Set Pieces

Being known as Set Piece FC, Arsenal are unbelievably prolific from set pieces with a record breaking 25 set piece goals with 19 coming from corners. But how do they do it? They accomplish this by crowding the 6 yard box, putting pressure on the goalkeeper to make a mistake. As the corner is about to be swung in, (normally an inswinger with 81% of corners being in swingers) 5 or 6 players run into the six yard box. This makes man marking hard for defenders as they can't actually get 1 on 1 with a player. A few players make decoy run to the front post with another player, typically Gabriel or Saliba running in at the back post to head it home. For free kicks, they again rely on an inswinging delivery and tend to use players to hinder their opponents ability to jump.  On the edge of the box, they have decoys whose job is to make runs into the box and bambozle the man marking scheme of the opposition. This enables space for the remaining Arsenal forwards to get into the space and shoot. From shooting distance, they tend to have either Declan Rice or Martin Ødegaard to bend them in. However, they tend to succeed more by crosses and haven't scored directly this campaign. Many argue this is boring as it goes against free-flowing football as it is not from open play and disrupts the flow of the game.

Titanium Defensive Line 

With only 27 goals conceded this season, Arsenal's immense defenseive prowess is the golden thread in their team. With Golden Glove winner David Raya, with clean sheets in half the games this season (19), he is an outstanding shot stopper and to compliment his immense saves in important situations, he has a great ability on the ball and can play the ball well, both short and long. In front of him, they have defensive powerhouses in Gabriel and William Saliba. Sharing the same stats with Raya, they are solid in defence and also have an xGA of 27.32. They are also well disciplined with 0 penalties and red cards conceded. They tend to try and suffocate their opponents with a high, aggressive press. They are physically imposing and with them having an average height of 6"3, this makes them not only  good at scoring set pieces but also defending them. When on the ball, they are composed and can provide excellent distribution with 91% of their passes getting to their designated targets. Either side of them, are their fullbacks. Usually Riccardo Calafiori on the left and Jurriën Timber on the right. They are not only class defenders but play a part in going forward. When Arsenal do indeed go forward, the left back goes into midfield and serves as a part of the midfield pivot and the right back sits more central and deeper to have three centre halves. By allowing the left back into midfield, this gives the Gunners a numerical advantage in the centre of the pitch. This also helps them smother counter sticks without changing anything if the ball is lost. When they get the lead, Arsenal tend to take their foot off the gas, with it being 1-0 to the Arsenal 9 times this season. Due to this, the defence has to be on alert and still have to do a lot despite being in the lead. 

Depth in Chance Creators

With a record 18 different Premier League goalscorers, they are not short of finishers with 71 goal scored, which is the lowest goals for the champions in the last 9 years. Their main goal source is former Coventry striker Viktor Gyökeres. With 14 goals in 36 matches, he is their top scorer and is their main goal outlet. He has a very good 25% conversion rate with about 1/4 of his shots being goals. He has outplayed his xG of 12.40 by +1.60 and he is more of an in the box shooter with him having 19 shots on target from inside the penalty box which really outplays his 3 from outside the box. Out wide, they have players like Bukayo Sake and Leandro Trossard, with 17 goals between them. They are known for cutting inside and shooting and being poachers at the back post. Also, they regularly contribute from set pieces (Surprise Surprise). Behind them, they have goalscorers like Declan Rice and Ebere Eze. Rice is more of a balanced player with 5 goals and 4 assists whereas Eze has 7 goals and 2 assists. The majority of Rice's assists are from corners as he is their corner taker. Eze likes to shoot and took 35 shots this season. He also likes to receive the ball from out wide and cuts in to bend it into the far corner. Finally, we have Kai Havertz, he has 6 goals this year and is key in their scoring. He uses his brilliant off the ball movement to engineer space to get into. For assists, Trossard and Ødegaard top it with 6 each. They tend to cut it back from the byline. In addition, they can also put together perfectly timed through balls and despite mainly doing slow build up, they are not afraid to lure in the press to go direct to the wing.

Is it really boring?