By Tony Attwood
Arsenal are currently one point behind where they were after eight games in 2023 and two points behind the 2022 position. Which suggests that although we can be delighted with Arsenal’s league position, we should not start thinking this is the greatest Arsenal team in years.
But nevertheless, there is something rather special going on at Arsenal; something that is not always picked up in most everyday reports.
In terms of goals, Arsenal are five behind the 2022 position after eight games and one behind the 2023 position, but equal to last season.
But in terms of defence, Arsenal are way out in front of previous years, conceding three fewer than 2023 and five fewer than 2024 and 2022. But combining these shows the best goal difference, equal with 2022 and five better than last season.
The comparison with four years ago is also extraordinary. Eight more goals scored, nine fewer conceded and a goal difference 17 better than 2021, and that after just eight games.
| P | W | D | L | F | A | GD | PTS | ||
| 3 | Arsenal today | 8 | 6 | 1 | 1 | 15 | 3 | 12 | 19 |
| 4 | Arsenal 2024 | 8 | 5 | 2 | 1 | 15 | 8 | 7 | 17 |
| 2 | Arsenal 2023 | 8 | 6 | 2 | 0 | 16 | 6 | 10 | 20 |
| 1 | Arsenal 2022 | 8 | 7 | 0 | 1 | 20 | 8 | 12 | 21 |
| 15 | Arsenal 2021 | 8 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 7 | 12 | -5 | 11 |
So where is all this drive and excitement coming from?
Not for the first time, I rather suspect that CIES Football Observatory has the answer, although they haven’t actually expressed the question. But what they have done is seek to identify the clubs that have trained the players currently working in the major leagues in order to see which clubs have the best academies.
From this, they have produced a list of the top 100 football academies in the world, according to a training index that incorporates the number of players trained, the level of the clubs they played for last year and the minutes played over the same period.
Now these figures don’t directly relate to the most successful clubs, because many of the bigger clubs simply try and buy their way to success, secure in the knowledge that they will have a full stadium each week and thus can afford the fees. And of course, as we have seen in recent articles, this doesn’t always work as an instant solution to years of underinvestment, but it can work quite well when applied over a long time. We’re thinking here of Real Madrid, Barcelona, PSG and the like. Clubs without their mega incomes compete by finding youngsters who will grow with the club, exactly as Arsenal are doing now.
Top of the Premier League clubs in the lists in this regard is Manchester City who have been buying up young players as they wish, to secure their position should the rest of the league ever stop their spending as much money as they wish.
But of more significance to us is the fact that Arsenal are second in this analysis, ahead of Chelsea, who, as we know, have been buying up every young player they can find, as they establish player trading rather than playing football as their main activity.
In short, rather than buying success in one quick bash, Arsenal have been merging their existing squad with their own young players and adding a few expensive imports to complete the mix. As the process has evolved, the club has, this season, had much more time to bed in the newcomers, rather than rush them straight into the games.
In fact, it is clear that he players who have been added to the squad have been exactly that: players that add to the squad.
This approach has allowed Lewis-Skelly and Martinelli to find new leases of life by having players around them who can support their own natural talents.
Beyond this, we have more competition for places, which helps the club stay in all the competitions it is in, and so offer more chances to everyone. As Arteta himself has said, he is emulating the best teams in Europe. And that means what we get is attracting attacking football in which the opposition seek to hold on for a draw. But the moment a goal is lost, they are lost. Because Arsenal hardly ever concede.#
And better still, I think this has only just begun..
