- Guardiola can often get away with saying anything… but now…
- A different tale, a different view, a different analysis of football
By Tony Attwood
The Uefa data was released overnight: “Chelsea made English record £355m loss in 2024-25 season.” That was more than double the second-worst in Europe.
And what makes it even more interesting is that Chelsea’s partner club, Strasbourg, lost £69m in the same accountancy period. They are currently seventh in France. The previous worst Chelsea loss was £260m less than this one in 2023-24.
So I guess we might start asking, what’s this all for given that Strasbourg are seventh in that league, after 23 games, 20 points behind PSG.
These figures come just as Football Observatory has been releasing data on which clubs put the heaviest pressure on opponents in world football. They look at things like the “distance from own goal of presses applied, speed of interrupting opponent possessions,” etc..
Such figures give a “pressure index” for which Arsenal came 7th; below Tottenham. And this suggests to me, not for the first time, that the explosion of published football statistics can take us into areas that at first sight suggest that what is being measured (such as a high level of pressure on opponents) is a good thing, when in fact it doesn’t actually help win games.
In fact while Tottenham are better than Arsenal at putting pressure on opponents, that doesn’t actually help take a club up the league since Arsenal are very good at not conceding goals from counter-attacks. Indeed, Keith Andrews, the head coach at Brentford, got it right a couple of weeks ago when he suggested that the best way to score against Arsenal is to “try to cause a little bit of chaos.” Brentford indeed are the top counter-attacking side in the league.
But the problem with that tactic is that a club can only get away with it for a while, because everyone has scouts watching everyone else. Thus in Arsenal’s case, they very rarely concede counter-attack goals whcih obviously helps, especially since counterattacks as a way of scoring is a big deal this season.
Now obviously, all clubs have spies watching other clubs, and these days every game is filmed. This explains sudden changes in lineups and ways of approaching matches. Indeed, this was why no one at Arsenal was particularly worried when Football 365 published their lunatic headline “Arsenal striker Gyokeres told he will never be ‘elite’ and can’t ‘score against elite defenders.”
Simple facts such as Arsenal being the top-scoring team in the league and the way in which Gyokeres was taking defenders with him, while leaving space for others, were ignored.
The fact is, what we have seen is Arsenal allow their new player time to get used to a different way of playing (many teams would have taken journalists “advice” a long time ago and dropped him. But Arsenal are about controlling games, taking into account how the opposition like to play and either stopping that or working around it or both.
Gyokeres scored 68 goals in 66 games for Sporting, but he wasn’t brought in to replicate that. But journalists helpfully gave opponents that thought and so they man-marked him, often with a second player on him or ready to move on him just in case. So simply by waiting on the halfway line while the opposition attacks, he can take out two opposition players – and have others looking over their shoulders. Now, as that sort of close attention has diminished because opponents have been told he isn’t really a risk after all, he is scoring.
In fact, while journalists still like to suggest that players are bought to fill one position, that is generally no longer the case. They are brought into a side to enable another tactical development or two.
The fact is Arsenal have evolved a style of play in which they dominate possession, a ploy that leaves the opposition defence getting ever more tired as they chase the ball, which ultimately leaves the forwards in just the space they need. In short, Arsenal take their time and wait for the opposition to start tiring as, week after week, season after season, Arsenal hold onto the ball until a through-pass can be delivered. While at the same time creating an ever more effective defence.
Here is the league table in order of goals conceded – and it is worth seeing how fast the goals against tally rises. Chelsea have the fourth-best defence in the league but have conceded 48% more goals this season – and they have played one fewer game than Arsenal. Tottenham are just one goal short of conceding twice as many as Arsenal.
| Team | P | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Arsenal | 28 | 18 | 7 | 3 | 56 | 21 | 35 | 61 |
| 2 | Manchester City | 27 | 17 | 5 | 5 | 56 | 25 | 31 | 56 |
| 3 | Aston Villa | 27 | 15 | 6 | 6 | 38 | 28 | 10 | 51 |
| 5 | Chelsea | 27 | 12 | 9 | 6 | 48 | 31 | 17 | 45 |
If Arsenal do stay at this level of defending, this will be the best defensive season since the unbeaten campaign.
