Arsenal Mid-Season Review

Introduction

After 14 games, Arsenal sit perched at the top of the Premier League by 5 crucial points. To get to this point required a few gritty displays which are often shown by champions but there also magnificent showings that consisted of beautiful, passing football. Arsenal have come a long way from when they first appointed Mikel Arteta almost 3 years ago in December 2019 and can now be considered serious title competitors. So the question on everybody’s lips is: will Arsenal win the Premier League for the first time in almost 20 years? Here we break down aspects of their season so far and how they improve

Attack and Scoring

They have the second best goal scoring record with 33 but they have sometimes struggled to kill off games most noticeably against Southampton in a 1-1 draw. They always seem to score early in games and have several clear-cut chances but they sometimes are unable to put them away.

This especially applies to Gabriel Jesus, he has been fantastic for the Gunners this season but has now gone 11 games without scoring a goal. The problem isn’t that he’s not getting into the right positions but instead, it is that he is unable to put the goal in the back of the net when presented with an opportunity. He’s been regularly hitting the post or crossbar this season and with a little bit more luck he might have gone to the World Cup with 10 goals in all competitions instead of 5. He has scored less than his XG of 7.7 goals this season which suggests that the goals are coming and he has just been unlucky. But apart from that he has been fantastic this season with his relentless pressing and brilliant ball carrying, this Arsenal team would be so much worse without him.

Even with Jesus’s goal scoring woes his teammates have been coming in good with Odegaard as their top scorer in the league with 6, Martinelli with 5 and Bukayo Saka with 6. The goals have been shared around this season and this is what a title winning side has in their repertoire. Arsenal have found a way to not be reliant on Jesus in scoring goals and they are able to compete even when Jesus goes through a rough patch.

Defending

Arsenal’s defending this season has been brilliant and much improved from the last season in which they shipped 48 goals. They have conceded only 11 in 14 games and they are on course to concede 18 less than the 21/22 season. This is partially because of William Saliba’s arrival to the Arsenal first team after 3 loan spells. In his most recent loan spell at Marseille, he won the young player of the year award in France after some brilliant performances in Ligue 1. Saliba is one player that stats just can’t do justice to; he may have 5.5 defensive actions per 90 and a fantastic passing ability with a 92% pass completion and 62 passes per 90. He also has great pace with 8.7 recoveries and plays an influential part during the build up from back to front averaging 76 touches per 90 with 25 forward passes per 90.

Yet, all these stats still do not portray how brilliant Saliba has been this season, Saliba’s confidence and composure in defence is amazing and outstanding for a centre-back not even to mention a 21 year old defender. His ability to simply collect a loose ball and the confidence to beat pacy wingers in a foot race is incredulous. The Gunners look so much more relaxed and composed when Saliba is on the pitch.

The other defenders have also been brilliant, especially Ben White who people were really worried for when Saliba came back from loan due to the fact that White would maybe lose his starting spot. But he’s been a revelation at right-back and has been defensively solid and has been surprisingly good in the attack with 2 assists and 0.9 chances created per 90. Oleksandr Zinchenko has also brought a new way of playing as a full- back to Arsenal replacing Kieran Tierney on the left. Zinchenko has been even better defensively than expected with 2.3 tackles per 90 and 2.3 interceptions and clearances per 90. He also has been very good at distributing the ball with excellent accuracy - 89% averaging 60 passes attempted per 90.

Arsenal defenders have been excellent this season at regaining possession and stopping attacks from even gaining steam in the first place this has helped the team pass the ball forward with frightening speed and control. The organisation between the defensive line has been very good and the high-line has been very helpful to prevent attacks being made by opposing teams. The communication and understanding between Saliba and Gabriel has been excellent and has prevented many goals from occurring and even inspired and started off attacks for Arsenal.

Midfield and Transition

Arsenal have won a lot of their games this season because of their strong midfield. Partey,Xhaka and Odegaard have become one of the best midfield trios in the Premier League. Partey sits at the base of midfield and makes progressive passes while Xhaka makes forward runs while combining with Martinelli and Zinchenko. But Odegaard has more of a fluid role on the right where he drops deep but also goes higher than Jesus at times.He performs multiple dummies hand raking passes towards Martinelli but he’s so unpredictable that you cannot truly define his role in the Arsenal team. He creates lots of chances averaging 2.1 per 90 but he only has two assists, this is why he is so underrated. He creates so much but his teammates don’t always put the ball in the back of the net for him. Eventually, if Odegaard continues creating as many chances as he does per 90 he will get more assists and his stats will increase.

In transition Arsenal have become more fluid than ever before under Mikel Arteta, with players constantly switching positions and our midfield three is higher up the pitch. This is because of Arteta’s use of inverted full-backs, Arsenal now have more players in midfield which allows Xhaka and Odegaard to go even higher up the pitch. In possession, Arsenal turn into a 2-3 with Saliba and Gabriel at the base and then White, Zinchenko and Partey ahead of them.

This setup means that Arsenal can give more positional freedom to their attacking players but also helps them in the build-up by giving them more passing options. But, a significant flaw in this tactic is that it leaves the wide spaces open, which means that the wings are left open because White and Zinchenko push up through the middle. Teams this season haven’t really attempted to properly exploit this flaw apart from a 3-1 loss to Manchester United but eventually Arsenal will face more teams that could try to exploit them on the break in these areas. However, the way Arteta has told his two defenders to defend when caught on the break is quite intelligent; both Gabriel and Saiba jockey their opponent, not diving in, waiting for the full backs to run back and help them out.