 2015: Wellington Silva loaned to Bolton Wanderers for the season. It was his sixth loan; he played 22 times and scored two goals.
24 August 2015: Gedion Zelalem was loaned to Rangers for the season. He played 20 games in Rangers promotion season to the Premier League, and on April 17, 2016 played against Celtic in the Scottish cup semi final. Zelalem converted a penalty in the shootout to help Rangers progress to the final.
28 August 2015: Manuel Almunia forced to retire from football due to a heart condition. He had just signed for Cagliari Calcio but was unable to play for them. He played 405 games for all his clubs in all competitions.
