A new defensive foundation - How Arteta adapted Arsenal for a new title challenge

Arsenal news: From free flowing to defensively dominant - How Arteta adapted Arsenal for a new title challenge?

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Arsenal sealed first place in their Champions League group with an emphatic 6-0 win over Lens on Wednesday night, but that particular high scoring affair has not really been the story of their season so far. Last campaign Arsenal spent a total of 248 days at the top of the Premier League table, but when it came to May, it was Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City who lifted the trophy for a third consecutive season. It’s the longest a team has ever been first without winning the division, and the most Premier League points Arsenal have achieved since they last won the league in the 2003/04 season.

This campaign Arsenal are now top once again after 13 games, following the draw between second placed Man City and third placed Liverpool, and Mikel Arteta will be trying everything to avoid a repeat of the collapse last term which saw them win just three of their final nine games, and concede 16 goals in that run. It appears as though this season, the Gunners biggest change has come in defence.

A tweak in approach from Arteta this season

Arsenal have conceded just 10 league goals this season - the lowest in the entire division, and when we forage deeper into their defensive stats, we can already see a difference to last campaign, where they came within touching distance of a first Premier League trophy since the invincibles in 2004. Last season, Arsenal conceded 1.1 goals per game, faced an average of 9 shots per game, an average of 3.6 shots on target per game and an expected goals against average of 1.1 goals per game. That’s by no means a poor record, but this season Arteta’s men have become titans at the back.

Enhanced by the €116.6 million signing of defensive midfielder Declan Rice who has been a revelation since his big money move from West Ham, Arsenal better all those statistics from their 13 Premier League games this term, conceding 0.8 goals per game, facing an average of 8.5 shots and 2.5 shots on target per game, and an expected goals against of 0.8 per game.

No team has more clean sheets than Arsenal’s six this term. The Gunners have also made the least clearances this season, just behind Man City - an indicator of how seldom they have had to rely on last ditch defending. Their goalkeeping duo of David Raya and Aaron Ramsdale have between them made the least saves of any Premier League club's keepers this campaign. This defensive solidity has come at a small price in an attacking sense however. Arsenal are marginally worse off so far this season, for goals scored, shots, shots on target and expected goals per 90 minutes. There seems to be slightly less risk in their play. What was last season a frantic but exciting ship appears to be evolving into a well oiled machine, virtually incapable of malfunctioning.

Full Player Comparison

One key man to the Gunners defence is 22-year-old Frenchmen William Saliba. Currently valued at €75m, he's formed a formidable centre-back partnership with Brazilian Gabriel. The injury Arsenal suffered to Saliba in their Europa League defeat to Sporting last April, proved to be pivotal in the clubs inability to close out their lead at the top of the Premier League table. At the time of that injury the North London club were five points clear of second placed Man City. Since making his English top-flight debut at the beginning of last season, with Saliba in the team, Arsenal have gained 2.4 points per game and conceded 0.88 goals per game. Without him they have just 1.64 points per game and have conceded 1.64 goals per game. With new signing Jurriën Timber looking likely to miss the entire season through an ACL injury picked up on the opening day, cover isn’t abundant, and keeping Saliba fit is sure to be pivotal to an Arsenal title charge.

Who could Arsenal sign in January?

As previously mentioned, losing Saliba would be a tragedy for Arsenal, so bringing in a centre-half, naturally capable of playing the deeper central centre back role in Arteta’s system could be something the club are looking at to soften the blow if the worse happened and the Gunners were to be without Saliba due to injury or suspension. They have been linked with Sporting defender Ousmane Diomande, who is valued at €25m at just 19 years of age, and is familiar with playing as a central centre-half.

The other area the Gunners could look to strengthen is up front. Whilst Brazilian Gabriel Jesus’ link up play has been superb since arriving from Man City, injuries have hindered his time at the Emirates and finding the back of the net regularly has been an issue - he’s scored just 12 Premier League goals for Arsenal in 36 games. The strikers that have had reported interest from the Premier League leaders include, Brentford’s Ivan Toney, who returns from a gambling suspension this January and scored 20 league goals for the Bees last season, and Feyenoord’s free-scoring Mexican Santiago Gimenez, who’s already scored Eredivisie goals this season.