After a 2022-2023 season that exploded with chaos, team spirit and strong motivation, Arsenal in recent years has become more controlling, especially in defense.
The Gunners have conceded the fewest goals in both of their last two Premier League seasons, and are even more certain than their direct competitors.
Former coach Sir Alex Ferguson once said: "Attack helps you win games, defense helps you win titles". But after investing heavily in building a steel defence and still unable to win the championship, Arsenal began to question whether this formula was still correct.
In fact, the Premier League champions are often the team that scores the most goals. Liverpool led last season with 14 more goals than any other opponent.
Man City scored 96 goals in the 2022-2023 season - 5 more than the team behind. In the last 8 seasons, only the 2019-2020 season was the team that scored the most goals without winning the championship.
Arsenal scored just 69 goals last season - five more than 17th-placed Tottenham - and continued to rely heavily on set pieces. 15 goals from the "dead ball" accounted for 27.4% of their total xG (the sixth highest in the league), while Liverpool were only at 12.2%.
Arsenal fans are still delighted with the diverse corners, but the numbers from the reopening situations are worrying. They are only seventh with 43.1 xG, far behind Liverpool (66.2) and Tottenham.
The problem for coach Mikel Arteta is whether to continue to strengthen the already strong defense, or be more adventurous, unleashing attacking power to truly qualify for the championship?
Only a few teams in the Premier League last season had a deeper defense than Arsenal, allowing opponents to control the ball more. This factor was partly affected by the "Gunners" receiving 6 red cards (the most in the league), forcing them to withdraw to maintain the advantage when there were only 10 players on the field.
However, the reality shows that Arteta's team is often pushed back and gives up the game much more than its direct competitors in the top group.
Perhaps a more attacking Arsenal could have avoided drawing 14 Premier League games last season - only behind Everton (15).
Notably, they have lost the lead in nine of their 12 draws after leading 1-0. If they had pressured and terminated their opponents better, Arsenal could have accumulated more points.
Although it is not possible to confirm for sure, many experts believe that the "Gunners" will benefit if they exploit the opponent's weaknesses more regularly and drastically.
"Each position now has different qualities. We have a lot of versatile players, bringing threats and flexibility to the game.
We will rotate the squad appropriately to maintain cohesion, desire and be ready to change the game to make it difficult for the opponent" - Mikel Arteta said.
