Arsenal head into the World Cup break top the Premier League and their scintillating attack has been key to that. The signing of Gabriel Jesus has been transformational, while the continuing upward trajectories of Gabriel Martinelli, Bukayo Saka and Martin Odegaard have gained plenty of attention.
What has flown slightly under the radar though, is the improvement in the Gunners' defence.
With 14 games played they have the Premier League's joint-meanest defence with just 11 goals conceded so far. This is nearly half the number they had let in at the same stage last season (20). So what exactly has changed?
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Well most obviously it's the personnel. Of Arsenal's first choice back four last season, only one player is starting regularly in the same position this time around. William Saliba has returned to the heart of the defence, while Ben White has been shifted out to right back and Oleksandr Zinchenko has come in from Manchester City on the left. This has unlocked a whole host of new possibilities for Mikel Arteta.
Primarily it has allowed them to maintain more control over possession. It is often said that attack is the best form of defence and Arteta certainly subscribes to this philosophy. The Spaniard spoke last season of Arsenal's need to play their opposition into submission with 10,000 passes and with technically gifted full backs like White and Zinchenko, they are far more capable of doing this.
As a former centre back and former central attacking midfielder, the pair's natural propensity to invert means that they often drift infield either side of Thomas Partey in a way that sees Arsenal line up in a 2-3-5 formation when on the ball. The below average position map from last month's 3-1 win over Tottenham where the Gunners had 65% possession is a good illustration of this.
As a result the attacking quintet of Jesus, Martinelli, Saka, Odegaard and Granit Xhaka can afford to operate far higher up the pitch. Arsenal have the Premier League's second highest average defensive line at 50.97m from their own goal, which is over 4m higher than last season (46.86m) and 8m higher than when Arteta took over in the 2019/20 season (42.47m as per MarkStats). As a result opposition defences are pinned back further in their own part of the pitch where the damage they can do to the Gunners is severely limited.
Of course though, it is impossible to sustain this for a whole game though. Putting yourself this high up the pitch leaves you extremely vulnerable to when opposition teams inevitably counter. It is a this point though, that Arsenal have two get out of jail free cards to play.
With the centre of the pitch so tightly packed by White and Zinchenko's inversions any team looking to counter attack Arsenal knows that the spaces are in the full back areas of the pitch. If you ask most centre backs in the world they would say this is the one area of the pitch where they do not want to find themselves exposed one-vs-one due to the potentially catastrophic consequences if they get beaten. In Gabriel and Saliba though, the Gunners have a pairing who can defend these areas with aplomb.
Going back to that game against one of the Premier League's most effective counter attacking teams in Tottenham, a perfect example of this emerges.
Arsenal are in their 2-3-5 set up when Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg beat Zinchenko to a loose ball and Harry Kane drives straight towards the space in the vacated-left back spot.
Gabriel though is straight out to engage Kane, holding him up while Saliba picks up the spare man in Richarlison in the middle. With the rest of the Spurs team pinned back by Arsenal's aggressive positioning they are slow to get back and Kane is forced to give up and go backwards, averting any counter attacking threat while the Gunners set themselves quickly.
On the right hand side Saliba is equally adept at doing this. Take this instance from just his second competitive Arsenal game against Leicester earlier this season. The Gunners are again in their 2-3-5 set up when James Maddison picks up the ball between the lines and looks to play Jamie Vardy into the right back spot.
This is a tactic that has turned Vardy into probably the most effective counter attacking centre forward for years now, but Saliba is able to hold him up by engaging him out wide. Isolated and far from any kind of threatening position, Vardy, like Kane, is forced to turn back and any kind of attacking danger peters out quickly.
It is with this insurance policy that Arsenal are able to launch the aggressive attacking play that has seen them take on nearly all comers this season. The demands on this Gunners back line are vast, and Arteta is grateful to have a group with the athleticism and composure capable meeting them.
"That’s why we sustained it really well," the Spaniard said of the influence his defenders have had on Arsenal's ability to dominate teams this season. "Especially when we had to defend open spaces, which is very difficult."
Of course it has not been perfect. As is to be expected with a group who have an average age of just below 24 this Arsenal back line have made errors. But with players like Takehiro Tomiyasu and Kieran Tierney pushing them, standards have largely remained high and the Gunners have benefitted as a team as a result.
It is said that you cannot win a Premier League unless you have a good defence. Arsenal may not want to talk about a title challenge just yet, but with that part of the bargain now sorted they at least have the foundation for a push that no one saw coming.
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