Mikel Arteta and Arsenal have rightly won plenty of plaudits this season.
The Gunners have led the Premier League table for much of the campaign, although they find themselves chasing at just the wrong time, having relinquished their lead at the summit to perennial pacesetters Manchester City with just three weeks of the season to go.
Arsenal have been the surprise package this season, wowing everyone with their fast, expansive football, dispatching almost all-comers in their quest for a first Premier League title in 19 years. And, even if they do not lift the trophy at the end of this month, then Arteta has firmly put them back amongst the Premier League elite.
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But there is one statistic in an otherwise incredible season that does not look so good for Arsenal, although it is, seemingly easy to explain.
Aaron Ramsdale has been superb between the sticks for the Gunners, keeping 13 clean sheets - the joint second highest in the league this season. He has made countless impressive saves at pivotal moments and could be named in the Premier League team of the season.
But when it comes to long goal kicks, Ramsdale is one of the worst in the Premier League, according to analyst Ben Griffis.
As you can see from the tweet above, the Arsenal keeper ranks poorly, not only for long goal kick completion rate, but also for long goal kick retention rate - his team completing at least two successful actions after the kick.
It is a worrying statistic, but Arsenal are second in the table despite it and there is a good explanation for it, as told by the users of Reddit.
HughM2 said: "This graph isn’t showing the whole picture, a large part of our game is focused on winning 2nd balls, Ramsdale hits the ball long not to find the target but to win the 2nd ball and to get into a good pressing position."
FreudReus backed it up by saying: "The way Arteta plays the team, goalkeeper's long ball accuracy is less important when compared to the positional superiority the team gets because of the number of Arsenal players who can contest for the ball after the knock down, or press the opponent once he wins the second ball."
This is a truism of Arsenal's play under Arteta. The Gunners may not win the first ball, but with the likes of Granit Xhaka, Bukayo Saka, Gabriel Martinelli, Thomas Partey and Martin Odegaard in the team, they swarm around the ball, looking to win back possession quickly and get on the front foot.
And, to be fair, it is a tactic that has worked extremely well thus far.
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