Indeed, Arsenal has become such a tricky team to play against. Maybe "tricky" is an understatement even. This blog outlines a bit of the strengths of this Arsenal side currently or you can call it, a bit of the immense difficulty in playing them.
This is a team built like a spider web as it seeks to hedge you in and suffocate you. Their athlectism and physicality is outstanding, sometimes mind blowing. Teams with this quality usually tend towards playing expansive football which in the long term, especially against the best sides, they may not be able to manage well, without being breached.
Not so with Arsenal, like a spider web, they work as a unit. They are uniquely compact whether when defending, pressing, or when attacking. Their pressing mechanism often frustrates or confuses the opposition. You might choose to go long to evade their press, even so you meet another problem– their tall defenders with exquisite aerial ability, plus a whole team very strong with 2nd balls and 50-50 balls.
I heard of a Barcelona fan saying he wants Arsenal defenders, Saliba and Gabriel, to play for their team because of the defensive records Arsenal keeps creating, with these two players.
Well, yes these two centre-backs are world class, but a lot of people don’t see that it comes with the full package– you remember the spider web?
These two players are part of a whole system in synergy. It's like a whole meal, Saliba and Gabriel being just part of the ingredients to cook the meal. So it takes other ingredients to enjoy the best of these centre-backs and vice-versa.
This explains why Arteta can bench the whole backline of Saliba, Gabriel, Timber, and Calafiori, and Arsenal will still keep a clean sheet — which we saw versus very good side in Brighton this season.
In a nutshell, do you want to crack this web? First, you have to go past the striker, Gyökeres, who is a nightmare for defenders, with his pressing.
If you feel like running through the wings, Saka won’t let you pass him.
If you manage to get past Gyökeres, you’ll enter a dark layer that comes with a package of Zubimendi, Rice, and Eze working in synergy. Even one-on-one, you can hardly go past Rice no matter who you are.
Zubimendi is a solid rock — anticipating danger, winning possession, making clean tackles, and keeping the ball.
Then comes the metamorphic rock at the back — one calls it the Gabrieliba Lock 🔒, that even heartbreak can’t break this wall 😊. Any ball that slips through the midfield, dies here.
I don’t even want to talk about Raya, because, at this point it seems he's on holiday in between the posts. Not to take anything away from his intelligent brain in, game reading and ball distribution.
We hear rumours of Berta and the Arsenal board discussing how Raya should apply for online jobs or work from home because he doesn’t have much to do on the pitch. 😂😂
So for Arsenal, their having the best defense, is about the full package, a whole system in synergy, not just Saliba and Gabriel.
All the above, comes from years of Arteta building his team in a specific direction that right now, they seem like the perfect version of what he wants, a team that makes very few errors too.
Furthermore, what has made Arsenal even more dangerous this season is because they’ve added direct vertical threats when in possession – with Madueke, Eze & Gyokeres, players who are transition monsters which gives them way more threat transitioning from attack to defence which than was the case last season.
They right now look like a team without weakness because additionally, they also can adapt(or can be pragmatic) to any situation and still beat you at your own style, if they must.
A lot to savour about this well cooked side. The web keeps suffocating teams.