Antonio Conte recently suggested Chelsea’s failure to land two of his priority transfer targets swayed momentum at the club to such a degree that it ultimately cost him his job in west London.

The now-Inter Milan boss wanted to add Virgil van Dijk and Romelu Lukaku to his ranks after guiding Chelsea to the 2016/17 Premier League title, and it’s hard to dispute that both signings would’ve taken his Blues side to another level.

That has got us at GIVEMESPORT thinking about other failed tenures at major Premier League clubs, and whether they could have played out differently had the manager in question landed their ideal transfer targets.

This edition takes a closer look at Unai Emery, who Arsenal sacked around a year ago after an underwhelming start to his second term in charge. As you can see from our starting XI graphic, the Gunners would’ve been a much stronger proposition at the beginning of last season had the Spaniard got all of his transfer wishes. 

Briefly following Emery’s dismissal, The Athletic reported that in the previous summer Emery had wanted to bring in Harry Maguire, who moved to Manchester United instead, Thomas Partey, who Arsenal ended up signing in the transfer window just gone, and Crystal Palace’s Wilfried Zaha. 

But the near misses don’t stop there. Emery himself previously revealed that he tried to sign a future Premier League champion in Fabinho for a second time during his first summer at Arsenal, having attempted the same swoop as PSG boss.

And while we are perhaps stretching the realms of plausibility by including him in our XI as Arsenal only ever targeted him for a loan deal, Emery also reportedly wanted to bring in Christopher Nkunku during the 2019 January transfer window.

The 23-year-old has been in strong form this season at RB Leipzig, bagging one goal and one assist in the Champions League. 

Were Emery privy to all these targets by the start of last season, it’s iikely he wouldn’t have lost his job in November, and that Arsenal wouldn’t have finished up in eighth place after a disastrous start to the campaign and subsequent teething problems under Mikel Arteta.

The Defence

To give some credit where its due, Arsenal did bolster Emery’s defensive options during his final transfer window in charge by snapping up Kieran Tierney and David Luiz. But while the former has looked a solid addition when fit, the latter has performed precisely in the manner you’d expect of a bargain price, 32-year-old alternative to Maguire, who Manchester United instead made a world-record signing for a defender.

Eight different players ended up featuring at centre-back for Arsenal in the Premier League last season, which tells all about the problems they’ve had in the heart of defence, while by the time of Emery’s dismissal they’d conceded 19 times in just 13 games. With Maguire not missing a minute of last season, meanwhile, United were one of just three clubs to have fewer goals conceded than games played come the campaign’s close.

No doubt, there would still be some problems for Emery to deal with in defence. Hector Bellerin was only fit enough to start 13 times last term and while we’ve chosen Sokratis to partner Maguire simply because he was one of Emery’s first signings, in truth the rest of Arsenal’s centre-back options are pretty much as underwhelming as each other.

But Maguire gives the backline a naturally more resilient, physical and aggressive feel and his ability to lead could have made a big difference throughout the squad.

The Midfield

Some might be surprised to see Mesut Ozil included in our starting XI - he only started four of the 13 games before Emery was sacked and wasn’t even in the matchday squad for many of them, having clearly fallen out of favour under the then-Arsenal manager.

While that inevitably triggers the age-old debate about whether Ozil gives enough to the team to justify how little he offers when not in possession, the flipside to that argument is putting the onus on Arsenal to construct an engine room that gives the World Cup winner the freedom he needs to truly blossom.

In Fabinho and Partey, Emery would’ve been able to do exactly that. These are two incredibly physical, powerful midfielders who are all about doing the simple things well and mastering the ugly side of the game.

But they can both contribute going forward as well - see Fabinho’s wonder-strike against Manchester City - and the Brazilian particularly is an expert in moving the ball progressively from deep positions.

They would have provided Ozil with the midfield platform he requires to thrive, but the only midfield addition Arsenal made during Emery’s final summer was a loan deal for Dani Ceballos, a far more technical player who ultimately ended up pushing Ozil out of the team.

In deep midfield last term, Emery largely relied on Granit Xhaka - a player with well-documented fundamental flaws - and youngsters Joe Willock and Mateo Guendouzi.

The Strike Force

While it may seem a little farcical to complain about Emery’s options up front considering Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang finished joint-second in last season’s Golden Boot race and Alexandre Lacazette also contributed a respectable ten goals, the real battle for the former Arsenal boss was finding a way of getting both into the side, something that the Gunners’ underwhelming alternative options largely obliged him to do.

But Emery wanted to snap up Zaha after he’d finished 2018/19 with 15 goal involvements for Palace and there’s no doubt he would have given more balance to the Gunners’ forward line, as well as extra goal threat. Instead, Arsenal decided to sign Nicolas Pepe who has thus far proved worth nowhere near the club-record transfer fee paid to Lille - he’s started just once in the Premier League this season. 

Nkunku (albeit something of a hypothetical suggestion) would have been an interesting signing as well. He can operate in a variety of different positions and last term notched up five goals and 13 assists for Leipzig - only six months prior, Emery wanted to bring him to Arsenal instead.

Those vast improvements to Arsenal’s wings would have changed the Lacazette-Aubameyang conundrum to an either/or question, rather than having to continually look for ways to fit them in simply because they’re easily the Gunners’ two most talented players.

Would things have been different?

Hindsight is a wonderful thing, but when comparing the starting XI to what Emery was working with on the first day of last season - when Willock, Calum Chambers, Nacho Monreal, Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Reiss Nelson all started in a 1-0 win over Newcastle - there is an obvious difference in terms of quality.

More significant though is the structure and balance of the team, especially considering the porousness of the defence as mentioned earlier. Maguire, Partey and Fabinho are all signings that would have solidified Arsenal’s spine, while Zaha and Nkunku represent something Arsenal have abundantly lacked for far too long - quality wide players.

With all that in mind and considering Emery’s dismissal came during a run in which Arsenal didn’t face any of the Big Six for nine games, it can certainly be argued these additions would have done more than just kept Emery in the job for a little longer and perhaps even built the head of steam the Gunners needed to launch a genuine top four challenge.