When placing his trust in David Raya, Mikel Arteta always believes in the Spanish goalkeeper's ability to launch direct attacks. Compared to Ramsdale, Raya has the ability to kick long balls more accurately. In particular, in many situations where the home team's penalty area is surrounded, Raya always has reasonable passes to escape the pressing, opening up counter-attack opportunities.
Last month, Opta had a telling statistic. Compared to the 2010s, the current decade has seen teams concede more goals when they are locked in their own third. In the Premier League, this is still quite common, with 16/20 having less than 50% of goal kicks go beyond the first third.
Last season, Arsenal only managed 34m or more of their own play from 40m away. That figure has doubled since the start of the 2024-25 season. Everton are second in the Premier League with 63%. The Gunners are trending in the opposite direction to the general play of their league counterparts.
To be able to go against the trend, Arsenal need special factors to prevent the team's strength from decreasing. First is Kai Havertz. Being used to a wide range for a long time helps the German striker to feel the space well to find a way to penetrate the opponent's penalty area. In the match against Man City, there were at least 2 times Havertz received the ball directly from Raya and ran straight into where Ederson was defending.
This season, although still playing highest up front, Havertz tends to drift to the right. Since then, Raya's long ball rate towards the right wing has also increased from 32% to 38%.
Mikel Arteta's assistant - Nicolas Jover is assigned to take charge of this issue, in addition to the set-piece situations that are doing very well. Jover's deployment is very clear, when Havertz needs support, Declan Rice will play the role of sweeper. In the opening match of the season against Wolves, when Raya kicked the ball up to Havertz, Rice rushed to block Mosquera so that his teammate could comfortably receive the ball.
In some cases, Gabriel Martinelli and Martin Odegaard will be the ball carriers instead of Havertz. In this task, Bukayo Saka is not assigned, the English striker will play according to the situation. If Odegaard is absent due to injury, this way of playing is also quite effective because it helps the "Gunners" worry less about not having someone to provide the ball to Havertz.
Chelsea, Manchester City, Manchester United, Brighton, Fulham, Southampton and Tottenham Hotspur are all teams who regularly start the build-up with a short or no initial kick. Spurs haven’t even attempted a long kick-off this season. Arsenal are bucking that trend but they’re not eccentric, Arteta simply wants it that way and will do whatever it takes to make it work.
David Raya is making more long passes than any other goalkeeper in the Premier League and that is expected to continue. Just like the defensive approach against Man City, Arsenal are willing to break away from their past style of play in order to succeed.
They became more pragmatic with only one long kick, not needing to weave many passes like before. The Gunners were also ready to play tough when needed to protect 3 points. As long as the results were good, Arteta and his students would pursue the current philosophy to the end.
