THE VITALS:

Team: Arsenal

Brand: Puma

Era: 2016-17 (Used for the 2016-17 Premier League season and the 2017 FA Cup Final)

Name/Number: -

CONDITION: VERY GOOD

These shorts come to you in very good condition, albeit with some signs of wear and slight discolouring in parts. The club crest, Puma embroidery and inner trunks are in excellent condition.

DIMENSIONS:

Size: Medium

Waist Measurement: 16.5 inches

Shorts Length: 18 inches 

Made in Puma’s ‘Dry-Cell’ range which they introduced in 2016; these shorts may be bigger than the conventional size medium so please compare the size with shorts you have currently for best estimation of sizing.

DESCRIPTION:

Puma put together yet again another fine offering for Arsenal's home shirt in 2016-17! whilst the previous season’s edition used a more traditional version of the white sleeves and red body synonymous with ‘The Gunners’; this is a truly modern contemporary outfit with the unique collar and the use of the dark stripe down the middle and additional black accents. Also, in another change after two seasons of having a heat applied plastic crest; Puma have gone back to utilising an embroidered crest for this season's home shirt. This would famously be the shirt worn as Arsenal became FA Cup champions for a record 13th time as they defeated Chelsea in the final in the 2017 FA Cup final! The shorts wonderfully compliment the shirt, with a thick, bright red strip going down the sides which are finished off with black piping!

THE SEASON:

The 2015-16 season Arsenal finishing in 2^nd place for the first time since the 2004-05 season, however, after an anomalous season that culminated with Leicester City winning the Premier League, all of the country’s biggest teams strengthened both on, and off the field ahead of an eagerly anticipated 2016-17 season!

Amidst the Mourinho’s, Klopp’s, Conte’s and Guardiola’s still remained Arsene Wenger; and the veteran French tactician saw himself and his side more than a match for any of his contemporaries! Joining the club in pre-season would be the acquisition of Granit Xhaka from Borussia Monchengladbach for £30 million, however, an opening day of the season defeat at home against Liverpool, and then failure to defeat Leicester would see the bank broken further as Shkodran Mustafi and Lucas Perez were signed from Valencia and Deportivo La Coruna respectively.

The 2016 portion of the league season would be nothing short of exceptional as they went unbeaten for 14 games in succession between August 20^th to December 13^th, and would enjoy many weeks joint top, however, back-to-back defeats to Everton and Manchester City saw them go into 2017 being 9 points off the paces.

New Years Day 2017 began with Olivier Giroud score the goal that won the 2017 Puskas Award as Arsenal defeated Crystal Palace 2-0 at The Emirates. Their fine start to the year would see them return to 2^nd place, however, their form would take the regular late winter/early spring turn for the worst, albeit this time, a sector of the fanbase calling for “Wenger Out” was growing ever louder.

Their last quarter of the last league season would end impressively as they won 8 out of their remaining 10 games, including a first Premier League win over Jose Mourinho for Arsene Wenger; a game which also ended Manchester United’s 25 match unbeaten run. They would ultimately pay the price for their late January to early April period of form, and for the first time since the 1996/97 season, Arsenal would finish outside of the Champions League places as they finished in 5^th place behind Liverpool.

The UEFA Champions League saw ‘The Gunners’ drawn alongside: Ludogorets, FC Basel and Paris Saint Germain, and the 2006 finalists would perform admirably as they topped the group ahead of favourites PSG. Fate would conspire to draw them with perennial thorn in the side – Bayern Munich, and Arsenal would eventually bow out at the Last 16. Still, The season would end on a high as the team collected a record 13^th FA Cup as they stunned Chelsea in the FA Cup Final on 27/05/2017!

The notable players that season were:

Alexis Sanchez, Alex Iwobi, Danny Welbeck, Lucas Perez, Olivier Giroud, Theo Walcott, Mesut Ozil, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Santi Cazorla, Aaron Ramsey, Granit Xhaka, Mohamed Elneny, Francis Coquelin, Gabriel, Nacho Monreal, Per Mertesacker, Laurent Koscielny, Shkodran Mustafi, Rob Holding, Kieran Gibbs, Callum Chambers, Mathieu Debuchy, Hector Bellerin, Petr Cech, David Ospina