The 2012–13 season was Arsenal Football Club's 21st season in the Premier League and 87th consecutive season in the top flight of English football. Arsenal participated in the Premier League and the UEFA Champions League, after finishing third in the previous Premier League season. The League Cup however was out of their reach, and despite an entertaining cup run, which included 13 goals scored in two games, Arsenal lost to fourth-division Bradford City in the quarter-finals on penalties. In the FA Cup, Arsenal were knocked out by Championship side Blackburn Rovers in the fifth round. The Champions League also proved fruitless, as despite a valiant effort in Bavaria winning 2–0, they were ultimately knocked out on the away goals rule against Bayern Munich, thus extending their trophy drought for an eighth season. The highest scoring game in their season was the famous 7–5 win in the League Cup (after extra time), where they came back from 4 goals down to beat Reading. Arsenal's highest scoring league win was the 7–3 win against Newcastle United in December; this was also their joint highest-scoring Premier League game of all time. This season, Arsenal finished fourth after having to close another large points gap (like last season) between themselves and their North London rivals Tottenham Hotspur, who they beat 5–2 for the second season running.
Review
Pre-season Arsenal's pre-season transfers started as early as 30 April 2012, when Arsenal announced they were going to sign German international Lukas Podolski from 1. FC Köln for an undisclosed fee, thought to be around £10.9 million. Podolski officially joined Arsenal when the summer transfer window opened on 1 July. Podolski became the second German player to join the club in the space of a year, following the arrival of Per Mertesacker from Werder Bremen last summer, whom Podolski himself stated, played a big part in the transfer after talking about life at the Emirates. As well as early transfer news, Arsenal had early staff news, whereby, after 48 years of being associated with Arsenal, assistant manager Pat Rice retired at the end of the previous season. He was replaced on the same day by academy team manager, Steve Bould. Pat Rice played a big role at Arsenal, and was highly praised following his retirement by both the players and by manager Arsène Wenger.
Arsenal's pre-season schedule saw them take part in the second Markus Liebherr Memorial Cup (in memory of the former Southampton owner Markus Liebherr), hosted by Southampton in two 45-minute matches against what was originally Scottish club Rangers, but was later confirmed to be Anderlecht due to the financial troubles faced by Rangers, and the hosts themselves. The competition was held on 14 July 2012 as a round-robin system with Arsenal winning their first match 1–0 thanks to a close-range finish by Henri Lansbury, and despite losing 5–4 on penalties to Southampton (following a Gervinho 35th-minute equaliser to Jay Rodriguez's 31st-minute opener in regulation time), they had still accumulated enough points to win the cup.
Arsenal then travelled to the Far East, in a tour similar to that they embarked upon before their 2011–12 season. Arsenal started their tour by travelling to Malaysia to play a Malaysia League XI in Kuala Lumpur. After an open-training session (which was attended by 30,000 fans in the previous season), Arsenal scored two late goals from German youngster Thomas Eisfeld and fellow reserve team player Chuks Aneke following Azmi Muslim's opener to win the match 2–1. From there, they travelled to China to play fellow Premier League team Manchester City in Beijing in the inaugural China Cup. With extra significance due to the 2012 Summer Olympics, the match was held at the 2008 Olympic Stadium, and similar to the Malaysia tour, Arsenal attempted to get closer to their Chinese fans. Arsenal ultimately lost 0–2, with two goals in the last five minutes of the first half by Pablo Zabaleta and Yaya Touré to lose the China Cup.
Arsenal then travelled to Hong Kong to play Kitchee, champions of their national league. The game gave the club's huge fan base in Hong Kong the opportunity to see Arsenal play live in an entertaining encounter that ended 2–2 after 90 minutes after Eisfeld equalised late on (which should have led to a penalty shootout, but it was later scrapped). Arsenal played in Hong Kong for the first time in 17 years, addressing their growing commitment to Asia.
They were then going to travel to Nigeria to play the Nigeria national team in their first visit to Africa since visiting South Africa in 1993, however this was later postponed till summer 2013 based on concerns with the host city. Instead, the club sent three first-team players (Bacary Sagna, Mertesacker and new signing Podolski) on 28 July 2012 to engage with supporters in the region.
The last stop on Arsenal's pre-season schedule saw a repeat of last season's pre-season fixture against 1. FC Köln, resulting in an immediate goal-scoring return for new signing Lukas Podolski to his previous home ground. The fixture, which was scheduled six days before the start of the Premier League season, featured the likes of new signings Podolski, Olivier Giroud and Santi Cazorla in a commanding 4–0 win with an early opener from Thomas Vermaelen, a penalty and a close range strike from Podolski in the first half, and a finish from an acute angle from Gervinho in the second half to complete the rout. As the 2012 Olympics were being held in London, it was announced that Arsenal would not host the Emirates Cup tournament as part of their usual pre-season schedule, citing unnecessary increased pressure on London's infrastructure. However, Arsenal chief executive Ivan Gazidis stated that the Emirates Cup would be hosted by Arsenal in 2013, with a host of "top" clubs being lined up already.
As the previous season drew to a close, Arsenal announced the release of seven players on 22 May 2012, five of whom played professionally for Arsenal, including Manuel Almunia, who made 175 first-team appearances for the club (including the 2006 UEFA Champions League Final), and Gavin Hoyte who was the only other released player to receive a first-team cap (against Manchester City on 22 November 2009).
Soon afterwards Arsenal announced their progress on the staffing situation at the Emirates, and despite Steve Bould already being announced as the new assistant manager, the Club officially announced that Bould had indeed been promoted, Neil Banfield would be promoted to being first-team coach, after managing the Arsenal reserve team for the past eight seasons, and that Terry Burton would become the reserve-team manager. On 8 June 2012, Arsenal continued their transfer activity with the sale of Oğuzhan Özyakup to Turkish club Beşiktaş. Although it is undisclosed by Arsenal, Beşiktaş confirmed that a four-year contract had been agreed with Özyakup and a fee of around £405,000 agreed with Arsenal for the 19-year-old midfielder. Arsenal then announced their second "big" transfer of the summer transfer window, with the signing of French striker Olivier Giroud from Montpellier for a reported fee of £12.8 million. Giroud was top scorer in the French league last season and Arsène Wenger stated that he expects him to flourish. He was primarily signed as a backup (rather than a replacement) to golden boot winner Robin van Persie, in a bid to challenge this season's Premier League title and win the club's first trophy for seven years.
On 4 July 2012, however, a transfer saga, similar to the ones of Cesc Fàbregas and Samir Nasri last summer, took a big step as club captain and player-of-the-season Van Persie revealed that he would not renew his Arsenal contract, and would therefore become a free agent at the end of the current season, signalling the end of an eight-year career at the club following his move from Feyenoord in 2004. This eventually led to the confession that Giroud had actually been signed as a replacement for the Dutch talisman. Meanwhile, on 29 June, Arsenal announced that a further seven academy players had signed professional contracts.
To signal the intent of reducing surplus players, Arsenal then announced that a £6 million agreement had been reached for the sale of Carlos Vela on 17 July 2012. Vela featured 62 times for Arsenal, scoring 11 goals, and he was the first member of the first-team squad to be sold in the summer transfer window. A week later Arsenal announced that defender Laurent Koscielny had signed a new long-term contract after a series of consistent appearances in the first-team last season. Throughout the summer transfer window, manager Arsène Wenger had promised the club's fans that a headline transfer would be made, so to compete for the title, and this materialised on 7 August, when Spanish midfielder Santi Cazorla signed on a four-year contract for a reported transfer fee of £16.5 million, making him the most expensive player in the history of the club. With the sale of Van Persie being confirmed by the club for a fee thought to be around £24 million, on 17 August Arsenal revealed that Thomas Vermaelen had taken over the captaincy from the Dutchman, with Mikel Arteta being given the position of vice-captain.
August The Premier League fixture list was announced on 18 June 2012 and it gave Arsenal a home game against Sunderland to open the new season. Both matches last season produced a 2–1 win in Arsenal's favour, which promised an entertaining opening match for the club. Although Arsenal had the better of the chances, they played out a 0–0 draw with the north-eastern club. Shortly after, Arsenal announced that an agreement had been reached with Barcelona for the sale of Alex Song, and two days later, on 20 August 2012, Arsenal announced that he had indeed been sold. Meanwhile, in contrast to last season, Arsenal did not have any other commitments in August apart from competing in the Premier League, with no English contingent participating in the play-off round of the Champions League. This therefore allowed Arsenal ample time to prepare for their next test at the Britannia Stadium in their second game against Stoke City, however it ended as a second successive 0–0 draw, and although their previous defensive frailties were not present throughout August, a goalless month was a cause for concern. Arsenal had no disciplinary issues in their opening two games, which epitomised the controlled, albeit unexciting, start to the season.
On a transfer deadline day that was dominated by the club's Premier League rivals, Arsenal only announced departures, as first team players Nicklas Bendtner and Park Chu-young departed on season-long loans, to Italian giants Juventus and La Liga club Celta de Vigo respectively. Despite manager Arsène Wenger stating that he is open to transfers before the window closes, Arsenal did not shadow the events of last season, in buying no players in the final week of the transfer window.
September Arsenal began a series a tough matches against Liverpool at Anfield, where the Gunners registered both their first goals and cards of the season. New signings Lukas Podolski and Santi Cazorla paired up for both goals, as Podolski finished low to the goalkeeper's left in the 31st minute, and Cazorla smashed a near post shot past goalkeeper Pepe Reina in the 68th minute to give Arsenal a commanding 2–0 win over Liverpool. Arsenal continued their unbeaten start with an emphatic victory over Southampton that rested fears over the Gunner's lack of scoring potential. A brace from Gervinho, goals from Podolski and Theo Walcott, and two own goals capped an almost perfect display, with the only error coming from goalkeeper Wojciech Szczęsny, as his spill gifted the visitors a goal, and dealt Arsenal their first defensive blip of the season, in a 6–1 thrashing.