Mikel Arteta may be a student of the beautiful game – but his tactics this season have been anything but.
Pretty? No. Effective? Yes. Do Arsenal fans care? Why should they!
Arteta is overseeing a third consecutive title challenge following campaigns which saw his side finish eighth twice and fifth.
While the north London giants fell short in the 2022/23 and 2023/24 campaigns to Manchester City, they earned rave reviews over their attractive style of play.
Last term, Arsenal racked up 28 top-flight victories – their most wins in a single Premier League season.
And the last two years have also brought the club’s highest goals scored with 88 and 91 respectively.
While Arsenal have still banged in 12 goals from their opening six matches this term – the joint third-most in the division – there has a been a clear shift in their approach.
This can in part be down to their absence of injured skipper Martin Odegaard, who so often dictates matches with his ball-retention quality and superb passing range.
Arteta’s men have also played Aston Villa, Tottenham and City in their first three away fixtures – of which they’ve picked up seven points.
But unlike in previous years, Arsenal were more than happy to sit back and refuse to go toe-to-toe.
Gabriel and William Saliba have shown why many consider them to be Europe’s best centre-back pairing – defending imperiously even when the club were reduced to ten men against Brighton and then at City.
Elsewhere, converted full-backs Ben White, Jurrien Timber and summer signing Riccardo Calafiori have been more reserved in terms of overlapping runs, instead focusing on helping out the defence instead of the attack.
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Even wingers Gabriel Martinelli and Bukayo Saka haven’t been given as much license to stay forward, with the England international himself admitting he wishes he didn’t have to track back as much.
Arsenal’s defensive mindset and ability to slow the game down has led to criticism from fans, pundits and even players – with City quartet Bernardo Silva, John Stones, Kyle Walker and Manuel Akanji hitting out of their use of the ‘dark arts’ following the 2-2 draw at the Etihad last month.
Often accused of having a soft under belly and a team that lacks ‘cojones’ – no club is bullying Arsenal now.
Their new-found ‘win at all costs’ attitude has even won over talkSPORT’s Troy Deeney, who famously ripped into them while at Watford.
Unbeaten across competitions this season, Arsenal’s methods are clearly working – and the stats show just how much their approach has shifted.
On average this campaign in the Premier League, Arsenal are averaging 47.5 per cent possession.
That is well below the 59.8 and 58.4 per cent they controlled in the previous two terms.
This has had a dramatic impact on their average successful passes per match, where they have mustered around 330 a game, as opposed to 481 from last year.
And unsurprising, with Odegaard being on the sidelines, they have averaged 105 passes in the final third – down from 152 the previous season.
It has resulted in four less touches in the opposition box per match, with their average goals also down from 2.4 to 2.
Arsenal are also average three fewer shots per fixture at 14.
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Interestingly, they are facing 16 shots on goal a game – double last season’s tally – though that is largely due to the onslaught they received against City.
In the wake of Leandro Trossard’s sending off at the break, Arteta adopted a 5-4-0 set-up, inviting City pressure, leading to 33 shots from the hosts – 28 being in the second half.
With three clean sheets from six matches (along with two in the Champions League against Atalanta and Paris Saint-Germain), they are on 0.5 per match – the same as last season – where Arsenal kept 18 – a Premier League high.
Arteta’s new strategy will surely delight Jose Mourinho, with the Gunners even more defensive than Chelsea’s iconic 2004/05 Premier League squad.
That Blues team conceded just 15 goals – a top-flight record – while boasting 55 per cent possession, 365 successful passes and 17 shots per match.
The main thing that Arteta would be concerned about would be points on the board – and they are averaging almost identical to their record haul from last term.
Picking up 2.3 this campaign, it is just 0.1 down from last season, with three of their toughest fixtures already out of the way.
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And while rival fans will surely keep complaining about Arsenal, the stats show that Arteta’s new method is working.
No longer are the Gunners the laughing stock, with the club able to seamlessly adopt different styles of play for when the situation calls for it.
Masters of the dark arts? You bet.
