Arsenal’s new weapon: not exactly secret, but certainly more difficult to handle

So although the table doesn’t present definitive evidence I think it clearly suggests that the manager influences how the clubs play and hence the number of yellows they are likely to get.  Looking at the clubs with the most yellow they are primarily clubs that would be looking to avoid relegation – hence a high number of tackles.

The exception is the 86 yellow cards against Arsenal in 2020/21 when Arsenal came eighth.   If these were all genuinely given for bad tackles, the tactic was effective in as much as despite their lowly league position Arsenal had the third best defence in the league, conceding just 39 goals.

But it is not the only way to play.  In 2015/16 when Arsenal came runners’ up they conceded just 36 goals and got the lowest number of yellow cards, thus showing that it is perfectly possible to keep the number of goals conceded down, and the number of yellow cards down, at the same time.

However last season, Arsenal’s consistency was not just through keeping the yellow card level down in comparison with other teams.  It also came by being able to use the same players over and over again.

Arsenal did in fact have two players who played every league game last season (Gabriel and Ramsdale) and seven players who played 30+ games.  Manchester City by comparison had no one who played every game and just three players who played 30+ games.

Arsenal’s tactic this coming season I think will be to give games to more players, to ensure the opposition doesn’t know exactly how the team will play, and to ensure we have ready-made cover for any injuries picked up.

Thus with tackling Arteta has long since got rid of Arsenal’s unwanted record of being the most yellow-carded team in the league by dramatically reducing the fouling.  Now he is going to get rid of the issue of every opposition team saying, “right you have Saka on that side and Martinelli on the other so…” and thus knowing long before the game starts what the Arsenal team will be.  Arsenal in fact had only 12 players who played 10 plus games.    Manchester City however had 18 players who played 10 plus league games.  They had their back up players ready.

Looked at in this way, these numbers show that Arsenal need more strength in depth, and for the squad players to get more games than they have been getting.  This serves two purposes.  First, meaning that if cover is needed, the player who steps in has already had experience of playing a number of matches with others in the team.  Second, it makes it harder for the opposition to know exactly how to play against Arsenal.

In one sense Arsenal already have this through the diversity of goal scorers.  Taking only league matches into account, Martinelli scored 15, as did Odegaard, Saka got 14 and Gabriel Jesus who missed 14 games through the insanity of playing a world cup half way through a season, still got 11.    In fact when the number of games played is taken into account Gabriel Jesus had the best goal/games ratio, as shown in the final column.

So our secret weapon (although not really secret) was that the opposition had no idea where the goals were coming from.  This coming season we will need to add something else – and I suggest that is going to be by using more players through the season, rather than relying so much on that small key group.